When actor Dax Shepard tells the audience of his popular podcast that they should buy a Chrysler Pacifica, they tend to listen more than people who just see an ad for the minivan on TV or in a newspaper.
That’s why Chrysler has sponsored more than 30 episodes of “Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard,” which averages 1.4 million downloads per show, since 2018. It’s one of an increasing number of automotive sponsorships in the podcasting genre, which is proving to have the kinds of listeners whom most brands covet: young, environmentally conscious, educated and affluent.
A Nielsen study this year found that half of vehicle shoppers who heard about products during a podcast visited a website for more information. More than 55 percent of podcast listeners have a household income of more than $75,000 a year, compared with 41 percent of U.S. households overall, according to Nielsen, which concluded that comedy programming appeals most to online auto shoppers.
On many podcasts — digital audio recordings for which people can sign up to have new episodes automatically delivered — ads are often read by the host, which can help build a connection between a brand and engaged listeners.
“It’s not just about the message or the offer or the availability or timing. It really is how it’s woven into the podcast show that can have a great impact on the results of the campaign,” Tony Hereau, Nielsen’s vice president of cross- platform insights, told Automotive News. “Even just the nuance around one word that a host can say could sway the results. So it really comes down to some hosts are better at delivering that content advertising and weaving it into the show so that it’s not as obtrusive.”
Chrysler’s affiliation with “Armchair Expert” began shortly after the show started in 2018, when it became that year’s most downloaded new podcast on Apple’s iTunes platform. Shepard, who had previously appeared in a Pacifica ad with characters from “Sesame Street,” is from the Detroit area and is knowledgeable about cars.
Chrysler, looking to speak to young parents, said it likes that podcasts allow people to listen at their leisure, whether in the car, at home or on vacation. It said the medium provides “more flexibility and a more meaningful message of the benefits of the vehicle from the host’s personal experience.”
Chrysler’s collaboration with Shepard has grown into an experiential marketing play. The brand sponsored the “Armchair Expert Live!” tour last summer, when the actor and his team drove a Pacifica to Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland and Minneapolis so the audience could engage with Shepard and the show in person.
Chrysler has become involved with other podcasts as well, including “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” and “Anna Faris is Unqualified.”
The brand’s podcast ads always end with the host directing listeners to a vanity website address, such as pacificaanddax.com, to obtain more information and a targeted incentive on the vehicle. Those websites let Chrysler measure which episodes’ Pacifica ads resonate most and see which shows’ audiences have the most listeners who are in market for a new vehicle.
“The brand’s sponsored ad reads are always informative yet conversational, matching the feel of the episode,” Chrysler said in a statement to Automotive News. “The host shares the latest features for the Pacifica, while also adding their own experience and reactions to the Chrysler Pacifica minivan’s features in their own words..”
Honda, meanwhile, has found an avenue to hawk the CR-V Hybrid through iHeartMedia’s “Stuff You Should Know” podcast in addition to expanding its esports presence by sponsoring a competitive gaming podcast.
“Stuff You Should Know” has an audience of over 30 million and gives Honda the ability to customize ads in real time within a preapproved list of topics, such as technology, travel and popular culture, the company said. For the CR-V campaign, Honda was spotlighted during 30-second and 60-second pre-show and mid-show host reads.
“The reads were scripted in-line with the tone of the podcasts, highlighting key features of the CR-V to fit naturally within each of the episodes,” Phil Hruska, American Honda’s manager of media strategy, said in a statement.
The coronavirus pandemic has helped podcasts resonate even more with consumers. Nielsen found that 35.8 million people were shopping online for vehicles at the height of shelter-in-place restrictions in the U.S., and 10.5 million of them were listening to podcasts.
Nielsen’s Hereau said podcast listeners could be more receptive to messaging around vehicle service because they often aren’t do-it-yourselfers. Compared with the average U.S. consumer, the study said podcast listeners are 11 percent more likely to pay for an oil change, 16 percent more likely to buy new tires and 16 percent more likely to get a brake job.
“It’s still somewhat of a new media, and there’s still a lot of questions about, is it really going to move the needle — if I spend money in podcast advertising, is that gonna move cars?” Hereau said. “We’re still in the early stages of figuring that out because it’s kind of a ‘chicken or the egg.’ It takes a couple people to make the leap and start testing it out.”