How Did Podcasting Become the Talk of the Town?
Podcast. It’s barely 20 years since the word was first ‘invented’. Two friends devised a way to transfer radio broadcasts to their iPods so they could download and listen to them when they felt like it. This combination of ‘iPod’ and ‘broadcast’ was then used to describe the new field of ‘audio blogging’, attributed to a BBC journalist at the time.
Now the word is heard all the time. And it’s the means by which millions of other words are heard all over the world.
Podcasts are available on Spotify, Google, Apple, and many other hosting platforms. The number of podcasts and the number of people streaming and downloading grew relatively slowly at first. But in 2014 pioneering podcasters began introducing narrative formats such as true crime series. Their popularity coupled with technological advances that made content creation easier, led not just to a new wave of podcasting but a Tsunami. One that continues to gain momentum, particularly over the last couple of years.
The Podcasting numbers talk for themselves
While estimates vary, a comprehensive study by Statista in October 2023 showed that there were around 3.2 million different podcasts available that year.[1] That’s just the podcasts. Within that number, there were 180 million odd episodes available. The number of listeners globally had reached 332 million by 2021 but that figure is projected to be over half a billion people listening worldwide this year. That’s a phenomenal growth rate in just three years.
This is the picture around the planet but is this trend being replicated here in South Africa? Is podcasting making a noise in the Rainbow Nation? Statista confirms that it is, putting last year’s listenership at 3.2 million and projecting that to dramatically increase to 4.8 million by 2027.[2]
These figures reveal the full extent of podcasting’s popularity. But just how and why did it get so popular, seemingly out of nowhere?
Podcasting has firmly entrenched a place in the media landscape with its popularity taking an increasing ‘share of voice’ away from traditional media.
The rise of podcasting can undoubtedly be partly explained by the evolution of the technology we use every day. Smartphones are now widespread, (there’s an estimated 49 million devices in South Africa), and have in increased capacity for apps. Wi-Fi is more easily accessible and with free Wi-Fi in many locations streaming content can itself be free. Platforms like Spotify, Apple, Google and YouTube and others have also made it easier for their users to identify podcasts and these platforms offer access to a rapidly expanding selection in different genres.
At the same time, it would be true to say that the advance of this kind of technology has influenced the way that we ‘consume’ information or entertainment. It has simply made in more easily available, instantly, on-the-move and on demand. We access news or entertainment when we feel like it and to a great extent wherever we are. And it is a simple truth that it is much easier to just listen to something while working at the gym or in the car than it is to watch something.
Yet new tech and the changing way we use it don’t tell the whole story of podcasting’s rise. A podcast is a unique experience. Being mostly about listening (though video podcasts are also gaining traction), there is a very personal connection between the voice and the listener. It’s almost as if the podcaster is talking directly to you. Telling you the story. Reading you the news. Telling you the joke or about a recent experience. A voice on its own seems to achieve a sort of intimacy that a video cannot.
How podcasting went from niche stream to mainstream
Who’s talking and who’s listening?
Nothing gets popular just because it is easily available. So, what are the most successful podcasts out there?
There are 12 basic podcast genres ranging from comedy to news to drama, with the comedy genre accounting for about a third of all podcasts.
The most successful podcast is generally agreed to be ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’. It is an interview format, and the interviews allow for Joe Rogan, previously himself a stand-up comedian, to cover a very diverse range of topics making his ‘show’ interesting for a very wide audience.
The Joe Rogan Experience attracts around 11 million listeners each episode. The following that Joe Rogan achieved, reportedly led to a deal with Spotify worth 250 million USD.[1]
And they say talk is cheap.
Another example is Mr. Beast (real name Jimmy Donaldson) whose comedic video content on his YouTube channel has gained him a record 319 million subscribers. Donaldson has an estimated net worth of 700 million USD.
Local South African podcasters are proving that content with local flavour and insight can also attract a big following. The most popular include Podcast and Chill with Mac G (real name Macqyver Mukwevo), The Diary of a CEO with Steven Bartlett and Ideas that Matter Podcast by Vusi Thembekweyo.
Podcast and Chill manages a weekly listenership of 3.3 million. Local content popularity and an expanding community of local podcasters offering diverse and unique local content are further proof of the growing power of podcasting as an alternative media channel.
Podcast listenership is fairly evenly distributed across age and gender demographics which in a way is unsurprising since there is such a diverse range of subject matter that there’s something of interest for everyone. The age group with the highest anticipated growth in uptake of podcast consumption though is the 25 to 35-year-old group. That is a projection that is of interest to advertisers who see potential in communicating through podcasts to a group with high disposable income.
The Power of the Podcast in Building Brands
By looking at what is popular in podcasting, it’s easy to see that podcasting is a great way to build a personal brand. From Joe Rogan to Mr Beast to our own Mac G, these are individuals who have acquired followers based on their own humour their insights or just their own personality.
The reason that they can build personal brands so powerfully is surely down to the unique nature of podcasting itself. To the people who listen, it feels more personal. They feel engaged on a much more one-on-one level. They are being spoken to directly about things that interest them.
Businesses dream of their brands having that kind of relationship with their consumers.
Perhaps they can.
The answer may be simple. Currently, traditional advertisers, though always open to new channels of advertising that could add value, have yet to find a way to properly capitalise on the rise of podcasting. Podcasting is still a relatively new player in the market for South African brands, yet some brands are already using podcasting to engage with their market in a non-traditional way.
Taking just one example, Mediclinic South Africa, hosts The Health Wrap, a popular show featuring real-life patient stories and discussion from medical experts.
Like the business show, Business Talk, hosted by Michael Avery. It is a hosting show which makes it one step up from sponsorship but perhaps only the starting point of how brands can use podcasting to engage.
Building business brands with podcasts means not having brand consumers but followers. Podcasting offers the opportunity to make your brand feel ‘personal’.
McDonald’s ventured successfully into podcasting, notably with a 3-episode series entitled ‘The Sauce’.
With a light-hearted ‘storytelling’ approach it used podcasts to engage with people and averted a PR disaster to do with running out of a newly reintroduced sauce. It felt personal. It made followers out of consumers.
Podcasting is becoming more and more powerful as a media tool. One of its attractions is also one of its greatest dangers. Anyone can create a podcast and say what they want. But unless you have something interesting to say and a unique way of saying it there’ll be no one listening. It will be just like whispering in the wind.