Edison: Heavy Podcast Users Remain Engaged

Podcast “Super Listeners,” Americans 18+ who listen to five or more hours of podcasts weekly, are engaged more than ever with podcast ads, according  to the latest Super Listeners Study from Edison Research, the global authority in audio research, and Ad Results Media, an audio industry leader in branded personality-driven advertising.

Highlights from the latest research include: 

• Super Listeners continue the trend of spending more time each week with podcasts. 
• Super Listeners spend an average of 11.2 hours listening to podcasts weekly. This is up from 10.5 hours last year and 9.8 hours the year before.  Measures for Super Listeners’ engagement with podcast ads are up or stable since last survey. 
• 51% of podcast Super Listeners agree that they pay more attention to ads on podcasts than on other media, up from 48% last year. 

• 53% of podcast Super Listeners agree that their opinion of a company is more positive when it is on a podcast they regularly listen to, up from 49% last year. 
• 50% of podcast Super Listeners agree that advertising on a podcast is the best way for a brand to reach them, up from 49% last year. 
• Over half (56%) of Super Listeners said that hearing an ad on a podcast (compared to other places) makes them more likely to purchase a product, up from 54% last year.  
• Super Listeners are continuing to notice an increase in the number of commercials and length of ad breaks in podcasts. 
• 59% of Super Listeners say the total number of ads in the podcast they regularly listen to has increased, up from 56% last year. 
• 43% of Super Listeners say the length of the average ad break in the podcast they regularly listen to has increased, up from 41% last year.
• 22% of Super Listeners said that there are “way too many” advertisements on podcasts relative to other types of media, up from 18% last year
• This year’s study saw an increase in the number of Super Listeners who believe it is important or very important to limit their exposure to advertising, up to 59% from 50% from last year. 

According to Tom Webster, SVP at Edison Research, “It’s clear that podcasting’s most active consumers are both difficult to reach through traditional means of advertising, and also extremely receptive to the right message, in the right context, in their favorite podcasts. The podcast industry has an incredible opportunity to be a trusted means of access to an extremely valuable subset of consumers.” 

• Super Listeners often consume podcasts that include video. 
• Over half (55%) of Super Listeners currently ever listen to podcasts through YouTube, and 20% listen to podcasts through YouTube most often, second only to Spotify (23%). 
• Nineteen percent of Super Listeners say they discover podcasts most often through YouTube, ahead of recommendations from friends  and family (17%) and searching the internet (13%). 

“It seems that for the next generation of audio listener, podcasting has shown to be the medium of choice for spoken word content.  Not only are people discovering podcasting at scale and through a number of various channels, the ‘super listener’ is choosing podcasting as one of their primary sources for content.  Couple that with the level of trust and response that podcast advertising yields and you have the audio and audio advertising channel for the next era,” said Marshall Williams, Partner and CEO at Ad Results Media.