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Radio: The Gecko's Cheating On You
February 19, 2019
Have an opinion? Add your comment below. The benefits of audio advertising is well known. Those benefits work well on radio, but also work well for podcasting, too. It's probably no accident that Geico is now one of the largest advertisers in podcasting -- a medium that, like radio, is highly habitual. Podcasting is now attracting one of radio's biggest advertisers. Should we worry that the gecko is cheating on us?
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If you've not yet discovered it, Magellan is an interesting company. It monitors the top 2,000 podcasts in the U.S. Apple Podcasts trending chart, and produces ad reports. Here's the ad report for January 2019.
I've found the differences between podcast advertising and radio advertising to be quite stark. When I last looked at these charts in detail, in November, it was very obvious that U.S. radio's biggest advertisers were nowhere to be seen on podcasting. For whatever reason, podcasting has appeared to attract a different type of advertiser.
U.S. radio, of course, attracts $15.9 billion of annual advertising revenue, while podcasting attracts a rather more disappointing $314 million. It's forecast to grow quite a bit in the next few years, but as a wise man said, "Double nothing is still nothing."
The new figures for January still show ZipRecruiter at #1 in podcasting; Squarespace, a website company, is also in the list, as are all the typical podcast advertisers. There's an electric toothbrush in the list; a mattress company; and a website that lets you buy your stamps at home.
But new in this month's top 5 is an advertiser familiar to U.S. radio listeners. While the company's gobby gecko, speaking in a British accent to make him more "unexpected." hasn't made it yet to podcasting, the company itself has. Geico, a U.S. insurance company, was U.S. radio's #1 advertiser in 2017, and #2 in 2018 (beaten by DIY store The Home Depot). And now Geico is the #2 podcast advertiser as well.
The benefits of audio advertising is well known. Those benefits work well on radio, but also work well for podcasting, too. It's probably no accident that Geico is now one of the largest advertisers in podcasting -- a medium that, like radio, is highly habitual.
Podcasting is now attracting one of radio's biggest advertisers. Should we worry that the gecko is cheating on us?
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