Acast Defines Podcasting’s Tomorrow at the 2024 IAB Podcast Upfronts
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May was Upfront season in the media industry. On May 9th, Acast took part in the annual IAB Podcast Upfront, an event which brings together publishers, brands, agencies, and media buyers to explore the innovations in the podcast industry. After a day of hearing from the best in business, one thing is clear: we are in a modern podcasting renaissance and Acast is leading the charge.
Missed Acast at the Podcast Upfront? No worries - here are three key takeaways from our presentation.
Learning #1: There are rare tailwinds for advertisers and audiences
While it's no secret that podcasts are widely popular, with Acast alone garnering over one billion listens each quarter, there is still a massive opportunity for growth. In fact, there’s an abundance of data suggesting that advertisers and audiences are still coming into the medium.
“We’re at basecamp, not mountaintop” said Acast Chief Business Officer Greg Glenday on stage during the event. “Did you know that more than one-third of Americans still haven’t listened to a podcast? Yet. Audiences are still coming into the space to discover what the medium has to offer.”
Additionally, Acast is seeing a similar trend when it comes to advertisers entering the space .
“Last year, only 14 of the top 100 advertisers invested more than 0.3% of their overall spend into podcasting. That’s barely a test budget for these blue chips,” said Glenday.
The good news is these major brands are not only beginning to enter the medium, but data proves they are making repeat investments. According to Magellan AI, there is a surge in returning advertiser investment, with the ten largest podcast advertisers increasing their spend in the medium by nearly 50% last year alone. We’re also seeing more than just these repeat buyers impacting the space. According to Inside Radio, 2,268 new brands advertised on podcasts for the first time in the fourth quarter of last year alone. With the combination of new buyers entering the space and increasing investments from repeat buyers, podcast ad spend across the industry was up nearly 40% in Q1 from the same period a year ago.
And so we begin the climb towards the mountaintop.
“The authentic word of mouth marketing that podcasting provides at scale has never really existed before in any other medium,” said SVP of Acast’s Creator Network, Veronika Taylor. “We all know that one of the key reasons why podcasting is so effective for advertisers is because audiences truly trust their favorite podcast hosts. In fact, according to a study by Magna and Vox Media, 75% of respondents said podcast hosts are the most influential media voices in their lives– significantly outpacing social media influencers and Hollywood celebrities.”
The close knit relationship between podcast creators and audiences is unparalleled by any other form of media. For example, podcast hosts often create communities among their listeners by giving them a group identity that bands them all together. Everything Iconic with Danny Pellegrino fans are called the “Icons”, Giggly Squad has the “Gigglers”, Here's Where It Gets Interesting with Sharon McMahon has the “Governerds” – just to name a few.
Learning # 2: It’s audiences, not listeners
“At Acast, we prefer the term ‘audience’ over ‘listeners’,” Glenday said on stage. “Restricting to simply ‘‘podcaster’ and ‘listener,’ pigeonholes the vast opportunity for the medium.”
As the number one global podcast company, according to Podtrac, Acast leads the industry in helping advertisers scale their message into wider ecosystems that creators have. Through integrated marketing and multi-channel campaigns, Acast organically connects advertisers with engaged audiences of our creators across YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, in live events, and more.
By taking an audience first approach to podcast advertising, Acast has built a successful integrated marketing portfolio through our in-house Creative Agency, Acast Creative, over the past six years. In fact, in 2023, Acast saw a 46% increase in advertisers booking multichannel campaigns from the year before.
And the industry is taking note. Kicking off the Podcast Upfronts, the IAB showcased Acast’s recent multichannel campaign with the Your Mama’s Kitchen podcast and Maker’s Mark in the opening keynote. In the example shown, Acast’s creative team created a social media component of the campaign that highlighted a recipe from each guest that was nostalgic of their mother’s kitchens. The results included social media posts highlighting family recipes from the likes of Mrs. Michelle Obama, Conan O’Brien, Al Roker, and more.
This branded execution as well as multi-channel campaigns from Acast and clients like Nordstrom and Mattress Firm were also highlighted in a sizzle during Acast’s presentation later in the day.
Learning # 3 - Podcasts aren’t just part of Acast’s strategy - they are our strategy.
Many audio players in the space today put audio into a larger bucket of business objectives – like streaming music, radio, or audiobooks. Not Acast.
