• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, May 10, 2023

On the eve of tomorrow's IAB Podcast Upfront, IPG Mediabrands Magna released another in its ongoing series of its "Media Trials" studies, this one shilling for podcast publisher Vox Media.

The findings -- which are based on a study on online interviews conducted with 2,028 weekly podcast listeners (date not disclosed) -- generally found overwhelmingly positive attributes about podcasts vs. other media, although at least one question explicitly addresses the relative impact of podcast advertising formats.

Not surprisingly, respondents indicated they prefer podcast ad models in which an entire episode is sponsored by a single brand.

Other preferred ad formats include:

• Ads that offer a lot of useful information about the product/service.

• Ads that provide promotional codes to save on products/services.

• Ad-free podcasts that are created by a brand (e.g., mattress company doing a series on sleep).

While those findings may not seem earth-shattering given consumer sentiment studies about other ad-supported media formats, there is one third-party stat included at the beginning of the report that should breakthrough with advertisers and media planners and buyers at this year's podcast upfront: an Edison Research tracking study estimating that monthly U.S. podcast reach has reached critical mass -- topping 50% of U.S. households -- this year.