Audacy CMO: AI Will Make Ads Better, But Audio’s ‘Human Connection’ Will Hold Fast.

Artificial intelligence will impression advertising, however it won’t substitute it. Instead, Audacy CMO Paul Suchman sees artistic benefits for the AI neighborhood because it approaches audio campaigns. But he says Audacy sees itself as “fierce protectors” of the human connection that’s one of many key components of the audio format’s success.

“Of all of the media on the market, audio is so distinctly human. It’s voices connecting with folks, immediately into their ears, into their brains, into their hearts,” Suchman says. Speaking on the ANA’s Marketing Futures podcast, he says the rationale advertisers need to be on their podcasts and radio properties is due to the human connection, so it would restrict how far AI will be taken. “We are completely integrating it however doing it in a method that we will be champions of human connection and human creativity and simply humanity,” he says.

Audacy is already utilizing AI to type by way of giant volumes of knowledge to focus on particular cohorts of listeners at a scale not attainable earlier and analyze efficiency. While its artistic use has been restricted, Suchman says it has additionally been useful when a multimarket advert marketing campaign must be localized with particular mentions of a geography or group of listeners.

“It’s end-of-assembly line manufacturing the place AI has an excellent position, as a result of it does it rapidly and effectively and with out error,” he says. “But it’s being executed based mostly on a really human and artistic idea. And it’s contributing to outcomes, as a result of it’s delivering messages with extra precision and specificity than ever earlier than.”

Looking ahead to 2025, Suchman says they’ve a slate of podcast content material in improvement. While he gives no clues as to what kind of content material is on the horizon, Suchman says by way of promoting the “pendulum is swinging” and extra advertisers are wanting past simply driving gross sales with audio adverts.

“We’re seeing a swing again to model promoting,” he says. Suchman says driving gross sales stays the endgame, however entrepreneurs want to do this by way of shining a lightweight on their model and their core worth proposition, in addition to the issues that make them completely different. “Brand advertising is alive and properly in 2025; that’s completely a pattern that we’re seeing,” he says.

Suchman additionally sees a rising position of factoring emotional branding into their campaigns, as extra corporations are placing extra emotion, character and creativity into their artistic. He says analysis helps a shift in that route.

“What we’re seeing within the audio area is promoting that makes use of emotional worth that appeals to each the EQ (emotional quotient) and the IQ is having higher outcomes all throughout the funnel, driving consciousness, curiosity, consideration, and importantly, driving motion and outcomes,” Suchman says. He says the “theater of the thoughts” part to audio promoting creates an emotional impression that’s driving listeners to take motion and ship outcomes for manufacturers that use the medium in the proper method.

“People undergo the day of their rituals, they usually eat audio at completely different moments of the day, they usually’re extra engaged,” Suchman says. “When the promoting is hitting these emotional chords, and it’s hitting throughout the proper ritual — that makes the emotional impression much more highly effective.”

‘New Audiences Coming Into Audio’

It is not only advertisers which can be altering. So too are listeners. Suchman says listeners are additionally spending extra time consuming audio, with a 3rd of their media time every day spent listening to radio, podcasts, and different content material.

“We have the empirical knowledge to indicate that audio consumption is rising. However, promoting spend towards audio just isn’t maintaining tempo with that,” he says. “Audio is an under-invested media for advertisers. We see that hole closing and extra {dollars} shifting from different media into audio in 2025.” Suchman credit extra manufacturers embracing a “complete audio” media plan that features not simply podcasts however streaming in addition to over-the-air radio, leveraging them as a complete audio package deal inside a media plan.

“There are new audiences coming into audio. The youthful viewers coming into audio is consuming podcasts, but in addition radio. They is probably not consuming it in the best way that earlier generations consumed it, however they’re embracing that reside, native, actual, uncooked energy of radio, and simply loving it,” he says. “We’re actually heartened to see that the ability of radio, capital ‘R’ radio, is being embraced by youthful shoppers.”

Suchman says podcasts are “nonetheless the darling” of audio, even because the trade develops in actual time.

“We’re seeing requirements and norms growing in actual time because the trade matures proper earlier than our eyes,” he says. “The authentic method that it was being purchased is advertisers have been shopping for particular exhibits. That’s nonetheless occurring now, however we’re additionally seeing exhibits being purchased programmatically. And it has had an actual impression, as you’re in a position to purchase a wider collection of exhibits based mostly on viewers standards.”

Buying Tribes, Not Shows

Suchman sees extra advertisers shopping for throughout networks and providers like Audacy’s Podcorn, which works with hundreds of small exhibits, serving to entrepreneurs join with area of interest podcasts. The style nature of podcast content material permits listeners to collect into tribes that congregate round content material, like sports activities, true crime, or information. Suchman says that has allowed Audacy to promote these tribes to manufacturers, reasonably than particular exhibits.

The technique has proven promising outcomes. New Balance labored with Audacy to place its shoe adverts into particular sports activities content material, and it had an almost 350% return on its promoting spend. In one other execution, Mazda labored with Audacy to establish and discover consumers who’re prepared to purchase automobiles. That drove them to information, speak, and sports activities content material. The consequence was a greater than 25% improve in foot visitors to Mazda sellers.

“We had hundreds and hundreds of vendor visits attributed immediately again to our audio campaigns,” Suchman says. “And AI performed a task in there, in serving to us create that content material in a method that was very particular to a vendor, to a location, to a set of auto options that we thought would resonate with a specific cohort.”

He says comparable efforts have labored for manufacturers corresponding to Dunkin’, Mass Mutual, Nike, Pepsi, and Verizon, amongst others.