Australia is seeing more blue-chip brands turning to advertising via podcasting, according to research by podcast company Acast.
According to the research, conducted with The Lab and Nature, 83% of respondents believe podcast advertising is relevant to them.
Almost half, 49%, said that they pay more attention to advertising when it’s read by the podcast host.
The survey covered 2,500 Australians, of which 1,000 are active podcast listeners, with more than a third of Australians, 37%, tuning into podcasts over the past three months. An overwhelming majority (93%) say they listen to podcasts alone.
The uptake in podcast listening, which was helped during the pandemic, has also been met with increasing demand from advertisers.
Acast Australia saying its ad revenue has increased 200% year-on-year since 2017. Globally, it has seen a 40% growth in the number of new advertisers.
“Category growth figures always predicted Australia’s podcast market to experience tremendous year on year growth. What’s surprising is that each year we’ve managed to eclipse both industry and internal forecasts,” Acast Australia and New Zealand managing director Henrik Isaksson says.
“2020 was a real game-changer as more people – and advertisers – tuned in to podcasts. What’s exciting is that the momentum is continuing into 2021.”
Isaksson says Australia is seeing a huge influx of blue-chip advertisers investing in podcast advertising, including brands such as Binge, Google, Microsoft and NAB.
To meet the demand, the podcast company has been building its in-house sales team, now with about 10 staff, after its partnership with Nova Entertainment ended last September.
The research released by Acast also found that 90% of podcast listeners pay for an ad-free premium music streaming service, and 56% listen to commercial-free radio.
“We know podcast consumption has skyrocketed over the past year – podcasting not only represents a huge audience opportunity for brands, but it’s often the only medium in which brands can reach an often unreachable consumer audience,” Issakson says.
“That’s something we can only see growing over time.”
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