As a pure-play podcast company, it’s all that we do and we’re the industry experts. After an entire decade of innovation and growth in the industry, we can confidently say that we know what we’re doing for our advertisers, our podcasters, and our audiences. Importantly, we know that creators attract engaged audiences, who draw in advertisers, who then bring in more high-caliber creators with more audiences, and so it continues.
Acast is home to a vast network of creators, with 125,000 podcasts currently and counting, 1.1 billion listens each quarter, and more than 2,700 advertisers.
But it’s what we do with all of that that is most important. We’re masters at matching the right advertisers with the right podcasts for their brand message. “Acast understands that a huge problem in the industry is that 44% of U.S. ad investment goes to the top 500 shows and those account for only 12% of monthly reach, “ Glenday shared at the Upfront. “There is no evidence to suggest a message delivered in the most well known show is any more effective. In fact, past research Acast has conducted has actually found that smaller shows deliver even higher ad engagement”
Acast uniquely understands this dilemma and has released a number of innovations that provide brands endless opportunities to target smarter and buy better across the medium, like first-party data targeting and Conversational Targeting that connect advertisers with the right audience for their message in ways that are relevant to their unique listening experience.
Additionally, through Acast’s subsidiary brand, Podchaser, we leverage tools like Collections+ and Predictive Audiences, which use AI to help advertisers to reach the audiences for their brand across more podcasts. For our podcasters, this leads to more monetization opportunities and since 2014, Acast has paid more than $350 million directly into the pockets of our creators.
Whether you need to buy either horizontally or vertically, Acast has the capabilities and sales teams that allow any type of buyer to achieve their desired objective. For example, Acast Creative can help build out integrated campaigns that are either vertical or horizontal, while we also have an entire performance sales team set up to help direct response brands buy vertically and advise on the best show based strategy. Acast also offers low touch yet high scale tools, such as our self-serve advertising platform, which enables advertisers to independently browse and buy host-read sponsorships across the entire Acast Marketplace.
Curious what strategy works out best for your brand? Contact sales.us@acast.com to let Acast advise you on your podcast advertising campaign or learn about our IAB Podcast Upfront presentation.
May was Upfront season in the media industry. On May 9th, Acast took part in the annual IAB Podcast Upfront, an event which brings together publishers, brands, agencies, and media buyers to explore the innovations in the podcast industry. After a day of hearing from the best in business, one thing is clear: we are in a modern podcasting renaissance and Acast is leading the charge.
Missed Acast at the Podcast Upfront? No worries - here are three key takeaways from our presentation.
Learning #1: There are rare tailwinds for advertisers and audiences
While it's no secret that podcasts are widely popular, with Acast alone garnering over one billion listens each quarter, there is still a massive opportunity for growth. In fact, there’s an abundance of data suggesting that advertisers and audiences are still coming into the medium.
“We’re at basecamp, not mountaintop” said Acast Chief Business Officer Greg Glenday on stage during the event. “Did you know that more than one-third of Americans still haven’t listened to a podcast? Yet. Audiences are still coming into the space to discover what the medium has to offer.”
Additionally, Acast is seeing a similar trend when it comes to advertisers entering the space .
“Last year, only 14 of the top 100 advertisers invested more than 0.3% of their overall spend into podcasting. That’s barely a test budget for these blue chips,” said Glenday.
The good news is these major brands are not only beginning to enter the medium, but data proves they are making repeat investments. According to Magellan AI, there is a surge in returning advertiser investment, with the ten largest podcast advertisers increasing their spend in the medium by nearly 50% last year alone. We’re also seeing more than just these repeat buyers impacting the space. According to Inside Radio, 2,268 new brands advertised on podcasts for the first time in the fourth quarter of last year alone. With the combination of new buyers entering the space and increasing investments from repeat buyers, podcast ad spend across the industry was up nearly 40% in Q1 from the same period a year ago.
And so we begin the climb towards the mountaintop.
“The authentic word of mouth marketing that podcasting provides at scale has never really existed before in any other medium,” said SVP of Acast’s Creator Network, Veronika Taylor. “We all know that one of the key reasons why podcasting is so effective for advertisers is because audiences truly trust their favorite podcast hosts. In fact, according to a study by Magna and Vox Media, 75% of respondents said podcast hosts are the most influential media voices in their lives– significantly outpacing social media influencers and Hollywood celebrities.”
