Podcast advertising on Spotify is two times more impactful than any other media in terms of consumers getting to know and favouring a brand, according to Rak Patel, head of EMEA sales at Spotify.
Leading a discussion at the Podcast Advertising Summit, Patel quizzed industry experts about their respective brands’ approach to podcast advertising.
Sian Gray, marketing lead at Channel 4, said that the business wants to be part of society, culture and conversation, and because of that, its editorial and PR teams look at podcasts as if they were traditional press titles.
“Our paid advertising strategy really works to complement that and work alongside it,” she said.
Channel 4’s objectives when it comes to podcast advertising are to maintain and elevate brand love, build awareness of its streaming service, and promote the hundreds of shows it launches every year.
“We’re also dipping our toe in the content creator space, we’ve been making TV shows for 40 years, but now we’re going for a podcast element too,” Gray said.
Meanwhile, Sophie May Leyland, growth marketing manager at Monzo, said Monzo is relatively new to including podcast advertising in its media mix, having run its first campaign in January 2023. The online bank is now testing and learning to see how best it can use the medium to drive brand awareness and sales.
Monzo has worked with a few different podcast hosts including Louis Theroux and Steph McGovern, and Leyland said it specifically wanted to partner with presenters that are either Monzo customers or small business owners in order to build trust with listeners.
“We don’t want a fake ad or to lie to people, we want something in that ad and that creative that really relates to the person that’s listening as well,” she said.
Patel agreed that authenticity is key, stating that a Spotify report has shown that 64% of Gen Z want to be in the trusted environment of podcasts.
Marina Lopez, senior brand manager at Haleon, highlighted that, while traditional media had served Haleon well for the past couple of decades, audience habits have changed and podcasts are becoming more important.
She said: “Podcasts offer an incredible, diverse range of content, so if you know your consumer, you can pick something that really resonates with them and link back to the insights that you have about them. You can have a greater sense of control of where your content is going to be served and how to resonate with those consumers and that then helps you with the messaging.”
Lopez also pointed out that podcast listeners are engaged with what they are listening to and pay attention to what is being said.
Furthermore, Phil Twigg, head of digital at MandM Direct, pointed to the importance for brands to use data and analytics to identify their core audiences and where they are so that they can use these metrics to find new customers.
He said: “What we’ve been keen to test this year is that relationship between the host read stuff, and the Spotify Audience Network. We’re seeing such a difference in performance numbers between the two mediums, so it’s about trying to get that balance between the two.”
As the discussion moved on to the topic of measurement, Gray said that Channel 4 looks at everything from individual performance to campaign performance, as well as econometrics and brand lift studies.
“Part of the joy and flexibility of audio and podcasts especially is that you have different targeting options, different strategies for different points of the funnel, and audio gives us so much insight that we maybe haven’t been able to find as easily in other traditional advertising,” she said.
Lopez noted that Haleon had also conducted brand lift studies for some of its podcast partnerships on Spotify, which has allowed it to see how the campaign is performing in the short term and whether there are any adjustments that need to be made.
“These studies have a big impact in terms of helping us build long term brand equity,” she added.
Spotify has a number of useful tools for advertisers, including Spotify Ad Analytics which allows them to track online behaviour and in-app engagement. Twigg and Leyland said Spotify Ad Analytics lets them analyse their conversion rates and results and get a more detailed view of how their ads are performing.
“I can then prove to the business that podcasts have been successful as a channel within the wider media mix as well,” Leyland said.
