Global Brands, Agencies and Publishers Came Together to Share Best Practices, Creative Breakthroughs, and Measurement Strategies that Power the Most Successful Audio Campaigns

Nearly 300 audio and podcast advertising influencers – including major brands, agencies and publishers – met on February 15 in New York City for Veritonic’s second annual Audio Intelligence Summit, to dive deep into key advancements and technologies in audio advertising. Veritonic, the industry’s leading provider of competitive, testing, and performance technology for audio, assembled the brightest minds in the industry to share best practices, creative and analytics utilizations, and innovative measurement and optimization strategies that drove the most successful audio and podcast advertising campaigns throughout the past year.

The summit highlighted the creative testing and measurement practices that are furthering campaign relevance, amplifying on-brand messages, and increasing ROI. The esteemed speakers included:

• James Clarke, Senior Director, Digital and Social Media, PepsiCo
• Jon Gibbs, Global Director and Principal Data Scientist, Advertising Sciences, Spotify
• Hetal Patel, EVP, Smart Audio and Insights, iHeartMedia
• Samantha Sweig, Associate Director, Analytics, Havas Media
• Margaux Natiello, Senior Partnerships Manager, Athletic Greens
• Steve Keller, Sonic Strategy Director, Studio Resonate, SXM Media

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Key insights gleaned from the summit include:

“PepsiCo Foods NA is a big believer in the power of audio, and we’ve been increasing advertising investment in audio-first channels for several years now. Audio was once the medium of choice for marketers a generation ago but fell out of favor with the advent of TV and subsequent introduction of Digital and Social Media advertising. It seems what was old is new again, however, as consumer time spent with audio is on the rise thanks to the surging popularity of streaming audio, podcasts, and voice technology – it is truly a second “audio renaissance”.

This is why we wanted to ensure our marquee brands like Doritos, Tostitos, and Fritos – each with their own well-established visual identities, also developed strong sonic identities to match. Veritonic’s validation testing was important to the development of our new brand-specific sonic identities including audio logos and sounds mapped to the consumer product journey or soundscape, like the sound of opening of a bag of chips, the sound of someone rummaging through a bag or crunching down on that first bite. We realized immediate and impactful results from our sonic investments. In fact, we saw double-digit increases in ad recall when sonic logos were applied because consumers are more apt to remember these distinctive sounds.” – James Clarke, Senior Director, Digital Marketing and Social Media, PepsiCo Foods NA

“When it comes to audio and podcast advertising, we like the test and learn approach. This is data-driven decision-making at its finest. Over time, voice assistance and ambient computing will be the next frontier. Voice will mature and become more sophisticated.” – Thad Smith, Senior Brand Manager, SMB, Indeed.

“Today, you don’t have to do cold creative. Cold creative is risky. Right now, backend measurement and pre-market testing are incredibly effective. The ability to get information on the backend and do testing up front helped Sport Clips make our audio campaigns much more effective from the get-go.” – Danielle Linden, Senior Director, Marketing, Sport Clips.

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The summit also offered never-before-seen data and insights around the impact of individual audio elements on campaign success, including voice, music, tone, pacing, use of sound effects and functional sounds, keywords, and calls-to-action, according to Veritonic Founder and CEO Scott Simonelli.

“We are proud to host the only measurement summit in the audio industry that brings together the best minds in the business to share how we can further the ever-evolving audio landscape,” he said. “This year, we will see more brands adopting audio-first marketing and media strategies that will deliver unmatched ROI and brand lift at a time when they need it the most.”

“Audio continues to evolve in amazing ways,” said Gina Garrubbo, President and CEO of National Public Media, the sponsorship subsidiary of NPR and a key sponsor of the Audio Intelligence Summit. “More brands are leveraging audio as a key element of their overall media strategy and storytelling ability. Television and digital advertising are effective but the intimacy that on-brand audio and podcasts brings is unmatched and delivers a stronger, more immediate brand lift,” she said.

Additional panelists at the summit included:

• Julia Kelly, Senior Manager, Ad Sales, Wondery
• Idil Cakim, SVP, Head of Research and Insights, Audacy
• Gretchen Smith, VP of Media, Ad Results Media
• Danielle Linden, Senior Director of Marketing, Sports Clips
• Sky Opila, Head of Acquisition Marketing, Policygenius
• Bryan Barletta, Partner, Sounds Profitable
• Thad Smith, Senior Global Manager, SMB, Indeed
• Adam Pleiman, Brand Sonic Strategist and Creative Director, Gwynne Sound
• Charles Cadbury, CEO, Say It Now
• Scott Marino, Senior Brand Partner, Morning Brew