Industry News

iHeartMedia: Podcast Lifts Mattress Firm Sales

iHeartMedia and Affinity Solutions partnered to measure the incremental impact of Mattress Firm’s podcast marketing investments on brick-and-mortar sales. The campaign featured a custom podcast called “Chasing Sleep,” created in partnership with Mattress Firm, the Spark Foundry Content team and iHeartMedia’s Ruby Studio. For its inaugural season, the teams brought together a mix of sleep advisors and everyday people to explore how everyone fromim astronauts to newscasters to ultramarathoners prioritize sleep to perform and live at their best.  The podcast incorporated key brand messaging throughout, complemented with ad placements across the iHeartPodcasts network. The study concludes that Mattress Firm’s investments on iHeartPodcasts lead to a 45% lift in incremental sales and achieved a 4X incremental return on ad spend. iHeartMedia chief data officer Brian Kaminsky states, “Over 100 million Americans listen to podcasts a month with 80 million Americans listening weekly, which is clear evidence this ‘emerging medium’ has now become a permanent, new part of all of our media consumption – giving brands access to new and engaging audiences. By partnering with Affinity to measure the impact of Mattress Firm’s digital audio advertising, particularly on their bottom line, we were able to demonstrate the power of the brand’s partnership with iHeart to drive sales and strong ROI. We also gained insights to optimize campaign performance that we are already applying.”

Industry News

iHeartMedia Expands Branded Podcast Studio

iHeartMedia announces that it is launching Ruby, the first dedicated team of its kind from a major media company committed entirely to the production, sales and marketing of branded podcasts. The company says it has “built one of the fastest-growing slate of branded podcasts globally with 30 original series from major brands such as T-Mobile, IBM, Intuit QuickBooks and Mattress Firm,” and that the “launch of Rubyim represents an expanded commitment to one of iHeartMedia’s most premium products allowing advertisers to engage audiences with creative, longform native content.” iHeartMedia goes on to say, “Ruby’s branded podcasts allow advertisers and their brand partners to spend upwards of 30-45 minutes with their target audience in a unique environment, with opportunities for storytelling that are not possible anywhere else in their media mix including social video. With distribution across the iHeartRadio app and all other major platforms, native podcasts from Ruby connect brands to audiences by translating brand messaging, products and services into original and engaging stories that audiences love.” See more about Ruby here.