The Interactive Promoting Bureau (IAB) held their 2024 Podcast Upfront in New York on Thursday, Could 9. IAB gathered manufacturers, companies and media patrons to offer an unique glimpse into upcoming podcast programing.
The occasion, of which The Hollywood Reporter was a media sponsor, included shows from Wondery, iHeartPodcasts, Acast, NPR, SiriusXM Media, Libsyn Advertisements, Paramount Audio, Seekr, WNYC Studios, POD Digital Media, Cumulus Media, Higher Collective, The Every day Wire, Claritas, Sonoro, YAP Media Community and ESPN Podcasts.
The day was hosted by YAP Media Community podcast hosts Jenna Kutcher of The Objective Digger podcast and Rachel Rodgers of Hiya Seven. In the course of the panels, it was shared that, in keeping with Edison Analysis, 135 million individuals hearken to a podcast month-to-month and that 60 % of adults hearken to podcasts month-to-month. In the meantime, in keeping with Acast, 36 % of adults have by no means listened to a podcast and there may be nonetheless untapped potential to develop audiences.
In creating the day’s agenda, IAB aimed to be reflective of the “urgent and present themes” within the podcasting house, from anticipated progress in income to evolving promoting methods to video podcasts.
“You’re speaking about an {industry} that’s been on a very spectacular sizzling streak, each from an advertiser curiosity perspective, from a listener curiosity perspective, from a income perspective,” Matt Shapo, IAB’s director of digital audio and video, tells The Hollywood Reporter.
“What we did this 12 months, as we have been getting ready thematically, was fascinated with ways in which we might proceed to, from an editorial perspective, spotlight the strengths of the medium for listeners and advertisers alike,” he provides.
Unsurprisingly, many networks unveiled a number of new exhibits, together with Jon Stewart‘s The Weekly Present, teased by way of a show-stealing video message aired in the course of the Paramount Audio presentation.
The previous and present weekly Every day Present host joked by means of the video about what sort of promoting he’d be open to (snacks and outerwear) and why he couldn’t make the occasion (“After they instructed me about it, I didn’t imagine there was an upfront for podcasts”).
SiriusXM showcased an upcoming Cheers podcast, The place Everyone Is aware of Your Title with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson (Typically), co-hosted by present alums Danson and Harrelson. The present is ready to premiere in simply over a month on June 12.
Different notable bulletins included The Offensive Line hosted by social media star Annie Agar for Wondery and ESPN’s upcoming podcast Looking for Hobey Baker, the latter a narrative concerning the faculty hockey participant and World Battle I fighter pilot. The podcast shall be launched in June, tied particularly to Pleasure Month, because the present plans to “re-contextualize the hockey legend by means of the lens of his lesser identified struggles as a queer man within the early twentieth century,” in keeping with a launch.
Total, for IAB, podcasting is a particular medium for advertisers and shoppers because of the distinctive nature of the connection between hosts and audiences. “You’re particularly deciding on one-on-one time with that content material in contrast to you’re doing with every other sort of content material,” says Chris Bruderle, IAB’s vice chairman of {industry} insights and content material technique.
Trying again at this 12 months’s upfront, IAB discovered a couple of key takeaways. “Podcast is now a multi-platform medium,” Bruderle notes. “It isn’t simply an audio medium. It’s a video medium, and additionally it is an occasions medium.”
Bruderle famous that advert income progress for the 12 months was 5 %. For a mixture of causes, video and occasions being one among them, that quantity is projected to extend, Bruderle says, with IAB projecting a 12 % improve.
Trying ahead from Thursday’s upfront, IAB sees industry-wide tendencies which are more likely to evolve over the 12 months. One factor that was on the prime of thoughts, in keeping with IAB executives, is an actual shift in angle of which podcasts advertisers will wish to purchase into. Shapo famous that advertisers are starting to see that a number of the best promoting might be completed on smaller exhibits with extremely engaged audiences.
“We’re lastly starting to have a mindset shift, the place patrons don’t essentially assume they must solely purchase the highest 10, 50, 100 exhibits that they’ve heard of,” Shapo observes, including, “You may get extra gross sales out of a 7,000 downloads-a-month present, you then get out of a 100,000 downloads-a-month present, as a result of it’s simply the proper setting by which to share that message.”