The audio industry bodies of Australia, the UK, the US and Ireland have added their voices to a single global argument – and taken the evidence to Cannes Lions. For the first time, Commercial Radio & Audio (CRA), Radiocentre UK, Radiocentre Ireland and the Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB US) joined forces to make the case for audio advertising.
The bodies brought Professor Mark Ritson to Cannes Lions to present new evidence for audio’s role in today’s media. The session, titled ‘The Secret to Profit and Trust: Audio,’ was hosted at LBB & Friends Beach and drew on the Effie x System1 global databank of 1,262 campaigns spanning 17 years to prove how commercial audio lifts ad performance.
Campaigns with audio outperform those without audio on profit (+75 per cent), trust (+81 per cent), price insensitivity (+81 per cent) and customer acquisition (+19 per cent). Audio’s profit contribution also scales with media spend. Across 14 measures, the average uplift for all campaigns with audio was +22 per cent, compared to campaigns with no audio.
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 run consistently. Ciarán Cunningham, CEO, Radiocentre Ireland, said that in a competitive landscape where advertisers need their campaigns to work even harder, evidence again points to the power of audio.
“For brands, the Effie and System1 data is clear: audio drives significantly stronger profit, deeper trust and the price resilience that protects margins. That a case first built on Australian Effie data now holds across the UK, US and Ireland only shows how universal audio’s advantage is as a catalyst in the media mix,” Cunningham added.
Evidence
Professor Mark Ritson, global marketing consultant and founder of MiniMBA, said: “The case for audio’s effectiveness is unequivocal; in every market we’ve studied: 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.”
The talk was followed by a discussion between Little Black Book’s managing editor AU/NZ Brittney Rigby and System1 chief growth officer, Andrew Tindall. Tindall said that the data proves emotional audio campaigns roughly double their profit. Pair that emotion with distinctive sonic brand assets and run it consistently. It’s simple, yet sound advice, he added.
Radiocentre Ireland was established by RTE and IBI. It is managed by a board comprising three representatives of RTÉ and the Independent Broadcasters of Ireland respectively. John Purcell chairs the group. The board is made up of RTÉ’s Patricia Monahan, Debbie Kennedy and Gavin Deans. Sean Barry, Chris Doyle and Fionnuala Rabbitt represent the IBI.
