Rory Sutherland Once Met The Man Who Named Podcasts And Said 'This Will Never Take Off,' Then The Legendary Adman Watched A $36.3 Billion Industry Prove Him Wrong

Advertising legend Rory Sutherland admits he once dismissed podcasting as a fad, even after meeting the journalist who coined the word.

What Happened: "I remember thinking this will never take off," he told the "Uncensored CMO" show, recalling a chat with Ben Hammersley, the Guardian writer credited with inventing the term in 2004.

Back in 2005 UK already had BBC Radio 4, Sutherland reasoned, so he doubted listeners would download amateur radio on an iPod. Instead, global podcast revenue has now swelled to $7.3 billion, according to fresh Bloomberg research. The wider market, including hosting, equipment and listener payments, could hit $47.8 billion by the end of 2025 from $36.3 billion in 2024, a forecast from The Business Research Company shows.

"Just because what you say makes sense doesn't mean you're right," Sutherland conceded, likening his error to assuming Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE:KO) would bomb in the tea-loving UK.

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Sutherland, the Vice Chairman of Ogilvy, one of the largest and most renowned advertising agencies in the world, said his bad call taught him humility. "All my arguments against podcasting were perfectly sensible. Turns out they were completely wrong," he conceded.

Why It Matters: Podcasting's boom is hard to ignore. Spotify (NYSE:SPOT) has paid creators more than $100 million this year, chasing YouTube's one-billion-viewer lead. U.S. ad spend alone was expected to top $2 billion in 2024, according to a report following The New York Times’ decision to shift its marquee shows behind a paywall.

Industry analysts at eMarketer count 584 million global listeners and project worldwide ad spend of $4.46 billion next year.

Even legacy radio giants such as Audacy now rely on podcasts for growth, though the broadcaster filed for bankruptcy after advertising slipped.

Photo Courtesy: Rokas Tenys on Shutterstock.com

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