ByGandhinagar : The 2024 US election will be remembered not only for its political outcomes but also for the unprecedented role that podcasts played in shaping the narrative and influencing voter behavior. A new report from podcast agency Oxford Road, titled “The Untold Story of the Podcast Election,” highlights the seismic shifts in media consumption and their impact on campaign strategies.
While both candidates, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, recognized the potential of this audio medium and invested in podcast appearances, their strategies, and the resulting impact, differed significantly.
The connection between politics and audio is not new, with historical figures like US presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan using radio to connect with voters. Roosevelt’s Fireside Chats during the Great Depression united and reassured the nation, while Nixon’s Checkers speech and Reagan’s public addresses also demonstrated the reach and accessibility of the medium.
Podcasts, Not Primetime, Define the Political Stage in 2024 Election
The decline in viewership for traditional TV news-talk shows has been staggering. Since 2017, FOX News’s primetime ratings among viewers aged 25-54 have dropped by 55%, while CNN and MSNBC have seen declines of 60% and 65%, respectively.
Late-night talk shows, once staples of campaign messaging, are also losing their sway. Even Stephen Colbert’s show, a frequent stop for candidates, has seen its viewership plunge by 32% since the last election cycle.
In contrast, podcasting has seen explosive growth. According to Edison Research’s Infinite Dial study, monthly podcast listening is up 75% since 2017.
YouTube recently reported that 400 million hours of podcasts were viewed via its app on TV sets in 2024, with many tuning in similarly to how they would watch a late-night talk show.
Trump’s Podcast Strategy Outpaces Harris
The report also highlights the stark difference in the podcasting strategies of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. Trump’s appearances on high-profile podcasts, including The Joe Rogan Experience, Bussin’ With The Boys, Theo Von, Adin Ross, and The Nelk Boys, allowed him to reach a combined audience of over 23 million weekly downloads. By comparison, Harris’s podcast choices, though female-skewed, reached just a quarter of that audience size.
The results were evident. Trump’s podcast appearances drove two to three times the level of engagement for advertisers—measured by site visits, sign-ups, and purchases—compared to Harris’s selections. Even among female-skewing brands in categories like beauty and apparel, Trump’s podcast choices outperformed Harris’s by a wide margin.
A Gender and Generational Divide
Demographic targeting was another point of divergence. Harris’s team heavily focused on podcasts aimed at women, while Trump targeted shows popular among young men. Yet Harris’s efforts failed to resonate. The percentage of young women (ages 18-29) voting for her dropped from 65% in 2020 to 58% in 2024. Meanwhile, young male voters swung sharply toward Trump, with 56% casting their vote for him, compared to just 41% in 2020.
The Risk-Reward Equation
Another critical insight from the report is the correlation between content tone and audience responsiveness. Shows with lower “Civility Scores”—a metric used to assess brand safety—tended to drive more engagement. Trump’s campaign embraced podcasts with an average Civility Score of 75, which are often seen as more “risky” but energize listeners. Harris’s campaign, by contrast, prioritized shows with a higher average score of 80-81, sacrificing engagement for brand safety.
A New Political Battleground
As campaigns look to the future, the 2024 election underscores the growing importance of podcasts as a platform for political messaging. Podcasts not only offer scale and attention but also foster deeper, more nuanced conversations compared to traditional video formats.
For Harris, the failure to translate podcast appearances into votes highlights the challenges of choosing platforms that align with both audience demographics and responsiveness.
For Trump, his campaign’s success in harnessing the power of podcasts reflects a deep understanding of the medium’s unique dynamics.
The significance of podcasts in this election was summed up during Trump’s victory celebration in Palm Beach, where Dana White personally thanked several key podcast influencers: Joe Rogan, The Nelk Boys, Adin Ross, Theo Von, and Bussin’ With The Boys. These platforms, and the audiences they command, were central to shaping the narrative and influencing voter behavior.
The 2024 election may well be remembered as the moment podcasts cemented their place as a dominant force in modern political strategy. As campaigns recalibrate for the next cycle, the lesson is clear: the battle for voters’ attention is increasingly being waged in earbuds, not on primetime TV.
The Economics of Attention
The Oxford Road report highlights the efficiency of podcast advertising. On an attention-based cost-per-thousand-impressions (aCPM) metric, podcasts outperformed television, social media, and digital display advertising. Podcasts delivered an aCPM of $2.80, compared to $3 for TV and as much as $9.70 for digital display.
