By Cliff Dumas

The podcast industry is growing fast and is expected to produce more than $1 billion by 2021, according to a new report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PwC. The latest revenue figure represents an increase of 53 percent in just a year.

The shift to podcast ads backs up what industry titans, like Spotify, have been saying for months. The company spent over $500 million on podcast-related acquisitions. It’s acquired not only content studios — Parcast and Gimlet Media — but also a creation app — Anchor. Another Spotify-owned entity, Soundtrap, also released a new tool specifically designed to help with podcast creation. The Spotify team has already said it plans to build out its podcast ad business, which could end up conquering a decent portion of the revenue.

Podcasting, use correctly for brands, is a powerful storytelling tool. Effective Storytelling is not show business, it’s good business.

This is the most fundamental challenge brands face in the “attention economy”: how do you capture people’s attention? How do you override the natural tendency for your audience’s mind to skip away from whatever you asking them to read, watch or learn? By telling stories. In normal life, we spin about one-hundred daydreams per waking hour. But when consumed by a good story—when we listen to a compelling podcast, watch a movie or read a compelling book we experience approximately zero daydreams per hour.

Podcasts, telling compelling stories are the “ice bucket challenge” for shocking people back on point and focused on what your brand is trying to say.

Podcasting is an important component of any brand's media strategy. Contact www.everythingpodcasts.com to help give your brand a voice.