Why Should You Launch a Podcast?

The Mobile Marketplace

"Not since the advent of the Internet has a technology forced businesses to completely rethink how they win, serve, and retain customers.

"Mobile reached a tipping point in 2014 as it solidified its position as one of the most disruptive technologies for businesses in decades.

Forrester Research, Inc., 
- Predictions 2015: Most Brands Will Underinvest in Mobile

"In 2015, marketing leaders who have embraced the mobile mind shift will accelerate spending to create an insurmountable gap between themselves — the industry leaders — and the laggards who view mobile as "just another channel."


"Mobile-shifted marketers will transform their brands’ customer experiences and drive business outcomes by taking a sophisticated approach that focuses on how to activate mobile experiences.

"In 2015, we will also see marketing leaders who look at mobile as "just another channel" struggle to deliver results, differentiate their brands, and justify the budgets they need to stay competitive.


"Mobile-shifted marketers will strive to build valuable mobile moments that extend beyond mobile phones, apps, and websites and will depend heavily on massively responsive data services and systems of engagement internally. http://bit.ly/forrestermobile

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Podcasting

The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus helped Apple sell an astounding 74.5 million iPhones during the first quarter of the company’s fiscal 2015 year. That’s more iPhones than they’ve ever sold during a single quarter, up from the previous record of 51 million iPhone sales reported during the same time last year, and above the consensus estimate of around 67 million per Wall Street analysts.

Embedded in its history, Apple sold 67 million iPads within two years of its initial iPad launch on April 3, 2010 - more than any other product has sold in its first two years, ever. A product with a unit price starting at $500, iPads outsold McDonald's first two year burger sales. 


​The Podcast app is now installed on more than 72% of Apple iDevices.

• Podcast downloads passed the One Billion mark in 2014 | The Washington Post "Podcasts are back - and making money" | Sept 2014
• There are over 575 million active podcast listeners on iTunes
• Over 97 million active podcast listeners on iHeartRadio
• Over 50 million active podcast listeners on TuneIn
• Over 13 million users installed Stitcher (Android)
• Apple reports 45 million Podcast keyword searches per month
• Podcasts are coming to Spotify and other huge platforms
• 20 percent of Americans listen to at least one Podcast per month
• In the last year alone, the amount of people listening to a Podcast has gone up 25% and regular Podcast subscribers are listening to an average of six podcasts a week

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Content-on-Demand

In the U.S., 102 Million people drive to work by themselves; with Podcasts, they choose and personalize the content they listen to (while they can’t watch a video or read a blog). Two-thirds of Podcast consumers have listened to digital audio files in their vehicles by connecting an iPod, iPhone or other MP3 player to their car audio system. http://bit.ly/lwpodcasts

As of 2014, all major car dealers are making deals to install Apple CarPlay http://www.apple.com/ios/carplay/ on their dashboards, while Ford, BMW, Mazda, & Chevrolet are already installing Stitcher Radio (Android) http://www.stitcher.com - which means that Podcast subscribers will turn on their car radio and choose what they listen to.

"Promotion as a marketing discipline is no longer about short-term tactics and sales from an immediate offer. 

Promotion has evolved into the beginning of a conversation with a prospect that gives us an opportunity to continue to communicate [with someone] until they become a core customer.

We think of mobile in different ways. There are clients who very much rely on it as a sales channel. 

There are clients who rely on it as a means to communicate with a target audience that otherwise would be invisible."

Peter DeNunzio
CEO of HelloWorld

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Why are the biggest companies in the U.S. so interested in sponsoring Podcasts?

When you bring sponsors into your broadcasting and publishing products, you are lending the sponsor the trust and engagement you have earned with your audience, and the sponsor gets in front of its target audience through the most engaged medium.

The average time spent viewing a website page is 8 seconds; the average time listening to a Podcast is 20 minutes.

• Internal Mid-Roll (40-60 seconds of air time) surveys of 300,000 listeners found that 63% of people bought something a host had promoted on their show. http://bit.ly/hawkemedia
• When asked if advertising within Podcasts had affected their behavior, 71% of Podcast listeners said they’d visited a sponsor’s website, while 62% said they’d considered a new product or service. 60% also said that they researched more information about the advertiser.

• 78% agreed (and 21% agreed strongly) that their opinion of a company is more positive when they hear it mentioned on one of the Podcasts they regularly enjoy.

• Nearly 80% of Podcast consumers (responding to the survey), agreed that “when price and quality is equal,” they “prefer to buy products from companies that advertise on or sponsor” the Podcasts they regularly enjoy. http://bit.ly/lwpodcasts
• 68% of Podcast listeners do not mind sponsorship messages compared to only 6% positive sentiment expressed for the advertising approaches of television or commercial radio. http://bit.ly/lwpodcasts
• 90% of these respondents indicated that they had taken some kind of action as a result of Podcast advertising or sponsorship, and over 40% reported purchasing behaviors, which indicates that they are receptive to the right message, in the right context. http://bit.ly/lwpodcasts

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What Actually Works?

The Long Short Way Podcast

(the production of which I had nothing to do with but am excited to promote)

produced and hosted by Matisyahu Goren
on the App Stores
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