The aim for any podcast creator is to get someone to listen to their show. The challenge may be greater for branded podcasts, since they need to overcome the perception that they are more advertising than entertainment. To help cipher out why some branded series succeed and others don’t, Signal Hill Insights has surveyed listeners. Its results show some common themes.
“If you want that lift in favorability towards your brand, give audiences a podcast that keeps their attention. If you want to get recommendations, make sure it’s also relevant to them. And if you want to keep their attention, make sure it’s on a topic of interest and keep it entertaining,” said Paul Riismandel, President of Signal Hill Insights. Speaking at the Brand Podcast Summit on Tuesday, he laid out some of the topline findings from his company’s upcoming Branded Podcast Benchmark Report. It is based on survey results from more than 15,000 podcast consumers who heard a full episode of a branded podcast.
Many marketers are looking for a so-called halo effect from a podcast, as their brand is associated with certain attributes in the content. It’s why beauty retailer Sephora produces the #LipStories podcast highlighting the personal stories of inspiring women or OnStar produces the show Tell Me What Happened featuring inspiring true stories of people making a difference in moments of crisis. Signal Hill’s research shows 61% of listeners who heard a branded podcast said the show made them somewhat or much more favorable towards the brand. The other top driver was whether a podcast was considered relevant. The data shows 63% of listeners said they would probably or definitely recommend the branded podcast.
“What audiences want is a podcast that keeps their attention,” Riismandel said. “What this means is that if the podcast kept their attention for the entire episode, then they were much more likely to say they were somewhat or much more favorable to the brand. Those things were very highly correlated.”
Two factors that matter most among listeners surveyed is whether the topic is interesting and holds their attention. Riismandel said the other driver is whether the show is entertaining. While that may seem like common sense, he said the data backs that up. The good news for creators is the data shows many branded shows are hitting the mark already. Signal Hill’s survey finds three in four listeners who heard a branded podcast episode said it kept their attention for the entire episode, including 45% who said they strongly agree.
To analyze what drives some of those feelings, Signal Hill asked listeners to offer feedback about several specific shows. The results revealed that it doesn’t take a harrowing tale of survival for a brand to connect. A personal finance series scored high, with 85% of listeners agreeing that this podcast was relevant to them. That was 14 points over Signal Hill’s benchmark, and 89% of listeners said they were interested in the topic. But what helped it cut through, according to listeners, is they presented the issues with an easy to listen to and understand presentation. Another B2B podcast also scored high — 88% of listeners agreed that the podcast was relevant to them and 97% agreed they were interested in the topics.
Listeners gave the show high marks for integrating what happened with good business decisions, while another highlighted the show including details of specific individuals that they were unaware of.
“The podcast should be entertaining. But in fact, a lot of brands actually accidentally overlook this when making their first podcast,” Riismandel said. Whether it is having a lot of internal stakeholders in the creative process or uncertainty about what the brand objective should be, he said marketers sometimes forget to make it entertaining.
“This doesn’t mean your podcast has to be a laugh riot, right, but it should tell interesting stories,” Riismandel said. “Sometimes we get into this place where we want to make a podcast for everybody. But when you make a podcast for everybody, you’re making a podcast for nobody. So define who you want to reach, and then you need to know what they need from you and from your podcast.”
That is where research comes into play. Signal Hill previously teamed up with Triton Digital to find that 42% of podcast listeners overall tune in to learn something new and 45% are seeking interesting stories, while 49% said they want to be entertained. But hitting those targets varies from podcast to podcast.
“What’s entertaining in one circumstance maybe is less entertaining in another. What’s appropriate for one type of podcast, for one brand, for one vertical, for one audience, may not be as appropriate for another,” Riismandel said. “Our number one piece of advice is you need to know your audience.”
Data from the forthcoming report also shows that brands shouldn’t put their name or product too much in the listener’s face, recognizing content marketing isn’t an infomercial.
“The big mistake is going too hard and putting the brand too far up front,” Riismandel said. “You want to let listeners know it’s there, but it just can’t be brand, brand, brand, brand all the time. If you go hard and it’s just in your face about brand, it’s probably not actually going to perform very well.”
Signal Hill Insights will release its full updated 2025 Branded Podcast Benchmark Report in mid-February. In the meantime, the 2024 report can be downloaded HERE.
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