5 days ago
The misunderstood media
When I talk to marketers about podcasting, I notice a recurring pattern of misconceptions. Many see it as a fragmented, niche and somewhat 'less premium' media that operates with minimal regulation. Podcasts are often perceived as a media channel that might feel unsafe for brands. Marketers worry about uncertain return on investment (ROI) and question whether their investment will truly deliver results.
These perceptions, I believe, are holding us all back from embracing one of the most promising media formats of our time. Podcasting is the intersection where media meets content, meets creative – all built and designed for audiences.
The elephant in the room (and on the page) is that yes, I am of course speaking from a perspective of a podcaster, and I am biased. There is also a but to this. I am also speaking from the perspective of someone who has worked more than 20 years in media, was a former CEO of a top three media agency, managed hundreds of clients, and has overseen billions of dirhams in media investments. I was pushing for digital media investment in 2010 and for e-commerce in 2013. In 2025, I am fighting for podcasting to be the next medium of choice, and I do so from a position of media logic, as well as creator passion.
Let's flip the narrative. To audiences, podcasting is a trusted, personalised, on-demand experience – where listeners feel they're in a conversation with a host who 'gets them'. It's a media space built on trust, passion and relevance. It's a space where brands can genuinely connect with engaged audiences who are actively seeking content aligned with their interests.
Globally, WARC reports, audio accounts for 31 per cent of media consumption, yet only 8.8 per cent of ad spend is allocated there – an undervaluation by a factor of nearly three. In MENA, this gap is even more pronounced: there are more than 13 million unique listeners in Saudi Arabia alone, with 67 per cent of reachable audiences having access to podcasts, yet less than 1 per cent of digital ad spend is directed toward podcasting platforms.
The disparity between audience size and investment in this medium is stark and telling and, frankly, seriously disconcerting. Let's talk media in the MENA versus in the US. According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PwC's Podcast Advertising Study, podcast advertising revenue in the US was $2bn in 2023. Up from $1.4bn in 2022. To put it in perspective, $2bn is approximately 33 per cent of MENA's total digital spend. The first sensible counter argument to be made is that the audiences are different. The Middle East podcast audience is bigger, at 445 million compared with the US's total audience size of 338 million. A second argument could be that the platforms used to access podcasts are different.
However, this is not the case. YouTube, Apple Podcast and Spotify are all available here and in the US and remain the biggest three platforms for podcast consumption.
This raises a critical question: Are the listening audiences not the right ones for brands? To me, this is not the case. According to Statista, podcast listeners tend to have higher-than-average incomes and spend approximately 20 per cent more on consumer goods and services. They are a valuable demographic that brands should be eager to reach.
And what about results? Are podcasts ineffective for marketing? Far from it.
Next Broadcast Media's benchmarks reveal that brands advertising on podcasts experience an average 27 per cent increase in brand interest, a 24 per cent boost in consideration, and a 26 per cent rise in consumer action intent. The same study in the US reports that 80 per cent of US podcast listeners listen to all the ads that come along with an episode, with 70 per cent taking action. These are incredible response rates and, frankly, no other media comes close.
With advanced programmatic targeting and brand-safe technology, there's no logical reason for marketers to shy away from this medium.
We are at a pivotal moment. The question isn't whether to include podcasting in your media mix – it's how to do so effectively.
The biggest takeaway tip is to deploy strategies that support and amplify the voices and faces that audiences love. This ensures your investments are meaningful, long-term and sustainable. The audiences are there. Brand metrics and ROI metrics are better on podcasts than on other channels and supply side platforms (SSPs) and demand side platforms (DSPs) provide the scale. Everything is present except the MENA advertiser. The fight for digital budget and the fight for e-commerce budget now look like a distant memory. The fight for podcasting investment is now upon us, and ironically perfectly linked within the e-commerce and digital ecosystem. How marketers and agencies navigate this medium in the coming months will go a long way to deciding whether brands can deliver relevant, differentiated and integrated propositions that audiences can get behind.
Podcasting is my passion. But the other side of me can't help but want to do more to support and protect the future of this incredible but unappreciated and misunderstood media.
By Luca Allam, Host of Luca's Insight Track and Creator of MasterPitch – a training platform for public speaking.
