November 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
Total Wine & More
Total Wine & More’s presence on our top movers & shakers is far from unexpected. In the past 2 years, they followed a pattern of consistent but lower spending throughout the year, followed by a big increase in November and December. This year, the $495,000 investment in November was their highest month so far but if the trend continues, December could set a new record for the brand.
The brand awareness ads capitalized on the holiday season mentioning a “wonderland of wine, spirits, and beer lovers” and nearly ⅓ were host-read ads. The ads were most highly concentrated in the Society & Culture genre and can be heard on The Splendid Table and Business Wars.
StoryWorth
StoryWorth is an online service that allows the gift-giver to uncover a loved one’s untold stories through an online service that sends questions to the gift recipient. The stories are then printed into a keepsake book. StoryWorth made our top movers & shakers list back in April and prior to November, their biggest spend month was June. These seasonal spikes correlate to popular gifting holidays: Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and Christmas.
Spending in the gift industry overall in October 2021 nearly matched that of November of 2020 and in November of 2021 advertisers collectively spent over $3 million making it the highest monthly spend ever for the industry. StoryWorth’s investment followed the trend; October 2021 was higher than November 2020, and November 2021 brought a new record for spending in a single month with a total 6x higher than the same month last year.
The direct response ads were most commonly detected in a mid-roll position and a high majority of the ads were host read. Hear StoryWorth ads on DISGRACELAND and Pantsuit Politics.
Aura Frames
Aura Frames are digital picture frames that allow photos to be shared via a connected app. Following trends in the gift industry, Aura Frames landed on our movers & shakers list for increasing their monthly spend nearly 20x between October and November.
In 2019, Aura made their biggest investment in December but in 2020, their spend reached its highest point in November. November 2021 was Aura’s highest spend yet, reaching 3x what they spent in November 2020.
The direct response ads talked about connecting with "loved ones anywhere in the world" and 88% of ads were detected in a mid-roll position. A large majority were host read ads and feature promo codes specific to the podcast. Hear these ads on Lore and Voices for Justice.
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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