The Sonic Treehouse
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The Sonic Treehouse 〰️
WHAT ARE WE, A BUNCH OF COMMODITIES TRADERS!?
“Fast forward to 2024 and fancy new tech platforms can dynamically insert as many host-read ads or produced commercials into a show as they want. It seems like many in our industry won’t be satisfied until podcasts sound like terrestrial radio – a medium podcasts were supposed to supplant.”
Dan Granger, CEO + Founder, Oxford Road
The Danger of Rising Podload: How Increasing Clutter Erodes Podcast Advertising Value, Q3, 2024
(encouraged reading!)
tO THINE OWN AUDIENCE BE TRUE
In a world where attention is the new currency, audiences are exposed to your brand message repeatedly—so it’s crucial to honor their time. With the podcast and influencer marketing landscape becoming increasingly crowded with ads, merely showing up isn’t enough; you must provide real value, or you’re just interrupting. Imagine if, instead of contributing to the noise, you could reward your audience while genuinely respecting their attention.
“For publishers, the issue of monetization has been particularly pointed in podcasting. Radio companies, coming into the podcasting space, were used to greater monetization of their content than they were getting in the podcasts they acquired, which may have had only a couple of minutes of ads per hour. In recent years, podcasting publishers – many of them legacy radio companies – have increased ad load to close that efficiency gap. And they have been succeeding.
“With regard to the ad load specifically (defined here as the percentage of minutes in the show allocated to advertising) data from Podscribe shows a 39% increase between the first half of 2021 and the first half of 2024.* Today the top 50 shows based on the Apple Podcast Ranker have an average ad load of 10.2%. Some shows reach 25% or more, in line with commercial radio and TV.”
*For shows with an average of 20k downloads per episode or more
Clear facts, from the treetops
“Sometimes a whisper among close friends can be more powerful than yelling through a bullhorn to a packed stadium.”
– Charles Dannison
With U.S. podcast ad sales hitting $1.9 billion in 2023, much of that revenue still flows to the top 500-1,000 shows. Yet, over two million podcasts are published in the U.S., meaning roughly 88% of the addressable podcast audience goes unreached by ad buyers (Acast, 2023). The opportunity? Massive. The magic? Keeping ads authentic, host-read, and audience-aligned—ads listeners actually want to hear.
“Podcast Listeners Really Are the Holy Grail Advertisers Hoped They'd Be” – Wired Magazine
“Native spots in the style of the show keep people engaged, keep them from skipping, and now we have data that frankly proves it.” – Erik Diehn
Independent podcasts still draw audiences daily, with fans carefully choosing their hosts and actively engaging with them across audio, video, and social media. These fans offer brands a rare chance to create meaningful, resonant connections through authentic, host-driven storytelling, to self-selected audiences. And that’s where The Sonic Treehouse comes in.
Did you just skip to get here?
Curious about the skip rates for a specific podcast or publisher? Go ahead, ask your publisher, and then report back to us. We’ll wait.
Actually, we won’t, because they’ll never fork that over.
Here’s the real deal: Your ad has a much better shot of being heard when it’s voiced by the host. Host-read ads are the industry gold standard—because they just work. Shouldn’t that be the goal?
But what if your product is even more special? Imagine if it’s a host’s favorite thing—something they use every day and can’t wait to share with their audience! What if your message could be told as a story?
In that case . . . we hear a creative execution where everyone wins . . .
SPECIAL CAMPAIGNS DESERVE SPECIAL TREATMENT
Sure, :30s and :60s are part of many campaign strategies—whether for efficiency or due to tight copywriting schedules. We can handle that too, producing excellent, standardized host reads, dynamically inserted or baked.
But if you have flexibility and a brand that gets podcasting, we can craft something memorable. Many podcasters are influencers across multiple platforms and mediums, but corralling indie productions across varied timelines is tough for most agencies. That’s where we come in.
We work with thoughtful bundles and bespoke packaging. We also help podcasters navigate the agency world to make your campaigns shine. Our mission is to assist storytellers in crafting impactful brand narratives and executing them uniquely across all formats and platforms they touch.
We’re also great at finding the most natural way of getting your creative brief into the format you’d like. And we can certainly help with your standard stuff as well.
It’s a very welcoming Treehouse!
BREAKING DOWN SILOS FOR CREATIVITY’S SAKE
We don’t get bogged down in corporate jargon or bureaucracy. Some of the biggest publishers in the U.S. struggle to unite creative minds with insertion orders, letting dollar signs build high walls between the money folk and the dreamers. And agencies? You’re slowly catching up to that whole “cross-platform/360” approach everyone’s buzzing about. But what’s with those outdated templates of yours? Our industry has been slow to adapt, with podcast buyers lacking knowledge of influencer and social buys, and vice versa. Trust us—we’ve seen it everywhere.
We love tearing down, climbing over, or painting vibrant murals on those walls because we see them from both sides.
Our podcasters are as dedicated to their audiences as you are to your clients. We bridge those connections, and we’re adaptable to your needs.
Want your creative team involved? We’re on it.
Prefer to leave it on autopilot and see what comes down in the basket? That’s good, too.
We are equally at ease working with your planning and buying teams and their directors as we are with your CEO, receptionist, and clients. Just let us know what you need, and we’ll make it happen.