Oxford Road's "What Brands Want" Report Reveals Major Flaws in Audio AdTech

Oct. 16, 2024

Following the recent release of “The Danger of Rising PodLoad” report, leading independent audio agency Oxford Road launches "What Brands Want: How Audio Publishers Can Win Over Advertisers." Offering new insights and data, the report highlights how leading audio advertisers feel about the current state of podcasting, radio and streaming, suggesting that measurement tools and innovative applications of AI are failing to live up to their potential.

“What Brands Want” comes as audio reasserts itself as a major medium, with US podcast listenership alone having grown 100% since the start of 2015. Oxford Road polled 49 Chief Audio Officers (CAOs) – brand marketers who own audio advertising responsibilities within their organizations - to better understand how brand sentiments are also changing. Based on Magellan data, 5 of the top 15 podcast advertising spenders were represented among these CAOs, all from key brands investing in audio, including DraftKings, BetterHelp, Indeed, Stamps.com and dozens of others.

Their responses reveal an overwhelming lack of satisfaction with technology applications in the audio space. Notably, brands largely agreed that the tools available for measuring audio are less effective than those used for other channels. In fact, only 14% of CAOs said they find the tools available for measuring audio campaigns “somewhat more” or “much more useful” than those for other channels. Meanwhile, 83% said they find the tools used to measure audio advertising “much less” or “somewhat less useful” than those used for measuring campaigns in other channels.

Brands also showed significant skepticism about artificial intelligence's rise–particularly regarding audio advertising automation, which they perceive as undercutting genuine partnerships with creators. For example, when asked how comfortable they are with AI-generated host reads or cloned voices for personal endorsements, rating on a scale of 0-5, 80% of CAOs rated their comfort level between 0 and 2. 

Other insights from the report include:

• "Political extremism" has emerged as CAOs’ top brand safety concern
• An overwhelming amount of CAOs surveyed revealed they use audio for lower-funnel marketing, indicating the channel’s value in driving performance
• For audio-specific performance measurement, CAOs prefer Media Mix Modeling over survey-based or more streaming audio and podcast-friendly pixel-based tools

Oxford Road CEO Dan Granger explained:

“AI verification, programmatic, synthetic voice, brand safety -- these are all examples where technology is definitely making the marketplace better. But as we think about the future of audio, we also need to remember why we love the medium. We care about the personalities. We want to hear people's thoughts and opinions. I believe that audio is the greatest canvas in media for the free and open exchange of ideas, and I hope this direct feedback from Chief Audio Officers ensures that as the industry embraces new technology, we continue to protect some of that authenticity."