Audio outperforms video when it comes to attention

New study: Audio is more effective in retaining customers attention than video

Video killed the radio star, or not? New studies show that this might be about to turn. Video still is one of the most popular media, especially in terms of ads that are supposed to attract and retain potential customers. BUT a new study from Dentsu in cooperation with among others Spotify shows, that audio is moving up the latter. A surprising fact that is worth looking at in more detail. And that is what we are going to do here.

A brand-new study from Dentsu (1^st of August 2023), involving podcast, radio and music streaming, in cooperation with Lumen Research and platforms such as Spotify shows a new way of measuring listeners attention.

The result is very surprising and shows a very clear trend: Audio ads – involving everything from podcasts to radio – created a lot more attention and an increase of brand awareness compared to other forms of ads for platforms.

Two factors, which are very important for marketers, who basically always dream of an increase of both attention and brand awareness.

Numbers of the study almost speak for themselves:

• 41% of the audio ads created brand awareness compared to the norms and previous studies performed by Dentsu.
• Brand engagement for audio ads was up to 10% (almost twice as high as for other forms of advertising according to Dentsu)
• The aCPM (number of seconds, in which the listener is aware, per a thousand showings) was 50% higher end Dentsus norms.

Based on this, the study points out the ongoing importance of audio being a strong medium, when it comes to gaining the listeners attention.

Each and every audio channel has it´s advantages

As an additional fact, the study also shows that each and every channel for audio ads (podcast, music streaming and radio) has it´s own set of advantages.

Podcasts were for example one of the channels, where the listeners attention span was the longest. In terms of performance, the ads worked best here, when the podcast host read them out directly. This also shows how important a human voice can be to grab the listeners attention and for them to remember the brand.

At the same time, the study showed, that radio had a high aCPM – actually ten times more effective than a standard online video ad.

As a matter of fact, this is the most important. Grabbing the attention of potential customers and keeping it as long as possible. Dentsus study about audio comes as an addition to their Attention Economy Research that has a focus on how you can create attention for you as a brand.

The new way of measuring this and for the first time shown, how important audio is.

And it totally makes sense. That is because audio is the only thing you can take with you while doing other things, for example going for a walk or driving to work. Audio is always there, even though your focus and energy might be somewhere else. Just think of TV ads. The audio is always with you, even if you go in the kitchen to get some coffee.

Simply put: Audio is important – especially with the increase of podcasts and music streaming that we can currently observe.