The true value of one specific media platform is often in synergy with other media platforms. Audio is one media form that not only has strength on its own but also super-charges lift as part of a full media mix. That is what Audacy found in their recent Audio Amplification study, a meta-analysis of audio performance that was conducted over a three year period 2019 through 2021.
Idil Cakim, Senior Vice President, Research and Insights, Audacy, explained, “We partnered with Neustar for this analysis and they were able to look at more than forty media mix models across industries – auto, financial services, telecom, retail and large national clients – to give us a perspective on how audio was placed in these plans and what the scenario would look like if audio received more investment and how it would optimize these plans.” She added that, “We were always curious about what the impact of audio on returns and this gave us an opportunity to look at it from a high level perspective and a broad way and also understand how audio functioned in a media mix which is a lot of our clients’ reality.”
Audio Amplification Study Key Findings
Audio Adds Impact - One of the major findings of the study was that even a slight shift in media spending into audio can have profound positive impact on the campaign. “Audio is currently under-invested,” Cakim noted, “and that under-investment might be 15%. In some industries, it could be more than 50%. But it is currently under-invested and that spells out a missed opportunity for a lot of marketers and advertisers.”
The study found that it doesn’t take much added audio weight to make a big impact. “We found that an average of a 1.2% shift from other media to audio, yields a lift in audio ROAS (return on ad spend) of 23%,” she revealed. The study also found that both Over-The-Air and digital, advanced this finding. “There is tremendous value in combining,” she added.
Audio Worked Fast and Lasted – Cakim noted that when audio is added to a plan, its lift impact was felt immediately. “It peaked within two weeks across industries, some even faster. So you get results fairly quickly but it was also eye opening to see that the results lasted a long time, up to twenty-one weeks. So imagine investing in dollars that are giving you a return in one to two weeks and that you are seeing the impact of those dollars on your brand image, on your intention, on walk into stores and eventually on sales.”
Examining and Defining Lift and Success
The study centered on increasing lift. Lift, she explained, is defined as, “Propelling a difference, causing an impact, creating an increase,” of any sort. Success, “was defined as sales for the purposes of this study. But sales can mean different things to different organizations. Sometimes they count units, sometimes they count dollar amounts. The data scientists at Neustar normalized the data to make sure that we could just look at it as a revenue driver.”
The results of success confirmed Audacy’s hypotheses that, “What we saw day in and day out, was seeing the scale of the impact – that was eye opening,” she stated. “We could tell you that audio deserved more dollars and that audio created impact but seeing that scale was really affirming.”
Benefits of Audio, Regardless of the Pandemic
I asked if the study results were impacted by the pandemic but Cakim explained that the study looked at media plans from 2019 through the current time with the pandemic months excluded from the analysis. This careful study craft reinforces the positive and lasting impact of the results.
“The beauty of audio is how nimble it is and how it seeps into every moment in a day, especially now as people change schedules and habits, we are in a bit of a different time now. Rush hour has changed, work habits changed but audio is consistent in all that change. It’s with you when you wake up, it’s with you when you are on the go and it’s with you when you are seeking that alone time and want to focus on a topic of interest,” she noted, proving that audio deserves investment. Advertisers take note - certain advertising categories are especially under-invested in audio, according to Cakim. “Auto was the most under-invested category,” she noted, “So they benefit the most from moving dollars to audio.”
Looking Forward
While the pandemic did not factor in the study’s measurements or results, it has impacted human behavior and this shift can positively impact the future of audio consumer usage. “I think we are at an incredible juncture point because, during Covid, we saw changes in behavior, adoption of technology, media consumption that, perhaps we would have waited years to take place. Smart speaker listening surged (as had) the increases in at-home listening. The podcast surge is something incredible that has sped up. So I think we are only going upward and forward,” she shared.
For Cakim, smart advertisers must understand, “what really moves the needle. Audio is more than just digital pure plays. That is part of the ecosystem, for sure. Media is more than just binge watching.” She revealed that in a separate study, Audacy found that consumers tend to tap into seven different media sources in an average week. “It is beautiful, chaotic and challenging. It’s great that there are so many touch points but it’s also hard to break through. You have to be mindful going into it. The future of audio is that we see it earning its fair and proper share in the media mix and being leveraged more effectively and efficiently by marketers because it is only growing with all of these digital channels,” she concluded.
This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com
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