Three questions inspired us to launch our latest research project, The Power of Community:

1. Despite being more digitally connected than ever, are Americans lonelier than ever?

2. Anecdotally, we believe podcasting has a superpower when it comes to connection. Is that true?

3. If it is, what can the podcasting industry do to build real engagement and create meaningful change?

The answer to the first question, sadly, is a resounding yes.

Nearly 1 in 5 Americans now report having no close friends. Those under 30 are spending nearly half their waking hours alone—a dramatic change from just a decade ago. And the perception that the elderly are the loneliest is a myth. Consistent with the time-spent-alone findings, it’s people under 30 who are most likely to say they feel isolated from others all or most of the time.

So, what does podcasting have to do with any of this?

Podcasts are fundamentally a one-way medium: you listen to or watch a podcast, and no one talks back to you. That’s different from social media, which is designed to be interactive. And yet, for many people, podcasting feels remarkably two-way.

Nearly half of all podcast consumers agree with each of these statements: “Podcasts keep me company when I don’t have people around,” “Podcasts help me feel connected to something bigger than myself,” and “Some podcast hosts feel like friends.”

Those are powerful statements of connection. And the feelings grow stronger with increased podcast consumption: more than two-thirds of daily podcast consumers agree with all three.

But the story goes beyond the relationship between listeners and hosts.

L-R: Carl Weinstein, COO/Locked On Podcast Network; Brittany Clevenger, Sr. Director of Growth Marketing/BetterHelp; Jay Nachlis, VP/Consultant, Coleman Insights

Podcasts often give fans opportunities to engage beyond listening or watching, whether through online chats with other listeners, dedicated communities, financial support, live shows, or meetups. We found that nearly half of podcast consumers have participated in at least one of these activities, rising to almost two-thirds among daily consumers.

Here’s where it gets especially interesting: people who participate in podcast-related community activities are also much more likely to participate in social activities outside of podcasting.

One finding particularly stood out: podcast consumers who participate in a podcast-related community activity are twice as likely to attend a support group or group therapy.

In other words, the connection associated with podcasting may not end when the episode does.

These are meaningful findings with implications across the podcasting ecosystem.

For advertisers and brands, the research demonstrates that podcasting isn’t just an effective medium for reach—it’s a medium built around connection. Instead of simply buying ads, what if brands helped fund listener meetups or live events? What if they supported causes that matter to the show and its listeners? There may be opportunities to become part of the community rather than simply advertise to it.

For creators, consider tangible ways to encourage listener-to-show and listener-to-listener participation. Use language that reinforces community—words like “we,” “us,” and “together.” Develop inviting, show-specific phrases, traditions, or rituals that regular listeners can latch onto and that help them feel like part of something.

Because if podcasting has a superpower, our research suggests connection may be it.

And we’re just getting started. We’ll be sharing many more findings from The Power of Community, along with details about an October webinar presented in conjunction with Sounds Profitable.

The post Podcasting’s Superpower: The Power of Connection appeared first on Coleman Insights.

There’s a familiar frustration in media:

You write what you think is a great tease. You create curiosity. You promise something compelling. You tell listeners or viewers when to come back.

And then… they don’t.

Not because the tease wasn’t good. Not because they weren’t interested. They simply weren’t there when the payoff happened. They were at work. They were talking to their kids. They were driving through a dead spot. They switched stations. They got distracted. They had to leave the car. Or, they simply had other things going on in their lives. This is an important distinction because it changes how we should think about teases.

What if the tease itself is part of the payoff?

Too often, we think about a tease as a tactical device with one job: get the listener or viewer to come back for the thing we’re teasing. That is certainly one of its jobs. But if that’s the only way we evaluate a tease, we’re setting ourselves up for disappointment. The reality is that your audience cannot always be there for the payoff. And that’s not necessarily a programming failure.

Our research consistently reinforces the importance of understanding radio from the listener’s perspective, a principle we refer to as Outside Thinking. People have busy, unpredictable lives. They dip in and out. They miss things. They join a show in the middle of a conversation. They hear a promo for something that already happened.

We can’t control that. What we can control is what listeners take away from the moments they do hear. That’s where teases become branding opportunities. I encourage you to think beyond the event and think about the image.

Imagine a radio morning show that has built a strong image around being funny and unpredictable.

