Gen Z, Brand Safety & The Video Shift!

(0:00) This is podcasting by the numbers, the daily hit of podcasting Intel, you didn't know you needed fast facts, fresh trends and the metrics that actually matter with just enough fun to keep it moving. Let's crunch today's numbers. It's Monday, August 17th.

(0:18)  I'm Gary Spurgeon, podcasting from Jacksonville, Florida. You know, there's a staff floating around saying that only 10 out of the top 200 podcasts have a video, which sounds a little dramatic, but it's taken way out of context. I'll have more on this in just a few.  I'm here with fast facts, fresh trends, and the metrics that actually matter with just enough fun to keep it moving. Here we go. 

(0:45) All right, here's what's happening in the world of podcasting.  Basis just teamed up with Barometer. And honestly, this solves one of the biggest headaches in audio figuring out which podcast episodes are actually safe for your brand. Because let's be real, podcasts wander.  One minute it's a joke, the next it's a heavy topic and keyword blocking has been let's call it a blunt instrument. Brands either overblock everything or take risks they didn't even mean to take. (Basis and Barometer are basically saying, you don't have to choose anymore.  Barometer scans full transcripts and audio before episodes even hit the ad marketplace across Spotify, SiriusXM, AdWiz, NPR, The New York Times, ACAS, and all the big players. It tags each episode with risk categories like violence, hate speech, adult content, elections, the whole industry's framework, and feeds it straight to Basis. So now advertisers can set their comfort level episode by episode, and Basis enforces it before the bid goes out.  No more surprise placements you only discover in a report after the campaign's over. Mark McEachern from Basis summed it up, confidence in podcast buying goes way up when suitability is baked in from the start. And Barometer CEO Dr. Tamara Nelson said it plainly, podcast advertising doesn't have to trade reach for brand safety anymore. The bottom line, podcast ads finally get the same precision and workflow as every other digital channel. And that's a big step toward scaling audio without the guesswork. 

(2:20) And here's an insight for you, podcasts are exploding right now and they've become one of the most natural ways to reach Gen Z at scale.  The audience uses podcasts for everything, entertainment, education, identity, community, even just background vibes. It's one of the few channels where brands can show up in a way that actually feels real. And here's one other hing, Gen Z doesn't mind a little edge, they respond to authenticity, not perfection.  So instead of avoiding perceived risk, lean into it, show up in the spaces they already trust with messaging that feels human. Because Gen Z just doesn't listen to podcast ads, they act on them. 

(3:00) And here's a stat for you, there's a stat floating around saying that only 10 out of the top 200 podcasts have video, which sounds dramatic, but it's taken way out of context. That number only refers to shows offering video on Apple Podcasts, a platform that only recently started pushing video. So it doesn't mean podcasts aren't doing video, it just means they're not all doing video on Apple yet. When you actually look at the charts, most big shows do full episode video, roughly two thirds of Apple's top 200, over three quarters of the top 100, and more than 80% of Edison's top 50 are publishing full videos on YouTube.
The few true audio only holdouts are mostly legacy public radio shows where video wouldn't add much anyways. So the takeaway is simple, podcasting has adopted video, not every show needs it, not every show nails it, but the industry has clearly moved past the will podcast do video phrase. And that's a wrap. Thanks for listening. I'm Gary Spurgeon, and this is podcasting by the numbers. And remember, you're only one podcast away from changing your world.