• by Les Luchter , November 1, 2025

John Delony, whose popular podcast focuses on relationships and mental health challenges, will in the coming week begin praising the benefits and affordability of pet telehealth.

Delony will thus become the latest podcast host to tout Dutch, the four-year-old pet telehealth provider that has upped its ad game in recent months -- first adding connected TV in March and then out-of-home in June before greatly expanding its previously small podcast budget in July.

Since the podcast push started, Dutch has seen a 300% increase in memberships driven by podcast ads. In July, 3% of all new members came via podcasts and by September, that had risen to 8%, Vice President of Marketing Jenna Brennan tells Marketing Daily.

Dutch began its podcast push with comedian Sarah Silverman doing host-read ads on her show, before the company moved into geo-targeted programmatic “to try to understand where else we could gain exposure,” Brennan recalls. “We saw a 10% lift in straight membership purchases, not even looking at additional brand awareness and site traffic. From that, we expanded it to a national buy as we find new inventory and new pockets.” 

Perhaps surprisingly, the programmatic podcast ads helped Dutch discover new target demographics, which the company is now looking to reach through other media as well, Brennan relates.

Historically, Dutch has skewed more female, Brennan says, but the programmatic podcast ads also “hit a male market.”  For example, “The MeatEater Podcast,” which focuses on sustainable hunting, has resulted “in a really strong membership purchase rate.”

“It’s not necessarily a demographic we had looked at, gone after, or made content specifically tailored to,” she continues, “but now we see it as big one.” 

 “There are a ton of people who are hunters and fishers,” she explains. “Most of them have a dog, so they’re really engaged. They didn’t know Dutch existed.”

Now, Dutch has started “having conversations” with the show about the possibility of buying host-read ads. 

Because shows generally have a long process for host-read ads -- involving the host actually using the product, back-and-forth on scripts, testing, and making “sure they’re speaking in the actual host voice, personality and tone” – Dutch has only worked with a few podcasts so far. Besides Silverman and Dr. Delony, another is “Add to Cart,” a comedy show about “what we buy and what it says about who we are.”

The shopping angle also figures in another surprise from Dutch’s programmatic podcast buy – a good response from financial-related shows, which Brennan says makes sense due to Dutch’s “value proposition (of) an affordable solution to pet care.” As one of the :30 programmatic spots says, Dutch provides “unlimited virtual visits and follow-ups for up to five pets… and shipping is always free.”

“On audio we are clearly able to explain exactly who we are, the benefits you get and why, as a pet owner, you should have Dutch,” Brennan says.

On Google, she adds, “People are searching for things like ‘My dog is itching,’ ‘My cat is nervous’” and don't even know that an online vet is a possibility.

“Dutch as a whole has an awareness problem,” Brennan explains, because “we are creating a whole new industry.” Podcasts, she says, allow Dutch to reach pet owners and “clearly explain what we do” on a medium that’s not only listened to daily but elicits a tremendous amount of loyalty and trust from consumers for both the shows and their hosts.

“That’s why we are looking to make sure we have the right ones from a reach point of view,” Brennan says.

About an eight of Dutch’s marketing budget is now being spent on podcasts, but Brennan expects that to increase to 25% by Q1 2026.