Has Serial Sold Advertisers on Podcasting
By Carlton Wilcoxson • December 1, 2015
Serial, a spinoff of the popular This American Life podcast, debuted in October 2014 to little fanfare but would go on to become the digital medium’s first monster hit. Listeners became enthralled by host Sarah Koenig’s deep dive into the 1999 true-crime case of Adnan Syed. During its debut run, Serial garnered more than 100 million downloads on iTunes, averaging around 8.3 million per episode.
Serial’s Season 2, which reportedly will focus on ex-POW Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl who was held captive by the Taliban in Afghanistan for five years, is expected to launch in the coming weeks. The series will be available on iTunes and other podcast apps, as well as Pandora (Season 1 is there now). Email marketing service MailChimp was the show’s first sponsor,with Squarespace and Amazon’s Audible coming aboard midway through the season. All three quickly renewed their commitment and will be back as launch sponsors, with bigger brands coming in between 10 and 30 days after launch.
It’s also lifted the audiences for other podcasts. McCrery said most of the top podcasts on iTunes saw a 30 percent audience increase over the last year. “Most of them went looking to say ‘what else is out there?'” said Lex Friedman, evp of sales and development at Midroll, which handles advertising for podcasts including Marc Maron’s WTF, Scott Aukerman’s Comedy Bang! Bang! and Bill Simmons’ post-ESPN podcast.
For advertisers, podcasts offer a more intimate space, as hosts have a built-in trust with listeners. A recall study for a Chipotle campaign on Maron’s WTF found that 90 percent of listeners could remember those ads. And there’s room for growth. According to Westwood One’s “State of American Podcasting” report, 41 percent of advertisers surveyed discussed podcast advertising, but only 15 percent were currently advertising in the medium.