Objective

This all started with two major observations: 

1. Podcasts are the fastest growing medium—but brands are not allocating the ad dollars to match that media consumption. And even more: Advertisers are hesitant to invest in the biggest genres such as true crime, comedy, etc., due to brand safety concerns. 
2. B2B content? Not great. Inboxes are constantly flooded with white papers that drone on and on but don’t actually pique curiosity or, more importantly, move the needle. 

So, how do we reshape how marketers are thinking about podcast advertising, all while cutting through the clutter? Bring it back to the reason they exist: the audience. 

By creating an audience-first experience that showcases the personas, attributes, and buying preferences they can reach via podcasts, it immediately changes the perception of the format and transforms it into a powerful-yet-authentic reach mechanism. 

Introducing The Who’s Who, the SiriusXM Media Podcast Trends Report—a one-of-a-kind report experience that both entertains and guides advertisers through the influential listeners that make up the podcast space across the five most popular genres. Powered by exclusive insights from our proprietary research panel, Podsurvey, each genre consists of: custom-built personas, listening trends, advertiser takeaways, and of course, unique illustrations that bring the persona to life. 

Who’s in the Who’s Who of Podcast Listening? You've got to download to find out.

Strategy

The Who’s Who is one of the most unique and interesting B2B report experiences out there. It brings together tons of different elements of the SiriusXM Media business—from data inputs to branding considerations—and creates a thoughtful, easy-to-follow editorial and visual story that puts podcast advertising on the must-buy list. 

All in all, it was an experience laden with passion, trial and error, inspiration, and more. The road to release spanned many months of data intake and processing, outlining, copy revisions, creative redirection and fine tuning, channel distribution planning, and so much more. 

Phase 1: BRIEF & CONCEPTION

To start, we asked ourselves, “What is the biggest challenge our podcast business is facing today?” The fastest growing medium should be a no-brainer for advertisers, yet there is a lot of hesitation about getting into the space. Our goal: Make it a must-buy. Break down barriers by taking challenges head-on; things like brand safety, scale, transparency, and measurement. 

Phase 2: DATA COLLECTION & ANALYSIS

Of course, our report must share proprietary data and insights for it to be worth the download. We surveyed our listeners via Podsurvey, the industry’s largest and longest-standing research panel. From there, the team developed custom, approachable personas to be featured in the report such as The Class Clown, The Informant, and The Armchair Detective. 

Phase 3: COPY & DESIGN

Working with Fix Studios, the team produced a unique look and feel, as well as commissioning an illustrator to create eye-catching illustrations to represent each persona, which became the main design focus of the report and all promotional assets. To help generate further interest, the team created packaged “Who’s Who” trading cards to pass out to clients with a QR code linking to the full report. 

Phase 4: LAUNCH

The launch plan was as follows:

• Major launch at Podcast Movement: our SiriusXM Media booth had screen takeovers as well as trading cards to pass out to attendees. 
• 360-degree campaign across O&O plus paid channels: email, social, paid social, digital partnerships with Advertising Week, Ad Age, CampaignUS, Marketing Brew, and more. 
• A robust nurture program to continue to drive all new MQLs down the funnel
• Sales enablement materials were supplied to sales to maximize report influence such as sales decks, outreach email templates, socials, social banners, and campaign on internal sales hub

Other challenges and considerations:

• We were in the midst of a rebrand. Actually, a double rebrand. Our parent company, SiriusXM, was redeveloping its logo and branding, so our re-branded media arm—then SXM Media, now SiriusXM Media—was waiting to launch. So, who would the report be powered by? We decided to lean into the network: The SiriusXM Podcast Network.
• Which brings up another challenge. Over the past five years, SiriusXM Media has transformed and gone through many acquisitions, from Pandora to Stitcher to AdsWizz, and new ad representation deals with SoundCloud, NBCU, Audiochuck, and more. While the growth and expansion has been exciting, it's also challenging: From a B2B perspective, we face a constant challenge of re-educating the market on who we are and what we offer. Distilling down our podcast network and solution into an easily digestible piece of content is no easy task.

Results

The Podcast Trends Report was our most successful report to date. And here’s why: 

• 20K pageviews
• 4,000 downloads (+38% increase YoY), inclusive of the most renowned holding companies and Fortune 500 brands
• 730 leads sent straight to sales (raised their hand during form fill process)
• 29.8% open rate on launch eblast
• 17,514 engagements on social
• Live webinar hosted with hit podcast Podcrushed, featuring Penn Badgley, garnering 300 registrations and 121 attendees (which was the most attended webinar of the year)
• 2,160% return on investment

Media