Like Video, our Audio eco-system has become a multi-faceted ecosystem encompassing audience lifestyles and delivering information and entertainment when, where and how Australians want it.
The Infinite Dial/Edison Research (1) 2022 survey revealed just how much Australians embraced audio during the pandemic. In the 2023 survey, both live and online radio maintained a 79% Ppl 12+ listenership I.E. 17m.
- DAB+ radio saw a 77% YOY increase to 32% of Australians 12+ listening to DAB+ over the course of a week, approximately 7 million people. 40% of those listeners were aged between 12 and 34.
- Online listening grew 80%, to an estimated 6 million 12+ Australians enjoying their radio online weekly.
- Radio continues to be the number one audio source in cars, an indication of the loyalty Australians have for, and the enjoyment they get from their favourite stations and DJs in their daily commute and on car trips. In-car podcast source listening grew 19% YOY.
The Rise of Podcast continues
43% of Australians listen monthly to podcasts, up 7.5% on 2022. (1)
33% listen weekly with nearly a quarter listening to 4-5 episodes in the week.
Spotify is the number one podcast service used, followed by YouTube.
In 2022 in the US YouTube was also the No. 2 most popular place for listening to podcasts.
In 2023 YouTube added podcasts to YouTube Music, and YouTube has now surpassed Spotify as the most used platform by weekly podcast consumers.
46% of active US podcast listeners prefer to watch podcasts as they listen (3). However, video-enabled podcasts currently represent less than 10% of podcast revenues.
In Australia, Infinite Dial/Edison Research 2023 indicates that of the 17m monthly podcast listeners, 51% listen to podcast with a video component actively watched.
What does the expanded audio ecosystem offer?
As linear TV reach continues to decline against the under 40’s, there is opportunity to drive increased brand awareness and build stronger consumer engagement via scaling out audio strategies to encompass podcast and streaming services, leveraging new capabilities like Conversational or Keyword Targeting. Key to any podcast investment is to ensure messaging is aligned within contextually relevant podcasts to reach the right people with the right message at scale – IE 3+ podcasts with average frequencies between 2-5 to drive optimal conversion rates. Global podcast ad spend is projected to exceed US$4bn in 2024 (2), with IAB data (3) indicating that there has been a shift towards brand -building in podcast advertising; 61% of ad revenues will go to brand awareness, compared with 48% in 2021.
As YouTube continues to blur the video-audio boundary, brands have opportunity to further leverage this entertainment search engine. It is an active choice to seek out and choose a podcast and listened to through headphones 90% of the time means audiences are engaged and paying attention … with their ears and now increasingly their eyes.
*Online Audio = Listening to AM/FM/DAB+ Radio stations online and/or listening to audio content only on the internet including podcasts and streaming services.
The Infinite Dial/Edison Research 2022/2023
https://www.mi-3.com.au/10-01-2024/podcast-advertising-set-hit-us4bn-2024-amid-slowing-growth
