Podcast Advertising Strategy: The Power of Independent Podcasters

Podcast sponsorship experts ADOPTER Media’s Glenn Rubenstein and Athletic Greens’ Martha Gallant discuss the benefits of sponsoring independent podcasts.

(Live from the X Fronts)

GR: I’m Glenn Rubenstein from the podcast advertising agency ADOPTER Media. I am here today to talk with Martha Gallant, the Senior Director of Audio Partnerships at Athletic Greens. How are things going at Athletic Greens with audio partnerships?

MG: Always a good time. We’re busy. We’ve got a lot of fun stuff going on.

GR: To start with, we’re going to dive in and talk about the different challenges brands face the different approaches to podcast advertising, but really focus on independent podcasts since they are so front and center at the X Fronts.

What do you love about working with independent podcasters?

MG: Independent podcasters are – in a lot of ways – our bread and butter, and we love kind of having access to the actual hosts and working really closely with them. Everything we do is based on a true partnership, product placement, and people who want to see our business succeed as much as we want to see their succeed.

So it’s been huge for us. We also love we love working with networks we enjoy. All kinds of different partnerships, but we love the smaller people, because it’s a lot more collaborative. We can get creative about the partnerships.

But it has to be a a deeper partnership and a little bit less transactional to really grow together.

GR: Absolutely. And I think that’s the thing that’s really important for advertisers to keep in mind. You’re here because you’ve heard such great things about podcast advertising.

But you really have to look at the context of what you’ve heard about. And when you look at the huge success stories in this business, whether it’s going back to Squarespace, Blue Apron, Helix Sleep — all the brands that are so synonymous with podcast advertising — you really have to look at the types of ads that got them to where they are and got them the results that they were looking for.

And at the same time, the medium has evolved so much. Over recent years, then now there are so many different ways to place ads. New advertisers know that podcast advertising works. They’ve heard the stories, they want to try it, but they almost don’t understand the process to get the effective result they’re looking for.

MG: Things have changed a lot.

The podcast business has changed a lot and the demand is really high for inventory here. So you need to be a little bit more creative than those quick wins that people had five years ago.

GR: I think that’s really the key. Our podcast advertising agency, we work with over a dozen brands. We’re placing about 20 million dollars in podcast ads this year. And what’s amazing is every advertiser starts with a phone call to our agency, talking about what they want to do in this space. And a lot of times they’re already frustrated all these different ways of buying ads (which is why they call us).

The landscape has evolved beyond what they were expecting. They know that traditionally a host reads an ad, gives an endorsement of the product, tells a great compelling story, and somewhere along the way that translates into sales. Hopefully we can demystify some of this process today in how independent podcasts preserve that process.

We love all of our independent and network partners. We work with a lot of them, but when brands really want that hands-on experience, you want that endorsement. You want that true partnership and a deeper integration than dealing simply trying to scale across 500 or a thousand different podcasts.

Now, a series of transactions can be part of your audio strategy as well. But for that old school approach, it’s very much alive and kicking with independent podcasters.

How do you look at core demographics and targets and subject matter when you’re evaluating your media mix?

MG: No media partnership is off the table,