Audio rituals: How contextually relevant audio advertising drives business results

Room 4 | 11:15 am - 11:45 am | Wednesday, March 27, 2024

The majority of U.S. adults (74%) make time for audio (radio, streaming or podcast) in their daily lives and for 40%, audio is a daily ritual in itself. These deeply immersive moments offer advertisers opportunities to engage audiences in contextually relevant ways and create impact. As a case example, Audacy’s rituals-focused, contextually-planned campaign successfully shifted radio audiences to the publisher’s app, increasing downloads and creating a new pool of cross-platform listeners.

Audacy’s research, conducted in partnership with Alter Agents and Magna Global’s Media Trials division, shows that audiences organize their day around audio-based rituals. And, serving contextually relevant ads during these audio moments increases people’s intention to search for and buy the advertised products. Taking a page from these learnings, Audacy devised a radio campaign, with creatives crafted around sports fandom, workout and school pickup-types of daily rituals. Leveraging remnant media and insights on generational audio rituals, the team put together a format-based plan. Results showed significant increases in app downloads in targeted markets, directly attributable to the rituals radio campaign. Additional analyses showed how the campaign moved especially heavy listeners, commuters, parents and those who streamed radio with competitor apps.

The presentation will share insights and results based on a series of multimodal studies, including a nationally representative survey; an ethnography; an experimental setup that tests contextually aligned advertising; a brand effect study; and analytics (cluster analysis and modeling).

Key takeaways:

1. Audio rituals shape our daily lives and mobilize audiences.
2. Contextually relevant advertising works across the funnel, increasing brand engagement and intention to take action.
3. Media consumption is becoming increasingly cross-platform. With the right messaging and motivation, traditional media audiences can expand their digital media choices and consume content everywhere they go.

Advertising Case Study Presentation by End-Client