Sounds Profitable has released The Ad Bargain: Attracting Consumer Attention in a Sea of Ads, in collaboration with Signal Hill Insights.
The stated purpose is to compare podcast advertising with YouTube and cable TV marketing, with the criteria being consumer receptivity, attention, and effectiveness,. The testing differentiated weekly consumers from the general population for an interesting point of comparison.
To those ends, Sounds Profitable and nine sponsors staged a consumer panel of 2,000 18+ consumers weighted to the general population. The study design is in two broad parts: 1) General questions about advertising, and 2) the perception of five specific brands (GEICO, State Farm, Amazon, Walmart, and HelloFresh). Each of those brand except for Walmart has appeared on Magellan AI’s Top 15 podcast ad spenders in the past year.
Helpfully, Sounds Profitable puts six key findings near the top of its 64-page study document:
- 71% of podcast listeners are willing to learn more about the brands that advertise on podcasts – higher than any other medium
- Podcast listeners are more attentive to ads – Podcasting led other media tested in the percentage to listen “all the way through” the ads on podcasts
- As a result, listeners to podcasts are more likely to take action: 65% indicated they are likely to look for more information about brands that advertise in podcasts, 59% would recommend such brands to others, and 53% would be likely to purchase a brand they heard advertised on a podcast.
- For HelloFresh, a very active podcast advertiser, the differential between the general population and podcast listeners was 9% for
- Awareness, 10% for Favorability, 9% for Consideration, and 13% for Purchase – the highest positive
differentials in the study. - Podcast listeners also led all in all four brand metrics for GEICO and State Farm, two of the four metrics for Amazon, and led or were tied for all four metrics for Walmart.
- The average positive differentials for the average metrics across all five brands were led by weekly podcast listeners, with these results:
- — Awareness – +5% (CTV and YouTube were both +2%)
— Favorability – +4% (CTV and YouTube were both +1%)
— Consideration – +5% (CTV +3%, YouTube +2%)
— Purchase – +9% (CTV and YouTube were both +3%)
The critical mass of this study is in the results of individual queries. For example, we lear what types of media are most consumed:
The study does not find podcasting as the most potent avenue through which advertisers reach listeners, but in this study it is much more effective than streaming music, or radio:
But the most telling metrics are about receptivity and attentiveness. ONe slide stands out in revealing podcasting as the ad medium that creates persistent recall:
Our review is toe-in-the-water. The deck goes deep in the wees with brand-specific survey results of awareness, favorability, consideration, and action — plus data tables which tie it all together. The strong recommendation is to access the study result directly. Go HERE.