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As more television and radio consumers fall off the mass media grid, opting instead to receive content from a variety of online sources, including podcasts, they also become a more reachable audience and more accepting of advertising.  It seems a bit counter-intuitive, but a recent report from Edison Research tells exactly that story.

The study looked at over 4,500 active podcast consumers and concluded that while they are not the typical middle of the bell-curve American consumer, they are a very attractive advertising target.  31% of those surveyed had a household income greater the $75,000 while 44% had a college or graduate degree.  Certainly this is the type of audience advertisers desire, but are they receptive to advertising?  The answer is yes, because the ads they hear are more likely to be for products or services they are interested in.  The report also showed that ads on podcasts are actionable.  90% of these podcast consumers took some form of action after listening to an advertisement in a podcast, 40% made a purchase and 23% actually went out and visited a store.  Fantastic results!  So, if your business sells woodworking supplies, perhaps you should look at sponsoring some episodes of The Wood Whisperer video podcast.  75% of these podcast consumers find their shows through iTunes, which makes it a great place to find the right show to sponsor.

A big takeaway from the report is that a podcast media buy is not a redundant buy.  It should be considered as part of an overall media plan.