Brief:

• Digital audio is becoming more popular among U.K. marketers, with the percentage of advertisers that have included the media format in their campaigns growing to 40% this year from 33% in 2018, per a survey that digital audio advertising firm Digital Audio Exchange shared with Mobile Marketer. Eighty-six percent of advertising agencies and 66% of brand advertisers said digital audio is a key part of their integrated media strategies as listenership of streaming music and podcasts grows.
• Seventy-five percent of U.K. advertisers plan to increase spending on podcasts in the next 12 months, with 78% of survey respondents saying that listeners are highly engaged with digital audio content, per DAX.
• The U.K. audience for digital audio has grown 14% in the past year to reach 28.3 million adults — more than half of the total adult audience each week. Each listener spends an average of 12.9 hours a week listening to digital audio, per data cited by DAX.

Insight:

DAX's survey indicates that marketer interest in digital audio has reached new records in the past year, as public consumption of streaming music and podcasts has grown. These insights come as the podcasting space is undergoing a wave of consolidation that could provide the scale and quality that advertisers are looking for, supporting the survey's findings that growth isn't likely to slow down anytime soon.

To support that growth, the digital audio industry needs to provide more accurate measurement data about audiences that will support ad spending. More than half (53%) of survey respondents think that streaming audio enables them to target the right people at the right time, second only to digital social media, but some participants lack awareness about how to attribute a return on investment to digital audio, per data cited by DAX. Targeting opportunities are beginning to expand, with Samsung and 3M among the first brands to test out podcast listener targeting on Spotify.

While DAX's survey focuses on the U.K. market, research of other markets support its findings. For example, podcast advertising increases key metrics like awareness, ad recall, affinity, recommendation and purchase intent, researcher Nielsen said in a blog post based on data from about 50 custom studies conducted in the past 18 months. All sizes of brands, ranging in top-of-mind awareness from 17% to 69%, are tracking the performance of their podcast ads. Monthly podcast listenership surged 32% this year, the biggest gain ever recorded, to 32 million people with strong gains among college-aged students and young professionals who are major target for the podcast industry, per a survey of U.S. consumers by Edison Research and Triton Digital.