Podcasting's Breakthrough Year with Greg Glenday of Acast

In our fourth guest episode, host Ceci Carloni sits down with Greg Glenday, CEO of Acast, for an in-depth conversation about why 2026 is the year podcasting finally becomes mainstream—and what brands are still getting wrong about discovery, measurement, and showing up authentically in audio.🎙️ The Meritocracy of Podcasting: Unlike traditional media where gatekeepers decide what content reaches audiences, or social platforms where algorithms put their thumb on the scale, podcasting is a pure meritocracy—listeners decide what's good by seeking it out. Greg argues this makes it fundamentally different from every other medium, but also harder for the industry to categorize. Podcasting doesn't fit neatly into audio, video, influencer, or social teams, so agencies and brands are still trying to find where it belongs.🎯 Discovery Isn't Broken—It's Just Slow: The challenge isn't technology or algorithms—it's trust. Building a relationship with a podcast host takes time, unlike the instant judgment you make with Netflix shows. Greg shares how Acast is tackling discovery through curation, playlist experiments, cross-promotion, and transcription data that surfaces topical connections. But the real unlock? Getting brands to understand they're buying audiences, not creators—and 25 mid-sized shows with overlapping audiences can be more effective than one massive podcast.💰 Why Big Brands Haven't Arrived Yet: Most top 250 US brands still don't buy podcasting. Greg uses peer pressure to wake them up: "Are direct response advertisers like Athletic Greens and BetterHelp smarter than billion-dollar CMOs? They only buy channels that work—and they've been growing with podcasting for years." The missing pieces are trusted third-party measurement, brand safety verification (now solved with partners like Barometer), and understanding that podcast ads should feel additive, not disruptive—intimate conversations, not roadside billboards.From why podcasting is narrative influence (not just audio) to how revenue should spread beyond the top 200 shows to why sought-not-served content changes everything about brand safety—this conversation captures podcasting at its inflection point.The Big Three by Influence Weekly: 3 Biggest Stories. 1 Essential Conversation.