The business of podcasting in Australia took a big step forward this week with the release of Commercial Radio Australia (CRA)’s first ever listener data.
For the first time the monthly Australian Podcast Ranker came ranked by listeners, rather than downloads.
While this might seem like a small change on the surface, the reality is that by shifting to people rather than downloads as the leading audience metric, podcasts now join TV, radio, print, and online news, as having certifiable audience measurement for brands to trade off.
It’s early days and the data is not perfect. For starters, it’s a monthly unique audience figure, rather than broken down by individual episodes. It only features podcasts that choose to participate and, with platforms such as Apple still opaque with data, media commentator Tim Burrowes suggested it should be called “intention to listen” rather than listener numbers.
But what the Ranker reveals is that the audiences for Australia’s top podcasts are significant, and for brands looking to reach their target audiences, should not be ignored. The top 12 podcasts in Australia each see at least 200,000 monthly listeners – that’s an audience worth paying attention to.
Given the rapidly-growing nature of podcasting, the medium still represents a largely untapped avenue for brand exposure, be it earned through interviews, or sponsored ad reads. The podcast market is also incredibly diverse, meaning there are guaranteed to be audiences that want to hear from your brand.
When it comes time to monitor mentions of your brand on podcasts, it’s crucial that you can do so in realtime and accurately. That’s why we’ve recently launched podcast monitoring, integrated directly into Streem’s realtime media monitoring platform, alongside Print, Online, TV, Radio and Social Media. Podcast monitoring is another demonstration of our commitment to delivering comprehensive realtime media monitoring, ensuring that you don’t miss mentions of your brand, whenever it appears.
With the first serious measurement of podcast audiences in Australia, now may be the time to consider leveraging them in your brand’s earned media plans.