Beyond the issue of reach, podcasts also command a higher degree of attention from their audience. A 2023 study by Dentsu revealed that people pay 56% more attention to audio than other channels. This makes podcasts a valuable platform for advertisers and political campaigns alike, as the audience is more likely to engage with the content.
Specifically, the average attentive seconds per thousand impressions was 10,126 for audio advertising, compared to Dentsu norms of 6,501. Moreover, when weighted for pricing, podcasts are a more efficient channel than TV, social media, and online video.
This means that for every dollar spent, podcasts are more likely to generate engagement and action compared to other channels. The podcasting space then, is increasingly able to compete with video for scale, need-state, and attention. The medium also lends itself to deeper, more nuanced discussions, without the constraints often found in video content.
Podcasts wield a significant influence over listeners. 73% of podcast listeners trust the ads they hear, including host-read ads. This high level of trust is crucial for political campaigns looking to persuade voters.
Furthermore, podcast listeners perceive the content as significantly more authentic and trustworthy than other forms of media. This is particularly beneficial for political messaging, as it can cut through the noise of traditional advertising and connect with audiences on a more genuine level.
The influence of podcasts is further underscored by the fact that 33% of Americans report changing their opinion on a topic or brand after hearing it discussed on a podcast. This demonstrates the power of podcasts to not only reach but also influence the beliefs and behaviors of their audience.
The Ascendancy of Audio in Political Campaigns
Audio advertising, despite its significant presence in daily media consumption, is often undervalued and underutilized. While it commands 25% of total media time, it receives only 5% of marketing budgets. However, the 2024 election might force brands and political strategists to reconsider their approach to audio, as the medium’s ability to reach and engage audiences has been clearly demonstrated.
The rise of podcasts as a key battleground can be attributed, in part, to the decline of traditional media outlets.
This decline has been attributed to various factors including fragmentation of the media landscape and audience preferences changing. In contrast, podcast listening has increased by 75% over the same period, indicating a shift in audience attention and consumption habits.
The growing popularity of podcasts is further evidenced by the fact that 400 million hours of podcasts were viewed on YouTube via TV sets in 2024, indicating a significant shift towards on-demand audio content.
Finally, The Key Differences in Strategy and Outcomes
The key differences between the two candidates’ podcast strategies are stark and reveal the complexities of leveraging this medium effectively.
- Scale: Trump’s podcast appearances reached a significantly larger audience than Harris’s, demonstrating the importance of choosing shows with a broad reach.
- Targeting: Trump’s strategic targeting of young men and his willingness to engage with podcasts that may be deemed “risky” paid off, while Harris’s strategy did not.
- Engagement: Trump’s chosen podcasts drove stronger results for advertisers, indicating a higher level of audience engagement. His shows generated site visits, sign-ups, and purchases by a factor of 2x-3x more than the shows chosen by Harris.
- Effectiveness: The podcasts Trump selected were 20% more effective than the median show, while Harris’s were less than half as effective, highlighting the importance of historical advertising performance.
- Content: Trump’s selection of podcasts had a lower civility score and performed better, suggesting the potential trade-off between brand safety and effectiveness.
- Outcomes: Trump’s campaign and other stakeholders deemed his podcast strategy successful, while Harris’s approach failed to achieve the desired impact, especially on the female vote and younger demographics.
The Importance of Nuance in Podcast Advertising
The 2024 election demonstrates that simply targeting audiences based on demographics or apparent fit with content is not enough for effective podcast campaigns. Brands planning their podcast campaigns based on audience fit, or apparent brand fit with the host or content, may be doing themselves a disservice. It can be easier to set campaigns up that way—but an effective podcast effort is much more nuanced than demographics or contextual fit.
Successfully leveraging podcasts to create action requires an understanding of not only their scale and demographics, but also their effectiveness, the historical advertising performance of the shows, trends in response and audiences, their response variance and reliability, and the types of clients and audiences they perform well for. All this needs to be taken into consideration alongside creative content, media pricing, talent engagement, competitive context, and much more.
In the end
The 2024 election has undeniably demonstrated the growing power of audio and the crucial role that podcasts play in shaping political discourse and outcomes. The contrasting approaches and results of the two candidates offer a valuable case study for future campaigns. The key takeaway is that a successful podcast strategy requires a nuanced understanding of the medium, its various platforms, audience behavior, and the historical advertising performance of the shows. By combining this knowledge with strategic targeting, campaigns can leverage the unique potential of podcasts to reach, engage, and influence voters.
