Podcasting is the New Word of Mouth

Your brand’s presence in a community of podcast listeners.

Podcasts have been adapted as a part of our day-to-day lives.

Your favorite celebrities, content creators, and maybe even people you personally know have dabbled with the medium. Whether they produce their own or they are a loyal listener, podcasts have become something that people enjoy.

As of last year, the Philippines is the 6th out of the world in terms of listening to podcasts. This means that there are 31 million listeners that listen to podcast shows about their interests. This spells a big opportunity for companies and their brand awareness by tapping into their market through podvertising.

Why podcasting?

Podcasting has been around for a while, but only recently has it experienced a boom in listenership across the globe.

Lockdowns and reports of screen fatigue have played a part in this. Podcasts are easily accessible through smartphones and can be easily consumed. So easy that last year, there was a 42% increase in podcast listening globally.

This then grew to 43 million listeners in the Philippines and 11 million monthly active listeners as of writing.

Finding your market

According to a consumer insight company GWI, 66% of those surveyed in the Asia Pacific region have claimed to spend an average of 60 minutes a day listening to podcasts. A podcast’s runtime is an average of 45 minutes.

Using all that time of undivided attention plus aligning your brand to a specific audience of a podcast niche is your golden ticket to brand awareness. And, as more people pick up a listening habit, podcasts are the way to go to help market your brand.

Take this as an opportunity to show people an extension of your brand’s values and advocacies. If you work with podcasts that share your vision or area of expertise, you would be tapping into a new and specific audience.

For example, if your target audience’s age range is Gen Z, then it would be best to work with podcasters around that age range.

There is a promising retention rate of how people receive ads, and it all boils down to execution.

Listeners are more likely to check out a product when the ad is baked in instead of it being programmatic. 83% of listeners find ads more genuine and come off as a recommendation from the hosts rather than an ad. And 73% of listeners don’t mind ads because they know it supports the podcast.

Success stories

Podcast Network Asia (PNA) has built a community of listeners and has had some of its podcasts have partnerships with different brands. Here are some of them.

Bumble ✖ Yellow Space 💛

Bumble is a dating app unlike any other. The difference is women have control over the connections that they make and are encouraged to make the first move. Thus, this feature breaks gender norms and makes a safe space for women.

Yellow Space is one of PNA’s chart toppers that focuses on mental health, self-care, and relationships. A good fit, right?

Absolutely! Bumble sponsored episodes titled “Una? Una.” and “Dapat? Dapat.” that talk about making the first move and knowing your worth.

Both episodes had 34,937 listens as of May of this year. And a total of 340,717 people were reached through social media posts and podcast listens.

This partnership’s success is rooted in the alignment of the brand’s values to the chosen podcast’s central message.

McDo Happy Meal for Sing 2 ✖ The Eve’s Drop

McDonald’s Happy Meals. Besides the nostalgia they bring, they never fail to appeal to kids—and even adults. When the movie franchise Sing premiered their sequel, McDonald’s released a line of toys based on the movie. McDonald’s Philippines also worked with two podcasts from PNA.

The Eve’s Drop is a podcast hosted by mothers and a gent Delamar Arias, Gelli Victor, Monica Francesca Tobias, and Jude Rocha. Their podcast talks about navigating life with some parts of culture and entertainment from time to time.

They also helped promote the Happy Meal toys through Instagram stories. Gelli posted a drive-thru simulation, Monica showed her child playing with the toys, and Jude posted a story sharing some highlights during the recording.

The episode was published this past February and had a run time of 1 hour and 4 minutes. It gained 3,097 listens and the listeners mostly stayed from beginning til end.

Expansion to international podcasters

Seeing these opportunities, you may be thinking of starting your own podcast. Podmachine is here to help. It is the simplest way to grow and edit your podcast. Once you subscribe a team would help you edit, grow, and market your podcast based on the subscription plan availed. The lowest plan is priced at 49.99 USD.

Podcasters subscribed to Podmachine will also have their show cross-promoted to similar podcasts. If they are subscribed to Podmachine’s elite plan, they can have sponsors too. As discussed above, execution is key! Podmachine offers two options: programmatic ads through a pre-roll or a mid-roll, or it’s baked-in and part of the conversation.

Making things align

Now, you know what to do when choosing a podcast to sponsor. What’s important is choosing the right show to match what your brand stands for. What makes advertising very effective is that podcasts have a loyal following, specifically a tight-knit community. Tapping into this audience will guarantee your brand to grow and be more known.