Data-Labor-Technology

Not every show or format has rebounded in the same way — news shows, for example, have driven a disproportionate share of the listening in the first half of the year.

And some of the problems that arose in March remain in place; coronavirus-created supply chain problems, for example, are still curbing ad spending among some DTC brands, which are trying to avoid driving sales they can’t fullfill in a timely fashion.

But with the second half of 2020 underway, podcasters are allowing themselves to feel optimistic.

“I was really pessimistic in March, and I was wrong,” said Dave Zohrob, the
CEO of podcast analytics and ad attribution measurement firm Chartable. “There’s
still a lot of excitement among media buyers around this stuff.”

When coronavirus first upended American business back in March, people stopped commuting, and podcasting took a big hit, with downloads declining about 10%, according to Chartable.

That slide turned out to be short-lived. Even though people still aren’t
commuting, data suggests that listeners found ways to fit shows into different parts
of their day as they’ve crafted new daily routines.

“We’re back to where we were pre-covid,” said Marshall Williams, the CEO of
media agency Ad Results Media. “Now the downloads spike around lunchtime.”

Chartable’s Zohrob said he saw the same increase in his own company’s data, adding that while categories such as sports remain down — “It’s tough to maintain interest for six months with no games,” he said — on the whole, consumption appears to have returned to normal levels.

Ken Lagana, svp of digital sales at Entercom, which got into the podcast business last year by buying Cadence13 and Pineapple Street Media, said the first half revenues of both businesses finished up year over year, though he declined to provide specific numbers.

Podcast believers like DTC brands powered much of that growth.
“Performance-driven advertisers have continued to be the stalwarts throughout
this whole tumultuous time,” Lagana said. “Every dollar that’s getting spent
right now really almost has to have a performance element to it.”

But brand dollars, which have come on strong in recent years, have held up too, Lagana said. Even branded podcasts such as Mailchimp’s “Going Through It,” a pricier investment that tends to drive engagement rather than quick sales, are doing well. “Not only are we seeing new business come in the door, but we’re seeing renewals and we’re seeing in some cases either brands further extending their commitments or adding episodes to commitments,” Lagana said. Lagana declined to share the names of specific advertisers, but said that tech, financial services and even retail were among the best-performing categories.

That emphasis on proving the value of the investment has been good for other
companies too. Chartable, for example, has beaten the revenue estimates it set
at the beginning of the year in each of the past three months.

The podcast advertising market grew 48% last year, to $708 million, according to an IAB/PwC report published last week. Even after four months of economic upheaval and uncertainty, the space is still expected to grow 15% this year, down from an original projection of 28% growth, the IAB/PwC report showed.

And while that projected growth falls short of the target laid out last year, the final dollar figure — $814 million — is just 6% off what last year’s IAB report predicted podcasting would generate in 2020, as Westwood One CMO Pierre Bouvard observed in a note published Monday.

“The realities of the global pandemic have shown us that we’ve probably gone a little too far when it comes to the over aspirational inspirational, picture-perfect content produced by influencers,” said Bose. Instead of solely working with those types of influencers, General Mills will also target those who are better equipped to convey authenticity with self-awareness when promoting its products, said Bose. Often, these people won’t actually be full-time influencers, or paid for that matter, he said. 

For example, the advertiser is working with peer-to-peer software marketing platform Zyper to build communities of superfans to promote its Betty Crocker and Fibre One products in Australia, the Middle East and the UK. These are the natural brand advocates excited to work with their favorite brands and aren’t going to want cash to do so. Instead, they will receive gifts like personalized products and one-off experiences in exchange for their endorsement. 

Finding fans that have the influence and appetite to work in this way has been tricky to date mainly because influencer marketing is geared to incentivize advertisers to work with those influencers who guarantee reach over actual influence. Furthermore, it’s hard to identify those people who are genuine fans of brands, which is why General Mills is using software to do so. Aside from their loyalty to a brand, super fans will be picked by General Mills based on several factors including the content they share, the reach of that content, the demographics of their audience and whether those people frequently engage with what gets shared. 

While it might sound like this is less an alternative to influencer marketing and more of a short-term tactic to save marketing dollars, Arjoon said the move aims to use community engagement to bolster its influencer marketing.  And General Mills will continue to work with higher profile influencers on larger brands like Häagen-Dazs, said Bose.

In general, working with advocates and influencers of varying profile has real cost efficiencies. Despite the challenges of working with influencers—from lack of authenticity to dramatic price increases—they are generally able to produce content more cost-effectively than agencies. So much so that Bose said General Mills would continue to pay influencers to promote its brands as part of a wider increase in spending on digital media. Last year, the advertiser spend up to a third of the digital budget for some of its brands on influencer marketing. Bose declined to reveal how much the advertiser spent.

“We’re going to continue to spend where the consumer is and focus on experimenting with new activations during these times,” said Bose. 

Over time, Bose expects these advocates will have a wider influence over General Mills’ marketing than traditional influencers. He expanded on the point: “Working with these types of communities allows us to elevate those relationships into what could eventually become the next level of co-creation, insight generation or even digital commerce.”

There are challenges, however, to balancing community engagement with influencer marketing. 

“By avoiding working with paid creators and influencers, General Mills will be losing all the known and established benefits of a pool of people who know and understand how to talk to their audiences effectively,” said James Silverstone, account director, at influencer agency The Projects*. “Community engagement shouldn’t be in place of paid campaigns but should be used to support and compliment them.”