More and more, brands are catching on to the incredible power podcasts wield in today’s digital and mobile-first media landscape. Podcasts are wildly popular, and they’re only continuing to gain traction.
According to Edison Research’s latest Infinite Dial 2022 report, in 2021, 41% of the U.S. population had listened to a podcast on a monthly basis, up from 37% in 2020. In 2019, BBC conducted its Audio Activated study on branded podcasts and it found that branded podcasts can help lift awareness by 89%, brand consideration by 57%, brand favorability by 24%, and purchase intent by 14%.
With stats like these, it’s becoming difficult to ignore the massive impact of podcasting today. Getting involved in on-demand audio is the next non-negotiable for companies of every industry, similar to the way blogs or videos took the content marketing world by storm in previous years.
In order to capitalize on the branded podcast boom, it’s essential for brands to have a good sense of the landscape and what the competition is doing.
To help brands get a clearer picture of the current landscape, the CoHost team has reviewed over 400 branded podcasts that have been launched by small, medium, and large B2B and B2C brands.
Methodology
To take into account seasonal breaks, any branded podcast that had released an episode within the past three months (one quarter) was considered active.
The CoHost team analyzed over 400 branded podcasts for this report. Branded podcasts are identified as a podcast series owned or brought to listeners by a company with the purpose of benefiting the brand. The podcasts were found via a number of resources, including podcast agency websites, branded podcast lists, and company websites.
HOW DO WE CALCULATE “TOP-RATED”?
To determine a branded podcast’s rating relative to other podcasts, it is important to consider the volume of listener reviews, not just the show’s average rating. For each podcast, we multiplied the average Apple Rating by the average number of Apple Reviews and ranked podcasts accordingly.
POINTS SCORED DEFINITION
We looked at Points Scored for some categories to show the overall rating or points the show or category received after multiplying the average Apple Rating by the average number of Apple Reviews.
TOP-RATED BRANDED PODCAST CATEGORIES
Since branded podcasts can select more than one category, over 30% of shows appear in multiple categories. In order to track the top-rated branded podcast categories, categories must have a minimum of five shows within them to ensure that there weren’t only one podcast skewing results.
B2C Branded Podcasts Are the Top-Rated Shows
While ratings and reviews are only one metric for gauging the performance of a podcast, this feedback and engagement data is publicly available, so we analyzed Apple Podcasts data for over 400 branded podcasts to identify the Top-Rated Branded Podcasts.
Insights from Top Brand Marketers
Most Popular Branded Podcast Format
The Interview/Discussion hybrid format was chosen most often over all other branded podcast formats. 63% of branded podcasts use an Interview/Discussion format.
The least popular format was Discussion/Journalistic with only 1% of branded podcasts opting for this style of the show.
Insights From Podcast Industry Leaders
Average Podcast Length by Format
Interview/Discussion formats all clock in at ~30 minutes in length (excluding Solo Discussions), while Journalistic and Fiction formats are shorter, coming in around 20 minutes and under.
Podcast Rating by Length
Mid-length podcasts at the 21-30 minute mark are the top-rated among branded shows. Podcast ratings gradually increased and spiked at 21-30 minutes long. After 31 minutes, podcast ratings slowly decreased, increased slightly at 41-50 minutes, and then decreased again until 61+ minutes.
Podcasts between 0-10 minutes had the lowest ratings.
Insights From Branded Podcast Agencies
Top-Rated Branded Podcast Categories
Business News is the toprated branded podcast category, followed by Fashion & Beauty and Investing categories.
40% of the top 10 top-rated podcast categories are in the Business category (Investing, Entrepreneurship, Marketing, and Management). 20% are in the News category (Business News and News). Another 20% are in the Arts category (Fashion & Beauty and Arts).
Most Popular Branded Podcast Categories
The Business category is the most popular branded podcast category with almost 50% of shows using it. After Business, the top categories were Technology (26%) and Society & Culture (11%).
This shows us that although popular, these categories aren’t overcrowded with podcasts since brands are still finding success with them.
Insights From Podcast Industry Leaders
Branded Podcasts Are Enduring, with 69% Still Active
Podcasts are proving to be a successful marketing medium for brands with over 69% of branded podcasts analyzed still active.
Active podcasts have been, on average, producing podcast content for the past 3.5 years.
Audiences Are Engaging With Branded Podcasts
On average, branded podcasts receive a 4.5 Apple Podcast Rating and 33 Apple Reviews. Apple’s Ratings & Reviews gauge listener feedback from a single platform and segment of listeners. To accurately measure engagement and success, brands should look across all listening platforms and track where their audience tunes in the most.
Regardless, it’s clear that brands are still receiving a healthy Apple Rating and a good number of Apple Reviews, which are a great indicator of engagement and feedback.
Branded Podcasts Are Posting Weekly
35% of branded podcasts are posting on a weekly basis with 23% posting on a bi-weekly (every two weeks) basis. These are typical posting cadences since it keeps listeners engaged but also give the brand time to produce new content.
For daily podcasts, it’s difficult for brands to keep up with the posting cadence while maintaining quality content, especially when podcasting isn’t their sole marketing tactic or business focus.
Branded Podcasts Are Releasing Content Consistently Without Seasons
The majority of podcasts (73%) do not have seasonal breaks in their shows with the remaining 27% adding seasons within their content.
Branded Podcasts Are Here to Stay
In conclusion, this report has confirmed that branded podcasts are still a vital sector in podcasting. Year after year, brands of all sizes are capitalizing on this popular marketing tactic to drive reach, revenue, and growth.
As compelling storytelling continues to be a key focus for all brands, podcasts are one powerful medium to achieve it. Through their intimate, convenient, and authentic nature, podcasts have the ability to bring a human element back to brands and we only predict to see more brands adopt this medium in the future.
Source: Link
Co-Founder and Product Manager