Are podcasts ready to usurp the space occupied by radio in the media plan of brands a decade back?

Not yet, but they look all set.

India has the third-largest podcast listener base globally, just behind the US and China. A PwC Global Entertainment and Media Outlook study expects this number to rise to 17.61 million by 2023. Clearly, the country’s hunger for podcasts has deepened over the past few years becoming the millennial and Gen Z’s go-to platform to consume content. With advantages such as low entry barrier and potentially high yield in terms of customer engagement, brands too are swiftly moving to the medium with their own podcasts.

‘The Gentleman Show’ by The Man Company which has been listed in the top charts of Apple and Spotify podcasts crossed 10,000 downloads within a month of its launch. In another instance, boAt created a seven-episode video podcast series called ‘#DoWhatFloatsYourboAt’ in collaboration with IVM Podcasts to engage young audiences. It said 36% of the listeners were between 18 and 22 years of age, and the series received close to two lakh downloads plus three million social media impressions.

Till recently, a brand’s involvement was limited to sponsorship of the podcast and you could hear one or more message from it during the show. But what is happening now is more and more brands are producing their own podcasts.

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According to Sanjeev Mehta, business head, IVM Podcasts, Pratilipi, any brand that wants to achieve complex messaging and also wants to explore engaging audiences cannot ignore podcasts. Certain categories like BFSI, technology, and alcoholic beverages are the ideal categories because they need a more engaged audience to get their message across. Last year, the multi-lingual podcast network had onboarded 35 brands and, in this fiscal, it has 10 new brands on board.

The beauty of podcasting, says Rumi Ambastha, director, brand marketing, The Man Company, is that it doesn’t require massive equipment and production value or pinching investment. The brand’s production cost for shooting 25 episodes of its podcast that will last for a year and includes teasers and all social media content is about `8 lakh. Its podcast, The Gentleman Show, is available in video format on YouTube and in audio format on Google Podcast,  Apple Podcast, Spotify, Jio Savan, and Wynk. “Podcasts don’t require your visual attention. Similar to radio culture, it is something that can intertwine in your life without making ripples in your daily schedule. No distractions and no noise to get significant mindshare,” she adds.

One step at a time

Despite gaining in popularity, Ashit Kukian, CEO, Radio City, says that podcasting is a relatively new medium in the world of brand marketing and an underexplored creative channel. Many brands have chosen to wait and watch. Some observers say it’s possible these brands haven’t fully understood the mechanics of the medium and in the absence of solid metrics to assess the impact, they would have chosen to stick to the beaten track.

As things stand, the biggest podcast genres for brands are comedy, storytelling, self-help, and business. Experts say a podcast is not recommended for a high performance-driven campaigns. Push too much and the consumer will switch off. According to a MIDAS survey, 65% of podcast listeners listen to the whole episode and 68% listen to almost all of the episodes that they’ve downloaded.

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Umashan Naidoo, head of consumer and beauty, Westside, is gung-ho about the potential of the medium. Podcasts have the potential to strike an emotional connection between a brand and its audience, he says. The brand has an ongoing podcast, Limitless, hosted by Sameera Reddy to connect with women and challenge beauty standards.

According to Naidoo, relevance, relatability and authenticity are key ingredients of an engaging podcast. The one thing that must be avoided is hard selling products. “Planning a series of episodes is a must to provide continuous and useful engagement and to demonstrate the brand’s belief and commitment to the podcast,” he sums up.