In recent years, audio marketing has certainly shared the spotlight and streaming services such as iTunes, Spotify, and Libsyn, have provided a boost to podcasts. More and more people are listening to radio and podcasts and marketers are also taking advantage of this. With YouTube and other platforms providing a chance to listen to podcasts, many suggested that radio may not be as popular as it once was, but recent research suggested there was still a future for radio.

Radio hit record revenue levels of £700m in 2018 in the UK. It also seems as if advertisers are more attracted to commercial radio now, more than previous years. Chris Evans recently moved from the BBC to the commercial world with Virgin Radio. Listening to advertisements during music or radio can sometimes irritate the listener. So in fear of backlash over advertisements during his show, the broadcaster opted to go ad-free and instead run regular branded content for its sponsor, Sky.

Because of the success of his move, we’re now seeing other stations such as iHeart cashing in on the popularity of podcasts in an attempt to boost ratings. The research was recently conducted by podcast company Acast, and it suggested that almost a quarter of UK adults have listened to a podcast in the past month. 76% of those listeners also said they have followed up with an advertisement of or sponsored message from that show.

Figures from that research suggest the surge in popularity in podcasts. Technology giants like Google have also continued to invest in podcast firms to widen their audio offering. Traditional Marketing trends are still working their magic for many marketers, but you may not be able to see the impact audio is making – but you can certainly hear it.