The audio giant iHeartMedia is taking a niche route to find a coveted audience: marketers.
“Pretty much everything we do at iHeart is ad supported,” said CMO Gayle Troberman. “We love our consumers, but we also love marketers. They are just as important a constituent for us.”
In April, iHeart introduced its B2B Podcast Network, its first effort to bridge to this new demographic and sell its advertising and marketing products to ad buyers and mar tech. The network reaches about 78 million listeners and 80% of business decision-makers, iHeart says.
Just like consumer podcasting, business podcasts boast ad-skip rates “hovering around 10%,” but higher trust in podcast hosts than social media influencers or TV personalities, Troberman said.
Aside from classic host-read ads, the network offers extended midroll storytelling, branded content and dynamic trigger-based advertising based on what’s happening in real time, such as weather or stock price changes.
“Marketers are one of the toughest audiences to reach,” Troberman said. “They’re super busy. They know how to avoid advertising in a lot of the places where advertising appears.”
Sowing the seeds of super fandom
Adding to the appeal for advertisers is that podcast listeners “don’t just pop in and out,” Troberman said. “They become super fans,” listening to every episode and often following the show on social media.
That’s the hope for “Brand New,” a conversational podcast from Marisa Thalberg, chief marketing and communications officer for SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment, and Steven Wolfe Pereira, chief business officer of 3Pas Studios, debuting Thursday on iHeart’s B2B Podcast Network.
“We’re both active, working C-suite executives,” Thalberg said. Their constructive critiques of the industry come “from a perspective of people who’ve committed [their] careers to this industry.”
Since the co-hosts are dialed into the technology, entertainment, advertising, marketing and media (“TEAMM,” which apparently is a broad audience category used by iHeart) space and their podcast will act as a “watering hole” for the marketing industry, a number of ad tech firms, media companies and brands have already expressed interest in sponsorships, according to Wolfe Pereira. When prospective advertisers reach out, Thalberg and Wolfe Pereira pass them along to iHeart.
Which is in line with what iHeart often sees with podcast producers. “This is a creator-led economy, and the creators work with the brands and the advertisers,” Troberman said.
Audio everywhere
To maximize its reach, iHeart distributes podcasts everywhere, from Spotify to Xbox to smart devices. It’s also looking into out-of-home possibilities.
“We don’t believe in a walled garden,” Troberman said. “One of the things a lot of people don’t understand about podcasting, different than video, is the advertising travels with the podcast.”
Another distinction for podcasting from video is that podcasts outrate TV among business decision-makers, who are “heavy podcast listeners,” Troberman said. B2B audiences are twice as likely to listen to podcasts as to watch TV, and they spend about 300 more minutes per week with podcasts than TV.
“What I love about audio is it comes with you on the go and you can squeeze it in,” Thalberg said. “If you’re commuting or if you go for a run or a walk in the morning, that’s a nice moment to connect with your industry and learn.”
