December 2020: Top spenders, movers, and shakers
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 15 spenders in December
Top 15 movers & shakers
Spotlight: Headspace
When Headspace launched in 2010, it was an events company holding mindfulness talks in and around London. Seeing demand for mindfulness and meditation techniques, they developed an app which has been their core product ever since. Over the years they have also released their own podcast, partnered with 600 companies, and generated over $100mm in revenue per year.
In early 2019 Headspace dipped their toes into the world of podcast advertising, but really ramped up their spending in November and December 2020. The timing of this could be to capitalize on the release of their new Netflix series or could be part of a larger trend we have detected in the Mental Health industry. Since Q1 of 2020, the Mental Health industry has grown by 430% on podcasts. One of the biggest drivers of this growth is Betterhelp, which coincidentally spent the most it ever has in a single month in December. Is Headspace headed down a similar trajectory? Only time will tell.
Headspace, a direct response advertiser, spent a total of $2.3mm on podcasts in December. Here you can listen to some example ads for each of the following podcasts: Reality Life with Kate Casey and The Cut.
Spotlight: ClickUp
ClickUp is a San Diego based productivity software startup that launched in 2017. Recently ClickUp raised $100mm in series B funding after reporting 900% growth in revenue in 2020. With this incredible growth it is no surprise that ClickUp has dipped its toes into the world of podcast advertising. With productivity tools like Asana, monday.com, and Trello already well established in the space; it needed to make a splash to set itself apart. This month they appear to have made that splash after spending a modest $23k in November 2020.
ClickUp, a brand awareness advertiser, spent a total of $590k on podcasts in December. Here you can listen to some example ads for each of the following podcasts: Today, Explained and Real Crime Profile.
Spotlight: Meiomi Wines
If you are a consistent reader of our monthly spend blog posts, you may remember that Total Wine & More was spotlighted last month as an advertiser that typically spends most around the holiday season. In December, two new advertisers in the Alcohol industry, Meiomi Wines and Heineken, entered the top movers & shakers list. This is evidence of what was already well established: alcohol sales are up and expected to be higher than usual this holiday season. We have noticed this in the podcast advertising, where we detected a 51% increase in advertising for the alcohol industry in November/December 2020, compared to September/October 2020.
Meiomi Wines was a new advertiser in December 2020. In their ads they are promoting the convenience of their at home delivery options for their wines. The question still remains whether Meiomi Wines will continue to spend throughout the year, or if they will reserve their spending to the holiday season like Total Wine & More.
Meiomi Wines, a brand awareness advertiser, spent $170k on podcasts in December. Here you can listen to some example ads for each of the following podcasts: Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang and Stuff You Should Know.
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 ThredUP spend intelligently on podcast advertising. Podcast publishers like WNYC and Audioboom use Magellan to track advertisers spending money in the podcast space. Learn More.
Want to get notified when we publish a new post? Sign up here.
