LAST CALL: Sounds Profitable, Coleman Insights and Locked On Podcast Network are hosting The Power of Community: Why Podcasts Matter TOMORROW, Thursday, November 5 at 2 p.m. ET. The webinar draws on new research among 2,000 Americans. The session covers how podcast habits relate to connection and the role of audio and video. It also looks at why community matters to sports podcast fans. Registration is open now.

Signal Hill Insights President Paul Riismandel shares advice for launching a podcast brand lift study. His first tip is to plan early. He recommends starting about six weeks before a campaign launches. That leaves time to set KPIs, choose the shows and creatives to test, and get stakeholders on board. Shorter timelines can limit what gets measured and raise the cost. His second tip is to gather campaign details. These include dates, total impressions, placements and audience targets. Researchers also need the split between audio and video and between dynamically inserted and baked-in ads. Estimates are fine at the start. His third tip is to define objectives. Brand lift measures upper-funnel metrics like awareness, favorability, consideration and purchase intent. Riismandel says a typical campaign aims to move one or two of them. Naming a specific consumer target, such as business decision makers for a B2B brand, lets researchers isolate lift within that group.

Deadset Studios and Insightfully release PodPoll 26, their annual study of Australian podcast habits. YouTube's share of podcast consumption climbs to 55% in the past year. Spotify holds steady at 58%. Australians now also use Netflix for podcast discovery. Audio remains the preferred format. 60% of regular consumers would rather listen than watch. 23% prefer to watch and 17% have no preference. Millennials are the generation most likely to prefer listening. Gen Z is the most open to watching. Among those who use video platforms for podcasts, 72% move between watching and listening. 43% of regular consumers say some podcasts reach them only through social clips. That rises to 60% among Gen Z. Australia now has 10.3 million regular monthly listeners, or 50% of the population, up from 47%. Deadset Director Kellie Riordan advises clients to treat video and audio as two distinct products. She says video drives discovery while long-form listening holds the deepest engagement. Insightfully Managing Director Leanne White notes that Gen Z men are more likely than Gen Z women to prefer audio.

Podscribe releases its October 2026 podcast rankings. Crime Junkie leads audio reach with about 16.4 million listeners. The Daily follows at 8.7 million. The MeidasTouch Podcast tops monthly plays at 61.2 million. The Diary of a CEO with Steven Bartlett is second at 48.1 million. Two shows enter the top 10 by monthly plays largely on the strength of Rumble. They are Louder with Crowder and The Dan Bongino Show. Spotify leads both publisher rankings with 69.1 million in audio reach and 304.4 million monthly plays. SXM Media climbs to second in audio reach after a 17% increase. iHeartMedia's monthly plays rise 63% to 177.4 million, moving it from ninth to sixth. Quince takes the top advertiser spot after raising estimated spend 23% to $6.7 million. SimpliSafe posts the largest dollar increase. It adds $1.2 million to reach $3.4 million.

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