• by Steve Ellwanger , January 17, 2022

Adult podcast listeners are more than twice as likely than non-listeners to order meal-delivery kits and have nearly double the propensity to use restaurant and grocery delivery services, according to research from Nielsen.

The firm cites “the ubiquity of technology and app usage” along with the impact of COVID-19 for a rise in food delivery services.

“The broadening of the podcast audience combined with the rise in at-home listening speaks to a notable shift from who the typical podcast listener was five years ago,” Nielsen’s Podcast Listening Buyer Power study concludes.

“Today, 50% of podcast listening happens at home, which is up 10 percentage points from just three years ago.”

As of November, 28.2% of podcast listeners had used restaurant delivery in the past 30 days, compared to 14% of non-listeners. The figures for grocery delivery services were 11.6% versus 5.7% -- and for meal-kit delivery, 6% and 2.3%.

From last May through November, restaurant delivery rose 3.7% among podcast listeners. In the same period, grocery delivery increased 3% and meal kits, 1.2%.

In terms of podcast genres, the “Kids & Family” category is tops among those who use grocery delivery services. “True Crime” is the favorite among those who use restaurant-delivery services, while “TV & Film” ranks highest when it comes to meal-kit delivery.

Just one food delivery service—meal kit provider HelloFresh—is consistently among the top 10 podcast advertisers, according to Magellan AI, which analyzes podcast ad data from the top 3,000 U.S. podcasts as ranked by Apple Podcasts.

HelloFresh ranked #4 last June, #3 in July, #8 in August, #5 September, #4 in October and #6 in November, when its monthly spend was $2.5 million, according to Magellan.

QSRs rarely make the top 15 among podcast advertisers.

In December of 2020, McDonald’s popped up as #3, with $3.2 million in spending. A year ago this month, it was #15, with $1.2 million.