Photo credit: Shutterstock/adriaticfoto

A tease might be: “You are not going to believe what happened when Producer Mike tried to help a listener this morning. It was completely unhinged. But who went off the rails? The listener…or Mike? We’ll tell you what happened at 8:15.”

If the listener comes back at 8:15, great. They get the payoff.

But what if they don’t?

They still heard something that reinforces an important idea about the show: you never know what to expect. The sense of FOMO is palpable.

Or imagine a personality whose brand is built around being connected to the community. A tease about an upcoming conversation with a local teacher, business owner, athlete, or listener isn’t just an invitation to tune in later. It can reinforce the idea that this show knows and cares about the people who live here.

A sports podcast known for where athletes reveal the most authentic things about themselves should consistently lean on those clips in the promos and short-form video, as if every single person is seeing or hearing the clip for the first time.

Photo credit: Shutterstock/Koldo Studio

The key is to ask a different question. Instead of “Will this tease get them to come back,” also ask “If this is the only thing they hear, what does it tell them about us?” That’s a branding question. The tease can be the commercial for the show.

Think about the strongest brands in any category. Their individual messages may change, but they continually reinforce the same fundamental associations.

If one of the most important images for your show is great chemistry, then teases should sound like a show with great chemistry. If the image is humor, the tease should be funny—not merely a description of something that will eventually be funny. If the image is surprise, give listeners a taste of the unexpected. If the image is emotion and connection, let them hear the emotional stakes. If the promise is being local, make the tease feel unmistakably local. In other words, don’t only tease the content. Tease the brand.

This is especially important in a fragmented listening environment. Old model = assumes listeners will be there for the setup, tease, payoff, and everything in between. New model = listeners/viewers enter and exit frequently.

This isn’t a call to abandon the tactical mission, it’s a call to expand it and make it more strategic. Appointment listening still matters. The payoff still matters. The best teases do two things at once. They give listeners and viewers a reason to stay or come back and reinforce why they should care about the show in the first place. We can’t control if they’ll be there for the payoff, but we can control whether the moments they do hear make our brand stronger.

That’s the opportunity.

Don’t just tease what’s coming. Tease who you are.

The post How Teases Can Build Your Brand appeared first on Coleman Insights.

We have been studying streaming TV brands over the past few months to help apps strengthen their position in this evolving market. Of course, there are many streaming brands that consumers know and use regularly. But our interest is in brand development: are these brands building images—perceptions tied to the attributes that matter most to viewers? Those images are essential if an app is going to build an enduring brand position: a place in consumers’ minds. That’s how usage translates into loyalty and a long-term relationship.

So far, we’ve learned that few streaming brands hold strong images or positions. That’s a categorical vulnerability—but also an opportunity for any brand focused on owning a valuable position. What app offers the best live events, for example? Our findings suggest that no brand is known for that position yet. Without strongly developed images, streaming services are nothing more than disposable utilities, reliant solely on the content they produce in the moment.

What’s also clear from our research is that many streaming brands don’t mean what they’re intended to mean. Their brands stand for something else—and that makes it harder for them to establish a strong, focused position in the streaming market. Here I’m talking about YouTube, Amazon, Disney, and Apple. More specifically: YouTube TV, Prime Video, Disney+, and Apple TV.

Apple and Prime Video have confusing images with consumers thanks to other perceptions. (Credit: Koshiro K / Shutterstock.com)

To many consumers, YouTube means user-generated videos where you figure out how to replace the battery in your nostril-hair trimmer (at least that’s what I use it for). YouTube TV is a paid subscription service that replaces traditional cable. See the problem? Amazon Prime is a delivery service that shows up at my house with batteries for my nostril-hair trimmer. Prime Video? Oh yeah—I can watch videos through my Prime membership, and that’s what they call it. Disney is family entertainment: from theme parks to movies. Yes, they have a Disney+ app that’s known for similarly themed content. Surely the app benefits from the massive equity of the Disney name, but it’s a bit of a walk before consumers connect the “+” specifically to the streaming product.

And then there’s Apple, which means great electronics—computers, phones, iPads, AirPods—and music. Everything that entertains, maybe. But in truth, the name Apple is far too broad to attach to just music or just streaming video. While I’m not trying to tell these amazingly successful companies how to run their businesses, they may be better off creating powerful individual brands that can stand on their own.

So…what’s your brand again? An extension of something bigger and broader that helps—but also slows you down? Or a unique, powerful, focused, meaningful name? A disposable utility—or a deeply understood brand?

