Spot on Podcast in Germany

In this week’s egtabite we share the results of the first comprehensive research into the growing podcast market in Germany regarding podcast consumption and its advertising potential. As most data about podcasting come from the US this survey offers valuable insights from one of the biggest European markets.

AS&S, a public German sales house for radio and TV advertising that commissioned the survey, is currently building a premium portfolio of podcasts. They thus wanted to know more about the potential of this format on the German market and also collect actionable data and insights to communicate towards clients.

The online survey was conducted by research institute Facit in June and July 2017 based on a representative sample of 3000 people age 14+, including podcast users and non-users. For the purpose of a deeper analysis, additional podcasts users were recruited in a boost sample, increasing the sample size of podcast users to 1100.

Podcast listening

The results showed that in terms of general consumption podcasting is picking up in Germany – 10 million people (15%) listen to podcasts at least once a week, 20 million (29%) listened to a podcast within the last 12 months and 39 million (56%) are aware of podcasts. There is therefore a big potential for growth.

According to the survey podcasting is largely complementary to radio listening, while the radio listening curve decreases throughout the course of a day after a morning peak, the podcast listening curve rises mainly towards the afternoon and peaks in the evening.

Podcast listeners

The survey also tried to identify different types of podcast listeners to better understand their interests and preferences for advertising sales purposes. Results showed that in terms of age 31% of podcast listeners fall into 14-29 category, most listeners (40%) are in the 30-49 age category and almost one third of podcast listeners are over 50 years old. Podcast listeners also in general have high spending power thanks to their higher net household income. They can be considered as a premium audience that are loyal, have a high level of education, high income, high media usage, affinity for technology and are more trend and fashion-conscious.

Podcast usage

In terms of usage, 45% of listeners said they access podcasts through provider’s websites, 34% through apps, 25% via streaming services, 15% via music platforms and 8% through aggregators. One third listen to podcasts on the move and/or in "waiting situations"; mainly on their smartphone (73%). More than half of listeners claim to listen to podcasts with no distractions. Given the fragmented attention of consumers this gives podcasts as a format a unique advantage in terms of advertising.

Neither age nor technical complexity seems to stand in the way of podcast usage. As many as 72% of listeners claim they have no difficulty handling them. Podcasts are also very accessible; the devices needed are already used by the audience on a daily basis. No technical barrier stands in the way of converting non-listeners to listeners. Once converted, listeners also tend to be loyal; feed and subscription functions regularly and automatically supply listeners with fresh content, and thus constantly spark interest.

Advertising on podcasts

According to the survey over 87% of listeners accept advertising. Sponsorship has the greatest acceptance – 82% of listeners are not bothered by it, followed by audio spots (71%) and native advertising and infomercials (69%).