Podcasts have taken centre stage in the audio sector, with the 2022 Infinite Dial study finding that average time spent listening to podcasts surged to seven hours and six minutes per week, up from five hours in 2021.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Insights from the Australian Podcast Ranker, released by CRA and Triton Digital, show that Australians downloaded 755 million podcasts in 2022; total downloads among participating publishers increased by 39% over the year before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
CRA and IAB Australia figures show podcasting attracted $82.5 million in ad spend in Australia in 2022, while the IAB Audio State of the Nation report found that podcast advertising will continue to grow strongly in 2023 with 78% of media agencies intending to increase investment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ennals <\/strong>said that Australia is already one of the leading podcast markets in the world, with 40% of people listening to a podcast every month and the average listener each week downloading 4.3 podcasts and listening to 2.5 hours of content in 2022. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe know media agencies want more information on podcast audiences and podcast advertising effectiveness and this year we are putting more metrics around podcasting working with both Triton and GFK,\u201d said Ennals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Hutchison <\/strong>said that podcasts provide excellent contextual targeting opportunities, but he believes the format needs to be experimented with creatively to understand how to drive memorability. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe current host read model underwhelms – listeners know hosts are reading a script and being paid to do so and a couple of days later the host will be promoting another brand or product and possibly even a competitor,\u201d said Hutchison. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Butt <\/strong>(pictured below right) said that shows that speak to a specific audience enjoy the most success, as more brands will promote their podcasts in media and create content off the back of it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019re in a big audio ad growth phase \u2013 \u2018wherever you get your podcasts\u2019. Programmatic ad creative needs to evolve and with a creative attitude, global companies should be speaking in local voices if not already,\u201d said Butt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn podcasting — we\u2019ll hear more brand theme songs, jingles, audio logos. Radio ads will follow and while I don\u2019t predict we will hear many ads that are short soap operas or audio sketches, we can live in hope. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWith plenty of people producing in-house podcasts who aren\u2019t seeing much value, a trend in 2023 will be to make podcasts work better for the business, but expect to seek external help to deliver a podcast that links to a strategy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019re seeing lots of companies who tried podcasts once and it didn\u2019t work or they made something very expensive and it didn\u2019t work. We\u2019re seeing podcasts fail to generate huge audiences because there\u2019s no promotion, or the audience isn\u2019t interested or the returns on investment have unrealistic goals. We\u2019d like to see them giving it patience and thinking long term.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n