Podcasts were once the radio talk shows of the digital streaming world. Now they’re the new television sitcom like Oprah, Ellen, and Good Morning America.
During the pandemic, big names like Jimmy Kimmel and Chelsea Handler were streaming talk shows from their living rooms. The visual setup was eerily similar to videos created by today’s video podcasts: a simple background, a mic, and a one-man production.
As more and more podcasts embrace video formats, we have seen a lot of benefits for creators and marketers, alike.
Reaching new audiences
Podcast audiences were once a much smaller demographic. Think: commuters sitting in traffic, physical labor workers with headphones, or anti-screen people.
As video has become integrated with the traditional audio medium, podcasts now reach a much larger audience. Audiences who watch Ellen as a daily ritual, or David Letterman as their nighttime wind down now have the option to stream video podcasts instead. With so many creators, viewers have more variety to choose who they get their news, education, and entertainment from.
As far as growth goes, Audience Ratings tells us that The Joe Rogan Experience has nearly doubled social video viewership in the last year — from 12M streams in May 2021 to almost 21M in April 2022. Posting video content across social media channels is bringing in a massive amount of views each month.
The popular Crime Junkie podcast uses alternative video content and reaches new audiences by providing a sign language translator on their video episodes. This podcast’s Facebook views have grown by 112% in the past 365 days.
Whether it’s a deeper sensory engagement or reaching out to hearing-impaired audiences, the visual format of the video opens the podcasting world up to a massive new audience.
Social video activations
On social, we’ve seen podcast clips posted to stories and grids that are much more engaging compared to audio clips. Audiences can visually see their favorite creators sitting down for a chat and click the link for the full video.
This content type flows seamlessly from social video entertainment to a video podcast. It’s far less likely that a social video viewer would stop streaming visual content to click on an audio-only podcast.
In fact, the hashtag #shorts is the second most popular tag used to promote podcast-related content, second only to #podcast. This means many podcast creators are using YouTube’s short format video to catch audience’s attention and funnel their viewership to their podcasts.
More opportunities for creators & brands
More streams equal more money for creators and more opportunities for brands to advertise.
On Apr 21, 2022, Spotify announced that video would be available for creators on their podcast streaming app, Anchor. Spotify announced, “Video Podcasts on Spotify represent a massive opportunity. For audio podcasters, a whole new medium is now at your fingertips. Unleash your imagination to enrich and complement audio for fans, or build an all-new visual identity for your show.”
In the same way video lets podcasters add visual elements and branding to their content, it also allows advertisers to do the same. A beauty brand could ask a host to review a new product being launched, and a household brand could ask a mommy podcaster to show the physical product during her ad so shoppers know what it looks like on store shelves.
Consumer Insights data tell us that The Joe Rogan Experience’s social video audience is 17.4x more likely to shop for Jiu-Jitsu suits than other audiences, and 15.7x more likely to shop for books on dating. With an average of 11M listeners per episode, these numbers are to be carefully considered by advertisers. Call Her Daddy’s audience also has a high shopping affinity of 8.9x for books on relationships. Other items in their top ten product categories are lip makeup, women’s fragrance, face makeup, and more.
For brands looking to partner with podcasters, understanding what their social video audiences are shopping for can help them implement video campaigns ontop of their audio ads.
Adding video to podcasts creates a more intimate and engaging experience than traditional audio mediums. We’ve seen video formats attract those hard-to-reach audiences, optimize social media funnels, and open new doors for advertisers and creator brands.
Have you considered a partnership with a podcaster? Imagine how video could improve brand penetration with a visual ad.
If you’re interested in gaining insights on more podcast hosts, creators, and influencers — click here to request a free demo with Tubular.