Exclusive: Leading audio research firm Signal Hill Insights is excited to announce the addition of Paul Riismandel in the role of Chief Insights Officer and Partner as it expands its podcast measurement practice. He joins from SXM Media, the ad sales division of SirusXM/Pandora, where he led podcast advertising research.

At Signal Hill, Riismandel will help solidify the company as a critical independent third-party voice providing industry-wide and custom research solutions. He will focus on furthering innovation in podcast measurement, combining ad effectiveness, creative analysis, and audience insights, in order to help partners and the industry at large understand how best to serve both listeners and advertisers, together.

Jeff Vidler, President and founder of Signal Hill Insights, said, “I’m thrilled that Paul has agreed to join us as a senior partner. The podcast industry is hitting an inflection 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.”

Riismandel brings a wealth of experience to Signal Hill Insights as one of the industry’s first researchers in podcast advertising. Since the beginning with Midroll Media (acquired by SiriusXM/Pandora) in 2014, Riismandel has overseen hundreds of ad effectiveness studies for nearly every major brand that advertisers in the space, across such verticals as direct-to-consumer, consumer packaged goods, automative and financial services. In that time, he established the playbook for educating advertisers about the unique value of podcasting, and built one of the industries largest opt-in research panels of podcast listeners.

“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 the 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.”