Everyone is crunched for time, and business executives have it worse than most. But a new study by Podchaser finds they are carving out plenty of time for podcasts. Its analysis shows senior executives average 37 minutes listening to podcasts popular in their circles, including titles like The Prof G Pod, Pivot, This Week in Startups, Homing In and Fore Play. While that may not sound like a long time, it’s a lifetime compared to what they spend with major news websites.
Podchaser says executives average less than two minutes with Bloomberg.com per viewing session, less than three minutes with the websites of CNBC or the Wall Street Journal, and three and a half minutes with CNN.com, according to Similar Web data.
“We know that podcasting is the most effective form of advertising due to the high engagement of audiences,” Podchaser CEO Bradley Davis said. “From this study, we can see that senior executives are locked in and dedicated to the content that they consume — which makes them all the more beneficial to advertisers looking to connect with this audience.”
The study estimates the total monthly reach of podcasts popular with senior executives is nearly 28.7 million. A big reason why executives are turning to podcasts is because there’s content they want to listen to. Podchaser says its study finds the show genre most popular among executives is Business, with more than a quarter (27%) of their listening time going to those shows. Technology (14%) and News (12%) follow. A common thread is the format. Podchaser says nearly eight in ten podcasts popular with the C-suite crowd frequently have guests.
“Unsurprisingly, a majority of podcasts popular with senior executives serve the 35-44 year old age bracket,” the report says. According to Podchaser, podcasts popular with senior executives also reach a combined audience of more than 28 million predominantly young males. In fact, it says the audience is 84% male, and 94% fall in the Millennial age bracket.
Podchaser says that means these podcasts present a strong opportunity for brands to connect with a large audience of young males while also reaching the high-earning senior executive demographic. It also is a strong indication that podcasting’s reach among the executive ranks will only grow with time.
“Despite podcasting being a comparatively young form of media, we know that it’s here to stay,” Davis said. “More listeners and brands continue to discover the space, which only strengthens the landscape.”
The report also points out that executives are not all about work. Among the most listened-to genres are Health & Fitness and Society & Culture, both with a 7% share of listening. Podchaser says both genres “could appeal to creative brand advertisers.”
Podchaser also found that the topics covered on podcasts popular with senior executives are wide-ranging. News is the subject with the highest level of interest (28%), followed by tech (22%), and software (20%). But the analysis shows topics like family, friends and relationships also score high (16%) as do restaurants and food (14%).
“Speaking specifically to the long game of the senior executive audience, our research shows that they are highly engaged across a variety of genres including business, but also more personal interest areas like health, wellness, and education,” Davis said. “If you turn the dials back 10 to 15 years, these are the book genres this audience was consuming. So we anticipate that as more audiences continue to engage with podcasts that this senior executive demographic will continue to grow in size and importance to podcast advertisers.”
What senior executives are not listening to is explicit content. Podchaser says 91% of the shows this crowd is listening to are considered brand safe, versus 9% with explicit content.
Podchaser’s analysis is the latest that shows senior executives are carving out time in their day for podcasts. Signal Hill Insights released a report in March that found more than four out of five (83%) senior executives said they had listened to a podcast in the past week, compared to just 66% of other monthly listeners. And they are more than twice as likely to listen to podcasts for at least five hours per week, with three-in-ten executives dedicating that level of time to podcast listening.
“Podcasts are an undeniably effective channel for advertisers to reach the right audience for their brand message,” Davis said. “Today’s report not only proves that podcast advertisers can reach the high-earning senior executive audience through brand safe content, but also that with the right ad tech solutions they can reach them in the most contextually relevant moments.”
Read the full Podchaser report HERE.
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