International radio bodies from Australia, Ireland, the UK and USA have joined together for the first time to make the case for audio advertising as one global industry during the Cannes lions international media and advertising creative festival in France.
Commercial Radio & Audio (Australia), Radiocentre (UK), Radiocentre (IRE), and the Radio Advertising Bureau (USA) this week presented joint research from those four countries about the effectiveness of radio and audio on the global stage.
It is the first time the audio industries from four of the world’s biggest media markets have come together to demonstrate the power of audio.
Following up the research Mark Ritson presented earlier this year in Australia, Ritson presented new global evidence for audio’s role in the modern media mix to a crowd of marketers, agency leaders and audio networks.
In a conference session, titled ‘The Secret to Profit and Trust: Audio,’ hosted at LBB & Friends Beach, Ritson drew on the Effie x System1 global Databank of 1,262 campaigns spanning 17 years to prove how commercial audio lifts campaign performance.
The research shows that campaigns with audio outperform those without audio on profit (+75%), trust (+81%), price insensitivity (+81%) and customer acquisition (+19%).
Audio’s profit contribution also scales with media spend. Across 14 measures, the average uplift for all campaigns with audio was +22%, in comparison to campaigns without audio.
“The case for audio’s effectiveness is unequivocal; in every market we’ve studied globally: audio is the catalyst that makes your whole campaign work harder. For a relatively modest investment, it’s an unfair advantage hiding in plain sight. It’s the kind of evidence you cannot unhear,” Ritson told the audience, making the point that a jingle is probably the “best thing you can do for your advertising”
Audio nearly doubles profit for emotionally driven advertising
The data also makes the creative case. Audio nearly doubles the profit generated by emotionally driven campaigns, and its effect compounds when it is paired with distinctive brand assets and run consistently over time.
The original study was commissioned in Australia, where CRA analysed the Advertising Council of Australia’s (ACA) Effie data with independent marketing consultant Rob Brittain and Mark Ritson, who called it “beautiful data”. That modelling has now been taken to the world stage, tested against a new global databank from the UK, US, Europe and Ireland, and presented to an international audience of advertisers, agencies and audio networks.
The presentation was followed by a discussion between Little Black Book’s Managing Editor AU/NZ Brittney Rigby and System1 Chief Growth Officer, Andrew Tindall. “Across the globe, the data consistently proves emotional audio campaigns roughly double their profit. Pair that emotion with distinctive sonic brand assets and run it consistently, and the effect compounds again. It’s simple, yet sound advice,” said Tindall.
CRA’s Lizzie Young said: “In a competitive landscape where advertisers need their campaigns to work even harder, the evidence again points to the power of audio… That a case first built on Australian Effie data now holds across the UK, US and Ireland shows how universal audio’s advantage is as a catalyst in the media mix.”
Images: Cannes Lions and CRA