This is the download from Sounds Profitable, your daily source for the essential news of the business of podcasting, brought to you by Spreaker from iHeart. I'm Gavin Gaddis, getting over a cold. Here is what you need to know for today, Monday, December 9th. Our first story, true crime podcast can win advertisers as long as the discourse stays civil.
An interview with Emily Raisk, SVP of Global Business Development and Operations at Sony Music Entertainment, shows that despite True Crime's proven track record, buyers are still skittish. Even with strong numbers in a popular category, advertisers choose less effective genres for targeting demographics that true crime is the perfect fit for in an effort to stay away from unsafe content.
To combat such presumptions, Oxford Road and Seeker have collaborated to create a civility score that ranks how civil a podcast is when discussing stronger topics. A method that found political podcasts tend to rank far lower than true crime, as there's a higher propensity for hosts to make disparaging comments about opposing viewpoints. Next up, this trillion dollar year and 2025 predictions.
Tis the season for articles looking back at 2024 and looking forward to the future. Digiday's latest collects predictions for 2025, including a Group M forecast. that total advertising industry revenue, excluding political ad spend, will reach $1.1 trillion, a slower but still noteworthy upward growth. Australian outlet Ad News covered a WARC report that interviewed 1,000 marketers worldwide, which found only 34% anticipate increased marketing budgets next year.
That's down 7% from the same response to last year's study. Keeping in the country, IPG's Magna predicts Australian ad spend will increase 6.5% next year. GroupM's analysis predicts that growth will be 3.7% bolstered by an upcoming federal election. Next up, as health and wellness brands brace for ad restrictions on Meta, marketers and advertisers seek more transparency.
Last month, Meta told advertisers and agencies that they would roll out additional restrictions to certain categories of websites using Meta's business tools as of January. A specific outcome of this is certain brands in the health and wellness category are no longer going... to be able to use lower funnel tracking data for conversions.
Buyers tell Digiday this is effectively bringing Meta more in line with existing policies about limiting sensitive data, as certain sites could inadvertently share sensitive data relating to a customer's health. Health and wellness brands are concerned with the short-term effects of these policy enforcements, while Branch Lab CEO John Walsh says the long-term effect will be a net positive as they benefit consumers and innovation. Next up, report Omnicom and IPG in advanced merger talks.
Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal broke the story that Omnicom is in advanced talks to acquire Interpublic Group, or IPG, which would create the largest advertising and marketing services firm in the world. The formal transaction could be announced as early as this week. Exact terms have not been disclosed, but an all-stock merger value for IPG would value between $13 and $14 billion USD, not accounting for IPG's debt.
The sizable merger likely will garner governmental attention, given the amount of advertising industry that would be encompassed within a joint Omnicom and IPG. Finally, Vox Media announces layoffs, reorganizing its lifestyle properties. According to an internal memo, the restructuring of lifestyle properties will mainly impact Thrillist, PS, that was formerly PopSugar, and Eater. Adweek also notes this will impact the media production and technology team. Vox Media has declined to perform...
specifics regarding how many positions will be impacted by the layoffs. As for the rest of the news, the Podcast Hall of Fame has announced 11 honorees to be inducted in 2025, including our very own Tom Webster. The induction ceremony will take place January 17th in Orlando, Florida at PodFest Expo. Neil Modi, co-founder of Headliner, has recently been interviewed by Podcast Business Journal.
Co-host has launched an enhanced B2B podcast analytics feature to improve listener identification and ROI measurement. Sirius XM Media has announced the Women's Empowerment Network, launching with two new podcasts, with more slated to debut in upcoming months. Podcast One has launched Podcast One Pro, a full-service offering for upgrading podcast production quality for brands and professionals.
Acast has acquired creative studio Wonder Media Network, and Headliner has published their Wrapped for 2024, sharing user statistic milestones and recapping highlights from the year. Be sure to check out the links to every article mentioned right in your podcast listening app or at soundsprofitable.com where you can also subscribe to the newsletter version.
The download is written and produced by myself, Newton Shuttle County, Brian Barletta, and Tom Webster. This episode is hosted on Spreaker. For Sounds Profitable, I'm Gavin Gaddis, hoping to not be nasally next week. Download us again tomorrow.