This ongoing report on consumers provides valuable advertising and media news for marketers and advertisers. We curate stories of interest and insight. Use the button below to have each Audience Intel Report delivered directly to your inbox.

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Media Consumption Remains Hot

TV viewing still up 11% over early March.  New numbers from Nielsen show viewing dropping a few percentage points week-over-week. However, comparing week of 4/27 to 3/2, TV usage remains up about 11%.

Heavy sports viewers craving comfort.  Numbers from Hulu Live reveal that, since the cancelation of live sports, heavy sports viewers are actually watching MORE TV – their streaming is up 6% across all genres. And in the category of “blast from the past,” the same data shows that Golden Girls remains in the top 10 of most-watched comedy series on the platform. Read more about comfort-craving consumers in the article here.

Monday is the new Saturday.  Data from Comcast suggests that days are blurring together when it comes to TV viewing. Over the past two weeks, Monday has become a bigger TV viewing day than Saturday. News content leads the increase, but all categories are up with the exception of reality TV, which remained steady.

Chaos is a Ladder

Small snacks getting big investment.  CPG snack food giant Mondelez plans significant paid ad push to capitalize on snacking trends and build market share during recovery. “This is a moment to really, what I would call, attack the market in the second half,” said CEO Dirk Van de Put.

An-ti-ci-pay-ay-shun.  Kraft Heinz looking at potential for increasing ad spending in recovery to gain long-term market share. The CPG giant saw increased market penetration recently resulting from consumer stockpiling activity.

What products are consumers looking for? Ask Google.  As an outgrowth of monitoring demand for consumer products during the pandemic, Google has introduced a broad new tool similar to its “Trends” functionality, but this one tracks “Rising Retail Categories.” Marketers can now explore a list of top trending product categories and how much consumer interest in that category has changed month over month.

Are More Americans Becoming Pod People?

Moms are listening.  The percentage of moms accessing podcasts is growing steadily according to recent data from Edison Research. Listening includes both parenting-focused subject matter as well as general-interest programming.

iHeartRadio overtakes NPR.  The media company beat the public radio organization in podcast audience numbers for April. The two audio content behemoths have been trading the lead in both audience and unique downloads for more than a year. Listeners are the clear winners as the number of podcast options remain strong.

Oh, the places you will go.  In the absence of in-person graduation ceremonies, a major podcast publisher is launching virtual commencement addresses from a wide variety of luminaries. From CEOs to comedians, singers to military brass, listeners can tune in for a heaping helping of future-focused advice and encouragement.

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