Signal Hill Insights has announced the addition of Paul Riismandel to its team as Chief Insights Officer and Partner as the audience research company expands its podcast measurement practice.
Riismandel arrives from SXM Media, the ad sales division of SiriusXM/Pandora, where he led podcast advertising research for the last three years as Senior Director of Insights, responsible for gauging podcast ad effectiveness.
Signal Hill says Riismandel’s focus will be on furthering innovation in podcast measurement, combining ad effectiveness, creative analysis, and audience insights to help partners and the industry at large understand how to best serve both listeners and advertisers. He’ll continue to be based in Portland, heading up Signal Hill’s American operations, which currently account for about 70% of its business.
“I’m thrilled that Paul has agreed to join us as a senior partner,” said Jeff Vidler, President and founder of Signal Hill Insights, in a company announcement. “The podcast industry is hitting an inflexion point as more major brands are coming into the medium looking to understand how to best harness the power of podcasting. No one has Paul’s passion for finding research insights to move podcast advertising forward and no one but Paul has the experience to make that happen.”
One of the first dedicated researchers of podcast advertising, Riismandel has been in the space since 2014 when he joined Midroll Media (which SiriusXM/Pandora acquired in 2020). Over the last decade, he’s overseen hundreds of ad effectiveness studies for nearly every major brand advertising in the space. Prior to venturing into podcasting, he held various digital tech roles, including Director of Curriculum Support for Northwestern University’s School of Communication IT department, supporting the use of academic technology in their distance and online programming. Riismandel was also a longtime contributor to Streaming Media Magazine, going on to co-found audio news and opinion site, Radio Survivor and co-host its podcast.
“I’m excited to take podcast research to the next level,” Riismandel said. “I’ve worked with Signal Hill as a client, and I know first-hand the expertise and acumen they bring to market. I’ve always thought of Signal Hill as the ‘Swiss Army Knife’ of podcast measurement, because of their innovative thinking and can-do approach to solving even the toughest analytic questions.”
“In particular, I’m looking forward to developing a predictive performance model with Signal Hill that would advise advertisers and publishers on how to optimize their podcast strategy, even before launch,” he added.
Signal Hill Insights (formerly branded as Audience Insights) is an audio research firm with a core focus on brand lift studies for podcasts and radio, and survey-driven audience insights with its partners including Acast, Cumulus/Westwood One, iHeartRadio, NPR, Pacific Content, SXM Media, and Triton Digital.
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