Insights: Podcasts Pandemic Proof

This week’s Westwood One blog features an analysis by CUMULUS MEDIA | Westwood One and Magellan AI, the definitive source of podcast advertising analytics, of the podcast advertising occurrence data through Q2 2020. 

• Podcast advertising is pandemic proof: Podcast ad volumes quickly recovered and surpassed prior levels. In May, the number of unique advertisers in podcasting jumped back to March levels. In June, total podcast occurrences grew +8% versus April and the average number of ads per podcast (2.9) had reverted to pre-pandemic volumes.
• Comparing June to January 2020, the number of U.S. podcast advertisers has surged +18% and total podcast ad occurrences are up +15%.
• Q2 2020 versus Q2 2019: Despite the pandemic, ad volumes and the number of advertisers slightly exceed the prior year. The number of unique advertisers in Q2 2020 was +2% greater than Q2 2019 and the total ad occurrences grew by +2%.
• Podcast over-commercialism has not arrived. According to Magellan AI’s Q2 2020 ad occurrence analysis of the top 400 podcasts, advertising represents only 5% of podcast program content.
• Brands rush in: The proportion of brand ads continues to grow. The proportion of brand advertising in podcasting has been steadily rising over the past year. In Q2 2020, 38% of ad occurrences were from brands, up +46% from Q2 2019 (26%).
• Top brand advertisers have tripled their podcast weight: Magellan AI finds the number of quarterly podcast ads from the top ten brand advertisers has tripled over the past year.
• Advertisers are embracing an “all audio” approach as more brands use both podcasting and network radio: A Q2 2020 comparison between Magellan AI’s top 200 advertisers and Media Monitors’ top 200 reveals 25 brands in common.