Digital audio gives advertisers more than a feeling 

Opinion

Audio has mood-boosting superpowers. Global’s research finds it increases positive emotions by 25% and psychological wellness by 21%. Global’s audio commercial director explains.

Digital audio fills a critical gap for marketers — delivering trust, emotional resonance, and proven commercial outcomes in a single channel.

We all know the feeling: one great song, one familiar voice on the radio, or a podcast conversation that shifts your mood instantly. Advertisers have long understood the value of those moments.

In addition, audio’s brand-building strengths are well established. What has changed over time is the ability to prove its value for both brand building and short-term outcomes.

Audio now sits at the intersection of two opportunities shaping modern marketing. Brands need channels that build memory, meaning, and distinctiveness over time, and that clearly show how they deliver business outcomes.

That proposition received fresh backing at this year’s Cannes Lions festival, where marketing professor Mark Ritson unveiled analysis of more than 1,200 Effie-winning campaigns, conducted with System1.

The research found that campaigns incorporating audio delivered stronger commercial outcomes than those that didn’t, including higher profit, greater trust, improved customer acquisition and increased pricing power.

Ritson described audio as a “campaign catalyst” – a channel that helps the rest of the media mix work harder.

Audio drives profit and trust when included in marketing mix, global study finds

Audio is a campaign catalyst, in part thanks to its mood-boosting superpower. Research conducted in partnership with Global and Tapestry found that audio increased positive emotions by 25% and psychological wellness by 21%.

Brand recall also rose by 24% when ads appeared in uplifting environments. Those are not simply subtle signals. They point to something important: context has a big impact on advertising effectiveness.

When people are in a receptive, optimistic state, messages land differently. They are more likely to be processed positively, remembered more clearly and associated with trust.

Audio tends to exist in environments that people actively choose, return to, and incorporate into their daily routines. For example, in a varied, broad, and busy media environment where attention is precious, large communities of like-minded people choose radio for connection, thanks to its deliberately positive programming.

Feel-good content is nourishing – something we all seek a little more of in these turbulent times and perhaps as an antidote to doomscrolling. In fact, the latest MIDAS results reveal that 49m adults tune in to 20 hours of commercial radio every week.

With that in mind, and with Global’s recent launch of sentiment-targeting via its digital ad exchange DAX, brands can now utilise audio even more and move closer to matching marketing messages with real moments – moments of calm, motivation, focus or entertainment.

In addition, IPA Databank analysis shows that campaigns with a specific goal of building trust delivered an average 11-point uplift across customer acquisition, sales value and profit gain. System1’s analysis of Effie data similarly found that distinctive, emotionally positive campaigns were associated with a 7x profit multiplier.

Crucially, as proven by research from WPP Media and Radiocentre, digital audio outperforms other digital channels in both short- and long-term ROI.

Now, we know it’s not always possible to measure ROI on every campaign, so this year DAX has partnered with Nectar360 and integrated with Amazon’s DSP to help advertisers better understand the actions being taken, such as purchases at Sainsbury’s or add-to-cart via Amazon, as a result of highly targeted audio campaigns.

In our first DAX & Nectar 360 campaign for McCain, we saw a 133% uplift in purchases, cementing the findings from the WPP & Radiocentre research.

Global partners with Sainsbury’s and Nectar360 on audio measurement tracking

In a market where advertisers are under pressure to prove return on investment without sacrificing long-term brand growth, audio offers something rare: a channel that can create emotional connection, build trust and deliver measurable commercial outcomes.

Its advantage is not simply that it reaches millions of people. It is that it reaches them in the right state to make brand building work harder, and, as Mark Ritson said, boosts profit by up to 75%.

Tom Streetley is director, commercial, audio at Global