In the ongoing sweepstakes in which podcast publishers and agencies seek determined and discriminating advertisers, we receive today a report from Voxtopica which studies the listening habits of registered voters. It’s called The Podcast Influence. It makes the general assertion that registered voters are heavy listeners who trust the podcast medium more than any others.
Voxtopica is a podcast production company for public affairs clients. “Effortless podcasting is hard work,” the company wryly observes in its marketing.
Trust Is Just the Beginning
Trust and authenticity are two venerable hallmarks of podcasting, constantly marketed to the buy side. The Voxtopica study acknowledges up front that podcast listeners are highly engaged. But that’s not enough for public affairs professionals, Voxtopica says, because they “tend to consider the audiences they want to reach as special or different.”
So, the company fielded an online survey of 683 self-identified registered American voters at least 18 years old (weighted to recent census data). Tom Webster (Partner, Sounds Profitable) is credited with helping develop and review the study.
Straight to the Highlights
Registered voters are evangelized in this study, indexing above the general public in likelihood to listen, volume of listening, liking to learn things, trusting of news and information from podcasts, favoring nonpartisan content over partisan stuff, and susceptible to being influenced by podcasts. See below:
Much of the remaining stats in Voxtopica’s 24-page deck dig into those basic findings with numbers and percentages. A sprinkling:
- 34% of respondents listen to five or more podcasts a week.
- Comedy rules. (Many popular interview shows, notably The Joe Rogan Experience are sorted to the Comedy category.)
Learning and trust make a powerful combination in podcasting’s behalf; survey-takers trust podcasting more than other media, and listen to gain knowledge. Adding knowledge is cited by 53% of respondents. “Podcasts that make me laugh” rings the bell for 34%. Perhaps discouragingly in the field of human curiosity, “Podcasts that present me with alternative viewpoints” took only 22% agreement; the lowest rating captured by the survey.
Comparing podcasts to other media channels is always interesting, and Voxtopica asked participants how much they trust podcasts compared to newspaper, TV news, AM/FM Radio, and social media. Then the positives were separated from the negatives. Results below:
Impact
Impact is a ky focus of the Voxtopica study; the final section parses the influence of podcasting on listeners opinion, influence, and follow-on actions. The survey asked about actions the respondents take after listening to a podcast. Seven choices were offered (see below). Donating to a political campaign is least likely — bad news for fund-raising via podcasting. But half the survey population subscribed to some kind of free service after hearing a podcast. None of the suggested actions was claimed by more than half the survey field.
As always, seeing the source is recommended. Voxtopica’s deck is freely downloaded HERE.