Lumen and Denstu reveal audio beats video for attention and brand recall

A study by Lumen and Dentsu on sound advertising in three formats revealed that any of them is more effective than video when it comes to capturing attention and generating brand recall. The research also included the participation of Amazon Ads, Audacy, Cumulus Media, iHeartMedia, Spotify and SXM Media, and is part of the Dentsu Attention Economy project, which celebrates its fifth anniversary this year and was generated by the project. Among the results, 41% of audio ads generated correct brand recall in follow-up surveys, compared to 38% for other types of advertising, primarily video, in Dentsu’s database. The average impact on brand choice metrics was positive at 10% for audible ads, versus a typical 6% in the Dentsu database for other ads. Sound advertising produced an average of 10,126 seconds of attention per thousand impressions, more than 50% higher than the norm of 6,501 in Dentsu’s database of previous studies. Of course, video continues to dominate ad budgets. TV and digital media, especially video, accounted for 90% of measured media spend in the US last year, according to Vivvix, including paid social data from Pathmatics. Radio only accounted for 3%. A small group of advertisers, led by Procter & Gamble Co. but also including video advertising heavyweight Comcast and drugmaker Pfizer, increased radio advertising substantially last year. But radio’s CPMs, at $5-6, are well below those of linear TV ($10-15) and streaming video , which hit $65. But that could start to change given the attention research. “Best of all, we’ve not only put together six major competitors, but we’ve also looked at three different formats,” said Doug Rozen, general manager of Dentsu Media in the Americas. “The fact is that attention to audio is proving to be really high compared to our norms for other platforms, which is counterintuitive since you are often multitasking when consuming audio. But it actually has that attention commitment more than other channels.” According to Joanne Leong, Dentsu’s Global Director of Planning, “Incorporating audio attention data into Dentsu’s planning process and planning tools will allow the agency to “raise the level of audio conversations the different types of audio to be able to justify this investment before the clients, in addition to what already existed previously”. Podcast ads get more attention Podcasts measured across Audacy, Cumulus Media, iHeartMedia, Spotify, and SXM garnered the most attention compared to other digital, social, and television benchmarks in the study . Ads read by podcast hosts outperformed traditional audio ads in podcasts in moving the needle on brand preference. Radio, as measured by Audacy, Cumulus and iHeartMedia, also generated more attention per thousand impressions than other digital, social and television references. It was ten times more efficient at generating recall than the average number of online video ads measured in Dentsu’s Attention Economy project. “Measured music streaming on Amazon Music via voice with Alexa and on mobile or desktop devices drove better brand choice lift for 30-second ads on Alexa-enabled devices than mobile and desktop. But overall, there weren’t huge differences in attention and brand recall metrics between mainstream radio, streaming , and podcasts , as they all tended to outperform video ads on those measures,” said Mike Follett, CEO of Lumen.