How Walmart is redefining podcast advertising through influencers and data-driven insights

The increasing ubiquity of influencers across multiple channels has been one of the major trends of the past few years. Another hot trend of recent vintage—podcasting—has also proved to be fertile ground for creator marketing. A growing cadre of influencers, on topics such as beauty, fashion, food, sports, lifestyle, entertainment and more, are bringing their unique voices and social media followings to the medium. “We’re seeing the diversity of talent and a different sort of quality of content that these young leaders bring to the table, thanks to the strong creator economy,” said Gary Coichy, founder and CEO of Pod Digital Media, during the recent Ad Age Business of Brands 2024 conference in Chicago. Coichy and D.J. Vaughn, director of multicultural media partnerships at Walmart, joined John Dioso, editor of Ad Age Studio 30, on the panel at the event. Coichy noted that the convergence of audio and digital influencer channels is the latest evolution of a podcast industry that continues to mature, while creating new opportunities for marketers to reach and engage with different segments of the population. Some 70 million people in the U.S. listened to podcasts in 2023, a number that is expected to rise to over 113 million by 2029. Podcasting also is an especially effective technique to connect brands with multicultural audiences, given that 43% of Latino Americans and 48% of Black Americans are monthly podcast listeners, Coichy noted. Walmart’s Vaughn said this allows major advertisers to better understand Americans’ changing media consumption habits and tap into the complex podcast landscape in a more strategic way. “We want to make sure that we are truly customizing our audience as much as possible,” he said. “We are finding that a lot of our audio consumers are diverse in some sense—gender, ethnicity and so on. We need to understand what that audio consumer looks like and different platforms they’re using, as well as which messages resonate with different groups and individuals. We need that data in order to support entering into longer-term relationships.” Walmart and others are investing in more integrations, programs that go beyond brief “sponsored by” messages and allow podcast hosts to engage in deeper, more meaningful conversations with listeners about the brand. As an example, Walmart has been running a shout-out campaign featuring what Vaughn described as “dedicated moments,” in which the host provides a testimonial about a diverse-led product available at local Walmart stores and/or Walmart.com, and then interviews the founder during the program. The content then gets further amplified on social, including through the influencer’s owned platforms. “We’re having these sort of authentic conversations, but we’ve also been intentional about making sure that it’s not just a product push,” noted Vaughn. Coichy and Vaughn sketched the outlines for a playbook for successful influencer-based podcast campaigns, including these tips and best practices from the conversation: “Often, you’ll want a mix of macro and micro influencers,” Walmart’s Vaughn said. “A celebrity isn’t always the best fit. Consider the numbers of followers, but also look deeper into the engagement rates.” He advised that, as with any influencer marketing, to do all the necessary vetting to ensure brand safety and a mutually beneficial creator relationship. “You’re really creating a relationship with the creator, almost like being a coach as you’re developing the messaging,” Coichy said. “You want to make sure the presentation resonates with the podcaster, but at the same time they’re able to sell it organically and authentically to your audiences.” “We’ll see more live activations, more toward what fans will come see and be a part of the moment,” he said. “So we are going on to build those relationships with podcasts and creators, and they’ll be able to expand beyond the audio and the digital, toward a new live experience.” About Pod Digital Media Pod Digital Media is the First & the Largest Multicultural podcast networking bridging the gap between blue-chip advertisers & the Multicultural segment within the podcast ecosystem. We are at the center of the podcast medium emergence. As former agency and brands executives, we understand brand partners’ challenge to reach the multicultural demographic audience in an authentic environment. We partner with podcasters and influencers to customize and deliver tangible results to our advertisers. Pod House, the experiential arm of our business, brings the power of podcasting to create engaging and effective activations that attendees will remember long after the event is over. Aligning a podcaster(s) or influencer(s) from PDM’s network to host, publish, and or live stream conversations that amplify the reach and brand across the multicultural demographic.

How Walmart is redefining podcast advertising through influencers and data-driven insights

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