I swear this started out as a predictions article. It just slowly evolved (actually, quite incredibly quickly evolved, if I'm being honest) into more of ... well ... a list of strongly worded requests with a kind of ... ransom note vibe. I promise I had the best of intentions and ask that you read these as aspirational goals that I'd love to see podcasting achieve this year, as opposed to demands - which I'm sure are how most writers of ransom notes ask for their material to be reviewed, just ask any FBI agent.
If you're looking for 2025 predictions from myself and others in the industry that are more traditional (dare I say, achievable and based on commercial realities), I'd recommend looking at this selection from CoHost or these from The Podglomerate. But for now, let's shoot for the stars and look at a few things I think could really move the industry forward if they were to happen this year.
To address the elephant in the room, yes, I'm painfully aware that starting out with a request for money does not do much to reduce the ransom note vibe of this article. But this one is too important to put lower down the list.
My traditional prediction version of this goal would be "Advertisers wake up to the power of podcasting, understanding the value of the audience and become increasingly comfortable with this niche medium". In 2025, I'd like to think we're past that.
Podcast advertising works - we know it works - with spending and ad load up both up in 2024. iOS 17 helped close the gap between the debate vs listening debate and we know that ad skipping is at lower or similar levels to other media thanks to research like the below.
By most accounts, we're on track to be somewhere close to a $3 billion industry in 2026. That should be the figure we hit in 2025. Advertisers, give us your money.
For existing advertisers to give us more money, and for new advertisers to start giving us money, podcasting needs to offer the same tools that exist in other digital mediums being bought. Don't worry - top-tier shows and specific podcasts that brands want will still get bought directly. But embracing brand suitability and curating buys using contextual data is the path to getting more dollars in - especially in programmatic.
My traditional style prediction would be "Brand suitability becomes a must-have in podcasting, as more brands enter the space". Still, I want to go a step further because the oldest/most prominent systems that advertisers use for this in other mediums (display, print etc) are not built for, so do not really understand, podcasts or audio. For the industry to move forward quickly and with a minimal amount of mess (picture the download vs listen/play Q&A frustration with advertisers, multiplied by about 100), either those systems need to understand podcasting asap, or advertisers need to use fit-for-purpose tools.
I wrote a lengthy article on this in November, so I won't belabour the point but to paint the picture with one new nightmare example of how this could go off the rails in 2025 as advertiser demand for this increases - a very large brand suitability company who has recently stepped into podcasting, instead of ingesting and analysing the audio, looks at the website url included in the rss feed to 'read' the website and use that as the basis for its evaluation. Tell me that makes sense.
Pre-bid, episode level targeting, based on actual podcast audio analysis, is the goal we should be focused on in 2025.
I've been banging on about video podcasting for a couple of years now, and my sentiments are largely unchanged - not everything needs to be a video podcast, and creators need to evaluate the time, cost and effort versus the reward. I highly recommend looking to experts like A.J. Feliciano and things like this that he is saying.
The industry has now progressed to the point where we are analysing the best and worst visual trends in podcasts and despite what that article says, podcasts are not going to become a "video-first medium". A video-first medium has been around for a long time and has a name - it's called video, which already exists as a different media from podcasting.
It's all just content. And it's clear that an audience who want to consume video versions of podcasts exists because some people simply prefer to watch things instead of listening to them. In 2025, I hope we see that and start treating audio and video versions of content differently. A great recent example is The Dollop podcast creating a new version of their show, specifically for the visual medium. That's what I want to see this year (literally and aspirationally).
Truth be told, a traditional version of this prediction was one I gave when asked by CoHost for their article: "With the popularity of video podcasting increasing, largely thanks to YouTube and Spotify who are competing to secure the lion's share of monthly active users and time on (their own) platforms, I think this is going to be the most dominant trend in 2025.".
We all just need to keep our heads a little this year.
We've all got businesses to run and commercial realities to be mindful of (are you even living your best life if you aren't generating shareholder value?). Still, some transparent data from the core players would move the needle for podcasting in 2025.
Don't get me wrong, each platform shares press-friendly data every now and then. My traditional prediction version would be relatively un-groundbreaking: "The veil is lifted on actual listening/viewing data which brings more buyers to the space". But to move the needle on podcasting this year and help push the industry forward, imagine any of the following:
I'm a dreamer here, I know. But just imagine.
More of a closing thought, than a specific prediction or demand to finish. With 2025 shaping up to be another big year (what I wouldn't give, for some very precedented times and uninteresting events) where, I think, people are going to hunt out and consume content that helps them either trust, or escape from, the news around them more than ever - podcasting will certainly be that space for a lot of us and see growth. Hopefully we continue having some fun along the way.
That's a wrap from me. Drop a comment below or feel free to reach out to me, if you'd like to chat about anything I've shared here. Disagreements, echoes or additions are all welcome. Thanks for reading.