There were several big podcast ad budget increases last month by some household names — or those trying to be. Magellan AI has released its list of the top 15 advertisers in podcasting and it says NBCUniversal’s rollout of the Peacock streaming video network came with a heavy outreach to digital audio listeners.
Magellan AI first detected ads for Peacock in July 2020, but in just one month the firm estimates NBCUniversal spent $668,000 across 69 shows to promote the service and its shows. Compared to competitors during the month of the launch of its streaming services, NBCUniversal spent 133% more than Quibi ($193,000) during its launch in April 2020 and 153% more than HBO during the launch of HBO Max ($153,000) in May 2020.
Overall, NBCUniversal spent a total of $822,000 on podcast ads in July, including promoting other shows and television networks in its portfolio. That made it the biggest advertiser during the month, according to Magellan’s estimates.
Tropical Smoothie Café, the fast-casual cafe concept restaurant with 850 locations nationwide, ranked as the second-biggest podcast advertiser in July after having not even registered a month earlier.
Third place went to Turner Broadcasting, which increased spending on podcasts by 590% in July compared to June as its spending rose from $73,000 to $503,000, per Magellan estimates. A large portion of its advertising in July was devoted to promoting the second season of its Emmy-winning show “The Alienist” on Turner-owned TNT.
Magellan AI determined its findings on podcast advertising data from the top three thousand podcasts in the U.S., as ranked by Apple Podcasts. It then applied Magellan AI’s proprietary model to estimate advertising spend in terms of dollars. The company said its model includes several factors such as the number of ads and variation in ad load detected for a given episode, the number of downloads for each episode, and CPMs charged by podcasters.