April 2021: Top spenders, movers and shakers in podcast advertising
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Top 15 spenders
Top 15 movers & shakers
Samsung
The National Retail Federation predicted $3.3 billion would be spent on electronics as Mother’s Day gifts; Samsung vied for their share of wallet by positioning their products as the perfect gift. Of all 78 brands who mentioned Mother’s Day this year, Samsung had the highest number of ads detected. While Samsung has promoted specific models or features of their devices in the past,the current campaign promotes all Galaxy products including smartphones, a smartwatch, and earbuds.
Their biggest competitors in the consumer electronics space - Apple and Google - are not nearly as present in podcast advertising. Magellan AI detected ads for the Apple Watch Series 6 when it launched in September 2020 but has since slowed down with only 41 ads detected so far this year. Google has not promoted any of their consumer products this year but instead has been promoting their online learning portal, Grow with Google.
Bose may be Samsung’s most active competitor in podcast ads but they have not made the same level of investment that Samsung has. Magellan AI detected some ads in the first quarter of 2021 for Bose’s new Sleepbuds but otherwise, they haven't had much activity.
Samsung Galaxy ads in April were mostly mid-roll but 35% of the ads detected ran pre-roll. You can hear these brand awareness ads on Something You Should Know and Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay.
Angi
Angi, formerly known as Angie’s List, is also the holding company for several other home services platforms including HomeAdvisor and Handy. All three brands have tested podcast advertising in the past but in April, Angi added 30 new shows to their campaign. Magellan AI first detected ads for Angi in March. Most of Angi’s ads are in News, but were also detected in True Crime and Society & Culture.
Angi has taken a similar approach with HomeAdvisor and Handy in the past but neither brand has been detected on podcast ads this year. In addition to promoting their app to homeowners looking for professionals, HomeAdvisor ran some ads recruiting service providers into their platform.
The majority of ads are pre-produced but there are also some producer-read ads that follow the same script. You can hear these brand awareness ads promoting the Angi app on Anderson Cooper 360 and Bravo TV’s The Daily Dish.
Rex MD
Rex MD is a subsidiary of LifeMD, a portfolio of brands that serve direct-to-patient healthcare. The men’s telehealth brand added 55 shows to their campaign in April. Rex MD’s ads have been concentrated in Sports podcasts but also detected in Society & Culture and History shows.
Rex MD has some heavy competition from Roman, where Magellan AI detected a high number of ads in sports podcasts. Rex MD made our movers and shakers list for increasing their spend to an estimated $128,000 but Roman spent more than double in April totaling $428,000. While both advertisers offer customers a similar experience, they are testing slightly different styles of promotion: Rex MD offers a free sample and Roman ads include a discount code for their subscription.
Rex MD is a direct response advertiser and can be heard on Fantasy Focus Baseball and Tides of History.
Methodology
Magellan AI analyzes podcast advertising data from the top 3,000 podcasts in the U.S., as ranked by Apple Podcasts. For parts of this analysis, we relied on Magellan AI’s proprietary model to estimate advertising spend. Our model incorporates a number of factors, including:
- The number of ads and variation in ad load detected for a given episode
- Number of downloads for each episode
- CPM, as reported on select media kits and estimated based on popularity
From time to time we adjust our model based on new inputs and user input.
Magellan AI creates tools that help marketers at brands like SimpliSafe, Wix, and BetterHelp spend intelligently on podcast advertising. Podcast publishers like WNYC and Audioboom use Magellan to track advertisers spending money in the podcast space. Learn More.
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