Two of the fastest growing digital formats are at opposite ends of the time spectrum.
There is a rapid growth in popularity of short form content: 3-second GIF’s that often convey meaning and emotions, like different types of love or humor.
In contrast, there is an explosive growth of long form podcast listening. Over the past 12 years it has grown to an estimated 67 million people in 2017, approximately the same number that are on Twitter on a monthly basis.
That was roughly 25% of the U.S. population over age 12 in 2017, up 45% from 2015, and up 180% from 2009. Podcast penetration is strongest among the 18-34 olds. The average podcast is 45 minutes and the average podcast ad is 90 seconds… much longer than traditional ads. A remarkable attentiveness measure is that 85% of people who listen to podcasts, listen to the end.
Podcasting is a small but growing part of the digital scene and expected to hit 84 million listeners in 10 years. Podcasts are a small part of the digital advertising market but have a large change in ad spending.
For example between 2016 and 2017, podcast ad spending grew by 86%. This is compared to all digital at 21%.
Nearly one in five Americans aged 18-49 report listening to podcasts at least once a month, while nearly one in three men 18-34 do so. Compared to the average consumer, podcast listeners are more likely to have a college or higher education, $100k+ household income, and to be early adopters in multiple categories including movies, electronics.
A recent study asked respondents to report on various emotions before and after listening. Podcast listeners felt more connected, intelligent and energized after listening to podcasts.
This underscores the power of the podcast as appealing to customer’s dedicated interest in deep cultural content.
Podcast offer freedom from network programming limits. It can be of any length.
The majority of podcast content is consumed through Apple on the 90+ million Americans who own iPhones.
And Android listening will soon grow tremendously, as the launch of Google’s podcasting service through their Play app is imminent.
In addition Spotify, with an active user base over 75 million, has launched its podcasting service as well. Pandora, too, is getting in on the game.
Finally, car dashboards are changing. Of the estimated 75 million new vehicles shipped in 2015, 13% were ‘connected’, or internet-enabled and will help provide easy access to streams.
So, you can see Podcasts are on the move. And the NABWMT podcast is available on all these platforms.
Source: Forbes magazine, emarketing, comscore
