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The 4 Steps to Winning Audio Creative

By Audacy Insights Team

Music. Sound signature. Tagline. When it comes to Audio advertising, there are so many creative elements to explore for engaging your audience and extending your identity. How to choose the ones that will deliver strong results in recall, brand favorability, and the ultimate goal, purchase? 


You’ve come to the right place. We’ve teamed up with Veritonic to share a few proven tips to create powerful Audio ads. Here’s how to make what we fondly call the “Fab Four” work for your brand.

chart

Sonic branding

Spoiler alert – sonic branding is the single most effective way for marketers to improve brand recognition in your Audio ads. A strong sonic logo is ‘sticky’, and ties our memory and emotions directly to your brand. Most importantly, including sonic branding, whether that’s an audio logo, brand anthem or simple tagline, drives listeners to action – boosting both brand recall and purchase intent.

+17%
Increases Ad Recall in Radio Ads by 17%
14%
Increases Ad Recall in Podcast Ads by 14%

Master the music

Whether you’re selecting breezy melodies or powerful beats, music grabs attention, reinforces your brand, and connects with target audiences. Ads with music are simply more memorable than those without. Whether on radio or podcasts, it reverberates with 3% higher energetic emotion scores, 4% higher recall, and 5% higher purchase intent. Those numbers are always in fashion. Just ask United Artists, which used a compelling voice and the Eurythmics’ haunting “Sweet Dreams” in the trailer for its House of Gucci film.

House of Gucci

Find your voice

Male or female? Young or mature? Energetic or authoritative? One or many? You need to find your voice – or voices – that will break through the noise to ensure your brand makes a resounding impact. And the secret to success? Drumroll, please… definitely more than one. Ads with multiple voices increase recall by 10%.

+10%
Ads with multiple voices increase recall by 10%

Script tips

At the heart of every ad is the script. Here are a few tips to remember when creating your next audio ad.

  • Mention your brand. A lot. Brand mentions make an impact. When your ad has 4+ brand mentions, purchase intent rises by 4%.
  • Between two and four creatives works best. The one-trick-pony ad is out. And multiple creatives are in. Develop a few options so your ad campaign can match to your target audiences.
  • Size matters. 30 second ads are the sweet spot, outperforming others on engagement, brand effect, recall, and other key indicators.

People think about what they see, but they feel what they hear. Audio is not only the most trusted and immersive medium, but it’s also the #1 reach medium. It’s your job to keep the ears of all those listeners with the Fab Four of sonic branding, music, voice, and message. Done properly, it sparks emotions, evokes brand recognition, and drives purchases. Add in a little surprise that catches your audience off-guard, and you’ll be hearing the sweet sound of success.

For more Audio creative insights, check out Sound Creative: How to Build Winning Audio Ads.

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SOURCES

Sound Creative: How to Build Winning Audio Ads, Audacy, February 2023

Methodology: We analyzed the content of 113 ads from OTA and podcast platforms, across entertainment, auto, consumer packaged goods, and financial service categories. The content analysis delved into 20 attributes, including voiceover gender, sonic branding type, and ad tone. We then ran a custom survey asking more than 330 consumers their opinions about the ads and the brands they represent.

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