The close knit relationship between podcast creators and audiences is unparalleled by any other form of media. For example, podcast hosts often create communities among their listeners by giving them a group identity that bands them all together. Everything Iconic with Danny Pellegrino fans are called the “Icons”, Giggly Squad has the “Gigglers”, Here's Where It Gets Interesting with Sharon McMahon has the “Governerds” – just to name a few.
Learning # 2: It’s audiences, not listeners
“At Acast, we prefer the term ‘audience’ over ‘listeners’,” Glenday said on stage. “Restricting to simply ‘‘podcaster’ and ‘listener,’ pigeonholes the vast opportunity for the medium.”
As the number one global podcast company, according to Podtrac, Acast leads the industry in helping advertisers scale their message into wider ecosystems that creators have. Through integrated marketing and multi-channel campaigns, Acast organically connects advertisers with engaged audiences of our creators across YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, in live events, and more.
By taking an audience first approach to podcast advertising, Acast has built a successful integrated marketing portfolio through our in-house Creative Agency, Acast Creative, over the past six years. In fact, in 2023, Acast saw a 46% increase in advertisers booking multichannel campaigns from the year before.
And the industry is taking note. Kicking off the Podcast Upfronts, the IAB showcased Acast’s recent multichannel campaign with the Your Mama’s Kitchen podcast and Maker’s Mark in the opening keynote. In the example shown, Acast’s creative team created a social media component of the campaign that highlighted a recipe from each guest that was nostalgic of their mother’s kitchens. The results included social media posts highlighting family recipes from the likes of Mrs. Michelle Obama, Conan O’Brien, Al Roker, and more.
This branded execution as well as multi-channel campaigns from Acast and clients like Nordstrom and Mattress Firm were also highlighted in a sizzle during Acast’s presentation later in the day.
Learning # 3 - Podcasts aren’t just part of Acast’s strategy - they are our strategy.
Many audio players in the space today put audio into a larger bucket of business objectives – like streaming music, radio, or audiobooks. Not Acast.
As a pure-play podcast company, it’s all that we do and we’re the industry experts. After an entire decade of innovation and growth in the industry, we can confidently say that we know what we’re doing for our advertisers, our podcasters, and our audiences. Importantly, we know that creators attract engaged audiences, who draw in advertisers, who then bring in more high-caliber creators with more audiences, and so it continues.
Acast is home to a vast network of creators, with 125,000 podcasts currently and counting, 1.1 billion listens each quarter, and more than 2,700 advertisers.
But it’s what we do with all of that that is most important. We’re masters at matching the right advertisers with the right podcasts for their brand message. “Acast understands that a huge problem in the industry is that 44% of U.S. ad investment goes to the top 500 shows and those account for only 12% of monthly reach, “ Glenday shared at the Upfront. “There is no evidence to suggest a message delivered in the most well known show is any more effective. In fact, past research Acast has conducted has actually found that smaller shows deliver even higher ad engagement”
Acast uniquely understands this dilemma and has released a number of innovations that provide brands endless opportunities to target smarter and buy better across the medium, like first-party data targeting and Conversational Targeting that connect advertisers with the right audience for their message in ways that are relevant to their unique listening experience.
Additionally, through Acast’s subsidiary brand, Podchaser, we leverage tools like Collections+ and Predictive Audiences, which use AI to help advertisers to reach the audiences for their brand across more podcasts. For our podcasters, this leads to more monetization opportunities and since 2014, Acast has paid more than $350 million directly into the pockets of our creators.
Whether you need to buy either horizontally or vertically, Acast has the capabilities and sales teams that allow any type of buyer to achieve their desired objective. For example, Acast Creative can help build out integrated campaigns that are either vertical or horizontal, while we also have an entire performance sales team set up to help direct response brands buy vertically and advise on the best show based strategy. Acast also offers low touch yet high scale tools, such as our self-serve advertising platform, which enables advertisers to independently browse and buy host-read sponsorships across the entire Acast Marketplace.
Curious what strategy works out best for your brand? Contact sales.us@acast.com to let Acast advise you on your podcast advertising campaign or learn about our IAB Podcast Upfront presentation.
