It’s no secret that podcasts have been taking up more real estate in the ears of Americans, with the market expected to reach more than $4 billion in ad revenue by 2024, per IAB estimates.

Outside the box: Now, podcasts are taking up billboard real estate, too, as networks put some of that revenue toward out-of-home ad campaigns.

“We’re doing traditional PR, we’re doing grassroots pushing, we’re doing social media pushing,” said Danielle Kramer, COO of Exactly Right Media, the network behind hit true-crime podcast My Favorite Murder. “Adding that billboard is a cherry on top to help with the awareness play.”

The strategy has its challenges: It’s difficult to measure conversions and more expensive than average audio campaigns, podcast marketers told Marketing Brew. Nevertheless, some major podcast networks are excited about the format as a way to reach beyond typical podcast listeners.

Taking the plunge

Tenderfoot TV first promoted its show Atlanta Monster via billboard as early as 2018, according to co-founder and president Donald Albright.

The next year, it ran a campaign with three billboards for different shows in Times Square. By 2020, Tenderfoot was on the Nasdaq tower billboard.

For other podcast companies, OOH is a new frontier: Slate debuted its first OOH campaign for a podcast this summer, putting up billboards for its new season of Slow Burn, focused on Roe v. Wade, in seven states “that currently have some of the strictest abortion laws” in the country the same week the Supreme Court ruled on Dobbs.

Podcasts are typically promoted on other podcasts, where advertisers have the assurance that they’re reaching people who are already fans of the medium. So why advertise in front of such a broad audience that very likely includes people who’ve never listened to a podcast?

Keep reading here.—AM

Future Social is a weekly newsletter on social media, content, and creators from Jack Appleby, a Morning Brew creator who’s worked in social media for 10 years at companies like Beats by Dre, Microsoft, and Twitch. Check out an excerpt from one of his pieces below, and sign up for Future Social here.

Half the battle working social media jobs is understanding what metrics are most important. There’s no universal answer—key performance indicators should be crafted specifically for each company, campaign, and moment. You’ll always want to analyze from a few different angles.

That said, the ol’ “follower count is a vanity metric” adage has many focusing more on engagement than growth. That’s a problem, since follower count isn’t a vanity metric.

You want more followers: This is about the ever-important marketing funnel. At the end of the day, social media jobs don’t exist if they don’t drive sales, and most of those sales are gonna be indirect (which is okay, of course they are). You’re only ever going to convert a certain percent of your followers into purchasers, which is why you’ve always got to widen your marketing funnel—in this case, grow your following. And the only way to grow organically is through shareability, which you actually can optimize for.

Read why and how you can take a follower-growth mindset to your brand’s social media.—JA

It’s a typical beach day: The sun is shining, the sea is warm, and the sand is making its way into every bag you brought. You pull out your sunscreen with SPF 50, ready to reapply—and then your SPF chapstick and your SPF hairspray.

Welcome to summer 2022, where everything has SPF. “As the American consumer becomes more invested in skin care and this whole idea of wellness and health as beauty, it’s just going to bolster the category,” explained Manola Soler, senior director at Alvarez & Marsal, adding that searches for SPF increased year over year over the past five years.

• “We’re seeing [sunscreen] stand out as its own category,” Soler told Retail Brew. “We’re seeing its premiumization.”

For all your needs

Take Ilia Beauty, for instance, the clean-beauty brand recently acquired by French investment firm Famille C Venture. After developing a following for its skin-tint serum—priced at $48 and loaded with SPF and hyaluronic acid—the company recently debuted a Vitamin C serum with SPF 40, retailing for $64.

• Although the product has been around for only about a month, Ilia Beauty said it was sold out at Sephora for a week when it first debuted.

Ultimately, Ilia Beauty saw a gap in the market for SPF products that combined several benefits of healthier skin and protection from the sun, Kym Davis, the company’s VP of product development, told Retail Brew.

Founder Sasha Plavsic “likes to think about products in terms of, ‘What problem am I going to solve?’” Davis explained. “For her, it was about, ‘How can I get multiple benefits into one formula, including my SPF protection?’”

Beyond makeup, hair-care brands are also digging into SPF and definitely not willing to brush past it. Read the full story on Retail Brew.—JS

There are a lot of bad marketing tips out there. These aren’t those.

Minions: How the “Gentleminions” trend showed the power of TikTok. And teenagers.

Metaverse: Streamer and YouTuber Ali “SypherPK” Hassan wants to make the metaverse more accessible to marketers.

TikTok: The short-form video platform is providing academics and researchers with a deeper look at how the platform works.

A+ marketing: After a quick study sesh with Sailthru’s latest guide, back-to-school marketers can build meaningful relationships and win the back-to-school marketing szn. Learn how to enhance consumer relationship marketing strategies right here.*

^{*This is sponsored advertising content.}

Consumer behaviors are rapidly changing. Join us for a can’t-miss discussion about how you should be navigating these major shifts in the digital landscape.

Watch the free on-demand webinar now.

Planning to job-hunt this weekend? Be sure to check out the hundreds of job openings on the Marketing Brew Job Board!

Today’s featured openings:

• Senior Account Executive (Influencer Marketing) at Colle McVoy
• Marketing Manager at Thirteenth Floor Entertainment Group
• Senior Account Executive at Caliber Corporate Advisers

We are looking to chat with hiring managers and job posters—let us know if we can contact you here! You can also see more jobs or post your job opportunities here.

Which headlines are real marketing news, and which one is fake?

1. SoulCycle exchanges used Peloton bikes for in-person classes
2. Heinz introduces ‘Spoon Friez’ for National French Fry Day
3. Mark Zuckerberg jokes that Meta’s rebrand was “a bit much”
4. Pringles wants a spider named after it
   

Catch up on a few Marketing Brew stories you might have missed.

• Publishers are concerned Google’s Topics will lead to a higher ‘ad-tech tax’
• Meta reveals earnings after a tough week for Instagram
• How Panera incorporated sound into its brand refresh