How Westwood One used Focaldata AI to capture deep insights

On 16 October 2024, IIEX held a virtual event spotlighting AI’s role in market research. Focaldata AI’s Managing Director, Marco Pasqualina, joined Pierre Bouvard, Chief Insights Officer at Cumulus Media and Westwood One, to discuss their innovative collaboration, leveraging AI to transform how they analyse and understand podcast consumption.

Platform changes that affect how consumers access media can impact audiences and advertiser deliveries. Apple’s move to reduce podcast auto-downloads caused a notable decrease in podcast audiences. Advertisers have felt the impact, seeing a decline in metrics measuring audience reach and engagement.

In his talk, Pierre Bouvard, Chief Insights Officer at Cumulus Media and Westwood One, explained how Focaldata’s AI helped conduct large-scale, AI-moderated interviews, revealing podcast listeners’ reactions to recent platform changes. They explored questions like: Did listeners notice the changes, and how did they feel? Have listening habits or subscription preferences shifted? How do listeners view ad content in podcasts, and would they consider paying for an ad-free experience?

Watch the full presentation here to discover how companies leverage Focaldata AI for fast, high-quality research.