Audio renaissance of the past few years has been driven by a companion of new content options, mostly through podcasts, and new ways to listen, such as on smart speakers. While a lot of people picked up podcasting during the pandemic, a Stanford University neuroscientist thinks the habit is one that is likely to stick around.
“What’s been fascinating to me was the rise of popularity of podcasts during the pandemic,” says David Eagleman, a professor of Brain Plasticity at Stanford. While some people are visual learners and others are aurally-focused, he said a lot of people have realized during the past few years that they want to listen to something while walking, gardening and doing household chores.
“They found it so convenient to be able to strap in some Air Pods and go and be a part of what's happening and learn new things,” Eagleman says. “There's something so wonderful about eavesdropping on the conversation of other people who are talking about interesting things. And that's why podcasts are really here to stay because other activities are here to stay.”
Speaking on the latest episode of Math & Magic: Stories from the Frontiers of Marketing with Bob Pittman, podcasting was just one of the topics covered by Eagleman and iHeartMedia CEO Bob Pittman. Eagleman also made the case for why ad repetition works for marketers.
“When you hear something you can be skeptical about it. The thing is that there's something called the ‘illusion of truth’ which has been studied for a while, which is if you have heard something several times, you tend to rate it as being more truthful than the first time you hear it,” Eagleman explained. “So politicians, of course, take advantage of this all the time. Everyone does this in various ways in their life. But yes, if something is said many times you think that it somehow must be true. So we're going through it, of course in this country right now with trying to figure out what's real news and fake news.”
In addition to being a neuroscientist, Eagleman is also a best-selling author, TV host, and CEO. Pittman said Eagleman’s book “Incognito” is one he highly recommends to marketing professionals and he gives it out regularly as a gift.
Listen to the full episode HERE.
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