Since the Digital Audio Study 2023 at the latest we know: Digital Audio delivers. Advertising on this channel is credible, activates, and contributes to brand popularity. And it sticks in people’s minds, as the study figures show.

To deepen the understanding of the effects of audio advertising, we accompanied various campaigns from the “Automotive”, “Travel, Leisure, Tourism” and “Fashion & Sport” sectors with our Swiss Ad Impact advertising impact analysis, which used corresponding advertising budgets for Radio and Digital Audio. From December 2023 to August 2024, over 1500 people aged 15 to 79 from German- and French-speaking Switzerland were surveyed for this purpose.

The results of the advertising impact studies conclude that Digital Audio enhances the advertising impact of Radio in many ways.

Key Fact 1: Digital Audio effectively complements Radio campaigns and increases recall performance.

Within the framework of the analyzed campaigns, the highest advertising recall in all cases results from a combination of Digital Audio and Radio. In addition, when considering the advertising budgets used, the higher the share of Digital Audio in the total advertising spending, the stronger the ad recognition of the entire campaign increases.

Ad Recognition Digital Audio and Radio (with increasing advertising budgets)

For example, ad recognition for the campaign in the “Automotive” sector is 14%, while the campaign from the “Travel, Leisure, Tourism” segment is 17%. While the two campaigns had comparable budgets available, a higher proportion was invested in Digital Audio in the second case overall (5% vs. 14%), which accordingly led to higher overall advertising recall.

Key Fact 2: From a budget of CHF 30,000 for Digital Audio, advertising recall increases disproportionately.

Based on a regression analysis, ad recognition was analyzed as a function of the gross investment in Digital Audio. The result: From a budget of CHF 30,000 for Digital Audio, the percentage ad recognition grows disproportionately, which means that the overall campaign can benefit from a significantly stronger advertising impact.

Ad Recognition depending on gross spending

Key Fact 3: By using Radio together with Digital Audio, advertisers can also optimize the overall impact of the campaign.

If one considers not only ad recognition but also other impact levels of audio advertising, it can be seen that the combination of Radio and Digital Audio also has a clearly activating effect.

For example, in terms of purchase intention, 57% of the people who remember the Radio and Digital Audio advertising intend to buy the product. A combination of Radio and Digital Audio advertising clearly achieves the highest effectiveness.

Ad Impact on different impact levels

Key Fact 4: Digital Audio in the media mix significantly increases advertising recall among young people.

It is not really surprising and yet very pleasing: If the media mix is supplemented by Digital Audio, this increases the ad recognition of advertising among the young target group considerably. Respondents who are in education also remembered the corresponding advertising much more often.

Advertising recall among the younger target group

Conclusion

The nine Swiss Ad Impact studies implemented to date from a wide range of industries show that audio as a combination of Radio and Digital Audio is an above-average activating channel in the media mix, especially for sales.

The analyzed campaigns used an additional advertising budget to also play out existing Radio spots via Digital Audio channels.

Ad Impact in comparison (indexed)

Advertisers can therefore not only reach a broader and younger target group by combining Radio and Digital Audio, but also improve the recall performance and overall impact of their campaigns.

Interested?

Would you also like to turn your next campaign into a real earworm? Get in touch with us and we will discuss how we can most effectively integrate Digital Audio and Radio into your campaign.