Telecom companies continue to increase their spending with podcasters. Magellan AI’s monthly analysis shows phone, internet and cable service providers upped their ad spending 36% in June versus a year ago, spending a combined $10.8 million on podcast commercials. It followed a 28% year-to-year jump in spending during May.
The list of the biggest telecom advertisers was led by Ultra Mobile, which spent $3.7 million. That made it the fourth largest June advertiser across all categories. Other big spenders included T-Mobile, which spent $1.7 million in June, which put it at No. 14 overall, as well as AT&T, which spent $1.1 million according to Magellan AI estimates.
The podcast ad categories that were the biggest recipients of the telecom dollars included News, which pocked $2.6 million of the spending, followed by Comedy ($1.2 million) and Sports ($1.0 million). Magellan AI says the telecom companies lean more heavily on pre-produced ads than many other ad categories, as just 12% of its commercials were host-read. “We picked up a pretty big chunk of programmatic-produced ad activity,” CEO Cameron Hendrix said during Magellan’s monthly market update.
While not as large as telecom, the seasonal increase to alcohol ads is also in full swing. Magellan AI says alcohol ad spending rose 29% between May and June. Spending is down, however, year-to-year. This year, alcohol brands spent a combined $3.7 million in June according to Magellan estimates. Last year, they spent $3.9 million. Society & Culture podcasts pocketed more than a third of the spending, with $1.7 million going to that genre according to Magellan News ($490,000) and Comedy ($411,000) followed.
The big spenders included Total Wine & More, which spent $687,000 on podcast ads, with Molson Coors ranking second, with $402,000 in ad spending. Magellan says a third of alcohol ads were host-read.
“We continue to pick up new brands in the alcohol category,” Hendrix said. “There were 11 brands that we detected for the first time.” Worth noting is that under Magellan AI’s system, if a parent company like Molson Coors starts advertising a new product, it considers it a new brand.
Magellan AI earlier reported that the top 15 advertisers in June spent a combined 22% more than what the top 15 spent in May, with combined spending of $42.7 million. BetterHelp remained the top advertiser, followed by Toyota and Amazon. Across the top 15 brands heard on podcasts in June, Magellan AI says two-thirds increased their investment in the medium month-to-month.
Comments