Don and His Podcasts: Ad Environment

I love Podcasts. I listen to 20+ hours weekly. My shows are all listed below, below. This project isn’t about the shows I like, but more about where I consume them and, because of my job, selling advertising and a growing interest in Podcast advertising, I’m going to conduct an experiment and examine the advertising environment inside Podcast Apps and platforms.  For a couple years, I’ve exclusively used Pocket Casts. It’s beautiful in form, function and it’s ability to cut gaps of slience, or listen at 1x, 2x or customized 1.1x, 1.2x speed …whichever a listener prefers. Pocket Casts, however, is ranked #9 among Podcast listening-apps and while I don’t use Apple Podcasts and Spotify … most people do (see rankings below).

Plus, YouTube is touted as the fastest growing Podcast platform …which doesn’t make sense to me, actually, because it’s “video”, but maybe using YouTube Music will be more like audio-only Apps and platforms.

I thought the top ways people listen to Podcasts were . . .

1. Apple Podcasts
2. Spotify
3. YouTube
4. Amazon Music

Turns out, according to this article and data he pulled from Transistor, here’s the top Apps and ways people consume Podcasts . . .

1. Apple Podcasts (39.86%)
2. Spotify (26.58%)
3. Mobile Browser (7.52%)
4. Desktop Browser (4.84%)
5. CastBox (3.05%)
6. Overcast (2.96%)
7. Storybutton (1.82%)
8. Embed Player (1.77%)
9. Pocket Casts (1.74%)

YouTube isn’t on this list because they don’t report “listening” like these other services.

That said, I’m going to use the following for my experiment . . .

• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify
• YouTube
• Pocket Casts
• Embedded Players on the Podcaster’s website

What I’m hoping to hear are different advertisements, commercials, and presentations to get a feel for how each platform is selling their impressions. I’ll be looking for creative executions that feel unique to each. I’ll be listening closely to Pre-Rolls, dynamically inserted mid-rolls, post-rolls, and anything else that sounds like an “aha” advertising moment.

I’ll be reporting if I hear something … or nothing.

And, here’s my updated Podcasts in order of Never-Miss all the way through “if the topic or guest is interesting”.

1. The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
2. The Jim Rome Show
3. Daily Stoic
4. Drew & Mike Show
5. Couch and the Rub
6. The Valenti Show with Rico (a radio show that I can’t listen to for 4 straight hours but I want to hear all of it)
7. The Drive by Peter Attia
8. Pablo Torre Finds Out
9. NPR News Now
10. How Did This Get Made
11. The Daily Show: Ears Edition (so many TV shows I’m loving that they make available as a Podcast)
12. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
13. PTI
14. Deep Questions
15. How Did This Get Made?
16. The Art of Manliness
17. The Gary Vee Audio Experience
18. The Father Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast
19. The Tim Ferris Show
20. The Genius Life
21. Fareed Zakaria GPS (another TV show I listen to only)
22. The Moth
23. Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend
24. The Sales Gravy Podcast
25. Comedy Bang Bang