August 2021: Top spenders, movers and shakers in podcast advertising
In addition to our monthly post, we review the previous month's creative, trends, and spend in our market update webinar. Register to join us!
Top spenders
Top movers & shakers
Dave’s Killer Bread
This month’s top movers and shakers featured several food companies including Dave’s Killer Bread, Home Chef, and Perfect Snacks. Magellan AI had not detected any ads for Dave’s Killer Bread until the brand added 36 shows to their flighting in August.
Dave’s Killer Bread had the highest concentration of ads in Sports podcasts to take advantage of the football season hype. They also added a number of shows in Comedy and True Crime.The majority of Dave’s Killer Bread ads were in a mid-roll position, and 31% in a pre-roll position. Their ad creative was a mix of pre-recorded ads throughout Locked On shows, like this one on Locked On Packers - Daily Podcast On The Green Bay Packers and host read ads like this one in Game of Crimes.
Pill Club
Pill Club, an online service for prescribing and delivering birth control, launched in 2016 and has been expanding into new states ever since. The brand received $41.9mm in funding in June of 2021 and plans to expand their service area to all 50 states by the end of 202. Magellan AI first detected them in podcast ads in September 2019. Since then, they’ve appeared on just a few shows sporadically. This year, Pill Club has been increasing their spend each month but in August, the brand increased their monthly investment by over $200,000 and added 8 new shows to their media plan.
Pill Club’s ads in August were concentrated in Comedy and Society & Culture shows. 86% of the ads were in mid-roll positions and the ad creative encouraged new patients to sign up with vanity URLs for each show that will give a $10 donation to bedsider.org. 86% of Pill Club’s August ads were in a mid-roll position including these ads on Savage Lovecast and The Sarah Silverman Podcast.
Mattress Firm
Mattress Firm is an industry veteran and has maintained a presence in podcast ads since Magellan AI first detected the brand in January of 2018. The brand advertiser added 44 shows to their media plan in August concentrated in the Sports genre. In March of 2020, Mattress Firm followed a similar strategy when they added 47 shows to their media plan, also focused in the Sports genre.
The ads were split evenly between pre-, mid-, and post-roll positions and the majority were pre-produced ads but some were host read like this one on Fore Play and this one on The Breakfast Club. Hear a pre-produced ad on Hillbilly Horror Stories.
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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