Why beauty brands are turning to podcasts to advertise

Sometimes a podcast’s vibe is perfect: the story is riveting, the delivery is on point, and the host feels like a lifelong best friend.

Turns out that feeling can contribute to why beauty brands are choosing the podcast space for their advertising, especially among Hispanic audiences, according to findings from Sonoro Global Media.

The media company and podcast network, which focuses on serving younger, multicultural consumers, found that audiences show curiosity on how their favorite hosts live their lives and want to know where they get “everything from a lipstick to Botox,” making it a potentially appealing place for brands in the beauty category, Joshua Weinstein, co-founder and CEO of Sonoro, told Marketing Brew.

“We’re finding that across the podcasting ecosystem, the relationship between the consumer and the host is one of extreme trust,” Weinstein said.

Tell me a story

While beauty products might seem like a category that would inherently benefit from a visual advertising medium, Weinstein said the relationship built with audiences and the overall time spent with podcasts are reasons that beauty brands are investing in the space.

“In podcasting, what you have in this era where people are so bombarded by information, bombarded by data, bombarded by messages from brands [is] the idea that someone is helping drive and unfold a story in an organic way,” Weinstein said. “I think consumers want that, young and old.”

Some beauty brands are wading into the podcasting space in multiple ways, and brands like Ulta, Estée Lauder, and Cover Girl have advertised on Sonoro shows, according to the company. Some brands are also creating their own podcasts, like Ulta, which debuted its own branded podcast, The Joy Of…, which explores beauty, wellness, and joy. L’Oréal Groupe, meanwhile, partnered with New York Times Advertising on This is Not a Beauty Podcast, which examines beauty’s role in sports, politics, technology, business, and elsewhere, and is hosted by Isabella Rossellini.

Sonoro, which seeks to serve what Weinstein calls “the new general market,” or “the 40% of people in the US that identify as nonwhite,” sees beauty brands typically spending about $200,000 in ad spend on its podcasts. The company says that the US Hispanic audience it caters to spends 37% more on beauty annually than its general market counterparts, citing data from Latinas in Beauty, a nonprofit focused on promoting equity in the beauty industry. Meanwhile, NielsenIQ data states that the same demographic accounts for 16.6% of total beauty spending while only making up 14.4% of beauty households in the US.

Because podcasts provide a longer-form medium than formats like short-form video, Weinstein said host-read ads and room for banter can create “more of a story” around why a podcast host likes a product.

One of Sonoro’s podcasts, Chins & Giggles, is an unscripted, chatty show that has partnered with beauty brands. In an episode where host Karina Garcia describes her birth story, the show flows neatly into an ad for First Aid Beauty’s Whole Body Deodorant Cream, which Garcia says she likes because her pregnancy has her “sweating twice as much.” The nearly two-minute-long ad incorporates the story that the podcast episode is already telling, and is made to feel natural by Garcia’s chuckles and natural speech pattern.

Other platforms have also found a correlation between podcast ads and consumer behavior. In a report released this month, podcasting agency Quill and Ipsos found that more than half of the 1,000 listeners surveyed said a podcast host’s product endorsement “influences their trust in a product or service to some degree with men (60%) and people aged 18–34 (62%) most likely to be influenced by host endorsements.” According to eMarketer, overall podcast ad spend in the US is forecast to reach $2.28 billion this year, marking 15.9% YoY growth.

It seems hopping on the mic might stand to deliver more to consumers than just a podcast.