Within Kellie Riordan‘s CBAA Conference session today about PodPoll 2024 Insights, Strategies and Success Stories there were some heartening statistics around the stickiness of Australian podcast listeners, or as Kellie put it, “once someone commits, they’re in.”
This included:
- Regular (will listen to a podcast at least monthly) listeners are the heaviest consumers of all forms of audio
- More than 50% of regular listeners are consuming 1-3 hours of content every week &
- 80% listen to the whole episode most of the time, or always
Podpoll also found that in every single category of podcasts, listeners were keen to find more, with a particular interest in history, wellbeing, lifestyle and leisure activities (ie people’s hobbies).
The blue column is willingness to listen to more podcasts in that particular genre
Those who took part in PodPoll were asked what sort of people they were:
Regular podcast listeners were self described learner, keen to take on something new and offer an opinion, and more than the general population, 65% described as activists, more likely to donate money, sign a petition or share what was felt to be important information.
Kellie (pictured above) said that for advertisers, regular podcast listeners can represent a quite specific audience who can be approached in a nuanced and targeted way, more than a radio station.
The community radio sector has, by nature of the spread and diversity of its people and places, an ability to create audio that meets a need of regular and locally engaged listeners, like Megan Williams and Dan Schulz from 2DRY FM and the Community Radio Network‘s ‘Water Watch: Wilcannia Weir or Wilcannia Won’t, which is up for a Walkley next month in the Audio Long category.
Kellie said when last we spoke that peak podcast is still to come. With the time, people and resources, there is a willing audience across all genres. And, as was the case with Water Watch, potentially the chance to create community change and impact too.
Jen Seyderhelm is a writer, editor and podcaster for Radioinfo