The post Streaming TV’s Brand Problem: Too Few Images appeared first on Coleman Insights.

Last Friday, I presented the results of our Listener Truth Project at Morning Show Boot Camp in Cleveland. Ten listeners from various Top 50 markets across the United States, between 24 and 46, share why they still listen to radio in 2026 and what keeps them away. The twist? Morning Show Boot Camp attendees were invited to submit the questions.

One of the value propositions of a project like this is Outside Thinking. When you listen to your radio station 10 hours a day, it can be challenging to view it through your customers’ lens. Your station is the center of your universe, but it is not the center of theirs. One-on-one interviews provide us the opportunity to hear their perspective in their language. It is also important to remember that the responses of ten people will not necessarily scale to a wider population. So while we don’t overreact, we do look for commonalities and throughlines, and they emerge in this study.

The clear throughline throughout the Listener Truth Project is connection. Connection manifests itself in several ways in which these listeners talk about radio. It is not unique when listeners tell us they use radio as an escape, but many of these ten listeners express an elevated type of emotional trauma from the world. They talk about being “overwhelmed” and “bombarded” and use words like “onslaught” and “horrors” when mentioning their exposure to the news cycle. FM music radio is an escape hatch, essentially playing the role of a therapist. Here, they explain a few things they want from radio, and also what they don’t, starting with 24-year-old Cyan.

Convenience, Connection, and Mood are consistent themes that emerge in this research. Listen to Jesus towards the end of this clip, who describes how he chooses his morning station. It’s not driven by a certain personality or segment – rather, he listens to his local Contemporary Christian station when he wakes up feeling down, and an Adult Contemporary station when he’s feeling good and wants to stay that way. In the last section, Alex gives an honest assessment of why radio needs to remain vital, which again ties back to a crucial connection.

Even when talking about commercials, the idea of connection comes up. Listeners understand that commercials are the price to pay for radio being free, and their frustration isn’t so much with the commercials themselves. Rather, it’s with the quality and number of spots played in a row. They recognize that good commercials provide a connection to their community.

There are fascinating insights from several Gen Z listeners. While song repetition is a universal frustration with radio, 24-year-old Carolyn believes radio is more random than Spotify and that she loves the nostalgia aspect.

Other themes addressed in the study include whether FM music stations still need to offer weather and traffic; if teases work; how valuable contesting is; and their feelings on AI DJs vs. humans.

Keep an eye out for more from The Listener Truth Project. Special thanks to Don Anthony at Morning Show Boot Camp and Radio Resources for their sponsorship support.

The post What The Listener Truth Project Says About Radio appeared first on Coleman Insights.

How many weather forecasts have you seen or heard?

How many do you actually remember?

If the answer is “not many,” it’s probably because you think of a weather forecast as information, not entertainment.

Adam Krueger, Chief Meteorologist at Fox 11 in Los Angeles, sees it differently. If his name doesn’t ring a bell, “the guy who sneaks song lyrics into his forecasts” might. He’s built an audience of more than six million followers across social media, including 2.4 million on TikTok. It started in 2022, when Wordle took off. Krueger began slipping the daily Wordle answer into his broadcasts as an inside joke with colleagues. Then he started posting TikTok videos revealing the word alongside clips from the previous night’s forecast. Viewers caught on—and started challenging him to work in other references, from quotes to song lyrics. The momentum snowballed. In 2023, Snoop Dogg shared one of his videos. By 2024, Krueger had made the leap to market #2.

Researchers understand that “sticky” personalities create differentiation and memorability. Krueger has done both. His forecasts are not only informative but intentionally engaging, with cleverly produced videos and on-screen lyrics that invite viewers to play along. Just as important, he’s been deliberate about building a cohesive personal brand.

His TikTok bio: “Sneaking your requests in the weather.”

His LinkedIn: “Known for viral weather content. Over 6 million followers on social media.”

His Fox 11 profile highlights shares from artists like Snoop Dogg, Metallica, Outkast, Lil Wayne, and Foo Fighters.

The takeaway for anyone building a personal or company brand:

• Find a clear point of differentiation.
• Create content that lives in that space—and deliver it consistently.
• Reinforce that identity across every platform.

Because whether you’re a meteorologist or a media brand, you’re not just delivering information.

You’re in the entertainment business.

The post How a Meteorologist Became a Viral Brand appeared first on Coleman Insights.