Back in 2014, Serial helped make podcasting mainstream, but at the time, podcast listeners were still believed to be mostly white men. They’ve been growing more diverse in recent years—at least when it comes to race.

The industry wants advertisers to know it: This year’s IAB Podcast Upfront focused significantly on the diversity of hosts and audiences, and Advertising Week New York’s audio and podcast sessions did as well.

• Thai Randolph, CEO of Kevin Hart’s media company HartBeat, debuted a pod she’s hosting called Commerce in Color, interviewing guest Scott Mills, CEO of BET, live on stage for the first episode.
• During a panel giving an overview of the podcast ecosystem moderated by Charlamagne Tha God, execs from iHeartMedia and Tenderfoot TV discussed the importance and nuances of advertisers’ spending budgets on diverse content.

Representation behind the mic: Part of the push for more diversity in podcasting is about getting creators from different backgrounds behind the mic in the first place.

• Conal Byrne, CEO of the iHeartMedia Digital Audio Group, said that podcasting, like other mediums, has a problem with representation, but that there are efforts underway to “course-correct.”
• While about half of podcast hosts are white, 24% are Hispanic or Latino, and 14% are African American, skewing more diverse than the US population in general, according to a 2022 report conducted by Edison and podcast media company Sounds Profitable.

Keep reading here.—AM

As anyone who’s ever put almond milk in mac and cheese knows, sometimes substitutes work and sometimes they just…don’t.

Determining which recipes can still work with a dairy substitute is the foundation of the latest campaign from Oatly’s editorial team—a documentary-style series called “Will it Swap?”

• The five-part series follows characters like a body-building/wrestling couple (who have a hard time pronouncing the brand name) making stroganoff and a man in Brooklyn making his father-in-law’s cream puffs.

Character fit: Jeremy Elias, global editorial director at Oatly, told us that casting the series was a “huge pre-production effort.” It not only involved finding people “that you wouldn’t typically find on a brand’s foray into a cooking show,” but also “trying to make them comfortable with this project.”

Elias said the goal was to help “chip away at” the hesitancy people may have about using plant-based milk in things besides coffee, tea, or cereal. “We need to move to a more plant-based diet in order to live lives that are less taxing on the climate,” he said, so this series is about showing some places where people can make plant-based substitutes.

• In addition to YouTube, where the videos are housed, Elias said the campaign will feature more than 100 assets distributed across Instagram, TikTok, the Oatly website, and influencer posts.

This campaign is the latest from Oatly’s editorial team, whose job, Elias said, is to try not to “sound like every other brand.”

Read more about how Oatly’s editorial team fits within its internal marketing structure.—KH

When a streaming service introduces a less expensive tier, there’s a chance existing users will switch their plans and potentially eat into a service’s existing revenue stream. Netflix, whose ad-supported offering debuts in the US on Nov. 3, is the latest service to consider that possibility.

That got us thinking: Are Marketing Brew readers planning on shifting to Netflix’s Basic With Ads plan? Nearly 1,000 of you responded:

• 14% said you’d sign up for Netflix for the first time for its ad-supported tier
• 14% said you’d switch your existing ad-free subscriptions to the lower-priced ad-supported tier
• And 72% said you’d keep your ad-free subscription, thank you very much

That’s good news for Netflix, which is hoping its less expensive tier will bring in more subscribers overall instead of eating too heavily into its existing subscriber base, COO and chief product officer Greg Peters told investors last week. “But then again,” Peters said, “the economics and the revenue will be fine as a result, even if some of those consumers switch plans.”

How are you thinking about advertising on Netflix? Drop senior reporter Kelsey Sutton a note at [email protected] or on Twitter.

Reels: Here’s how to find trending sounds on the platform.

Bespoke: We found an (updated) guide on how to use Facebook Custom Audiences.

Spooky, scary, skeletons: Reddit made an infographic that shows how its users have engaged with Halloween content lately.

Trend spotting: We had our eyes and ears open at Advertising Week—and noticed more streaming services investing in lean-back programming. Get the full roundup of new OOH trends in our latest article, sponsored by MNTN.*

^{*This is sponsored advertising content.}

Have you been wondering how HBO is crushing the modern marketing game (any House of the Dragon stans)? Or how Duolingo’s Duo the owl became a storytelling sensation on TikTok? And really, how the heck has Vans managed to transcend the generations and stay part of the cool crowd, even as our beloved skinny jeans get dunked on day after day?

Well, you’ll find the answer to all these questions and more (yes, much more) at the biggest Marketing Brew event yet: The Brief on Nov. 15. This jam-packed day of panels, presentations, and networking will give you strategies to implement immediately, plus the chance to interact personally with some of the best in the industry (not to mention your fellow marketing rock stars). Quick: We have special pricing for only a limited time, so grab your ticket here before the cost goes up!

Catch up on a few Marketing Brew stories you might have missed.

• Marketers are increasingly pairing data with out-of-home buys
• Uber, DoorDash announce ad business expansions
• Meet Shanna Cook, Picsart’s director of social media and influencer marketing