An Omni-channel hit, starring podcasts – The Short Stack

Friends, 

We’ve all seen the stats - audio just “hits different.” Here’s just one of them: a Spotify study from 2022 found that 73% of Gen Z use audio to better understand themselves, with 68% saying they like listening to media from earlier decades because it “reminds them of when things were less complicated” (Adweek, 6/14/22). The power is undeniable.

Yet, as we all continue on the mission to make that known and bring in a larger share of ad budgets, we often look at audio in our industry bubble, not from our position in the greater marketing ecosystem. The fact is, the largest brands in the world leverage nearly every medium to deliver successful campaigns and grow their customer base. I’m talking about YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and the other platforms that consumers interact with every day – including audio.

So, how does audio become a must-buy within the largest brands’ marketing tactics? By proving our value and impact! That’s exactly what we set out to do when we presented our “case study” on the Sounds Profitable Stage last at Advertising Week NY.

My panel with Tamara (Toma) Zubatiy from Barometer, Kate Wolff from Lupine Creative, and  Annalise Curvelo from Sightly centered around an omni-channel campaign for Colgate-Palmolive to help them forge a deeper relationship with Gen Z. The combination of compelling creative assets (anchored by a winning podcast), targeting to key audience personas, content-level data and classification, and access to a vast audience, made it all work like a well-oiled machine. Podcasting sat side-by-side with YouTube and the others as a critical piece of a truly innovative campaign. And the proof of its effectiveness is clear – from the 10.8x brand lift over the benchmark to a 98% listen-through rate that also exceeded benchmarks.

Speaking of missions, let’s focus on the content itself for a second. The campaign – “Serving Smiles” – a six-episode podcast designed to drive conversations about health/wellness with Gen Z, is obviously about way more than the brand’s financial return. Featuring an array of experts – from doctors to educators – the show helps Gen Z cut through the noise of misinformation on social media (which is rampant, not to mention especially troubling when it comes to health-related topics). So there’s a lot to feel good about here – hats off to the brand and everyone involved for leading this mission and fostering some truly positive change in the lives of so many young adults.

Clearly, elevating a segment of media is not nearly as important as fostering wellness among GenZ. But for those of us who both understand the power of audio and are keenly aware of its relative underdog status in media spend, a major win for podcasting is huge.

So if this flavor of mission is about shining a spotlight on a channel that’s arguably better than any other at making people feel good, successfully relaying crucial information, and more – to the benefit of consumers, brands, agencies, publishers, and tech providers alike – yeah, I'd call that pretty worthy.

Check out the Serving Smiles campaign here – and our panel discussion about it here – and reach out to me to discuss any of it!

Best,