McDonalds was the top spending podcast advertiser in Australia during the first quarter of 2023, according to a new report from ARN's iHeart and Magellan AI.

The Top Advertisers report was derived from analysis of thousands of episodes from over 400 of Australia's most popular podcasts, using artificial intelligence to identify the top brands advertising in the medium. The first quarter of 2024 saw a broad range of categories represented, with food/entertainment and finance being prominent.

Following McDonalds was Youi Insurance, and Wise. Other brands making the top 15 included MYOB, CommBank, Telstra, Foxtel Group, Amazon, BetterHelp, Specsavers, Australian Super, AAMI, Monash University, Wesfarmers, and Kmart.

The report also highlighted an uplift in investment across most podcast genres, with the largest increases seen in the Comedy, Health & Fitness, and Science categories year-on-year.

"Podcast advertising continues to thrive with a huge breadth of brands seen across the Australian industry in Q1, 2024. Given the depth of content, measurement and proven conversion, podcasts are no longer an experimental part of the marketing mix,” said ARN’s Head of Digital Audio, Corey Layton.