“No, you’re listening but you didn’t hear me!” 

It’s a passionately-delivered line from Denzel Washington’s Oscar-winning performance in Training Day.

Now sure, it’s not wholly original. Variations occur routinely, be it from a scolding parent or fiery boss. But the vehemence with which Denzel delivers this line makes it a should-be slogan for a crucial, growing trend in marketing: audio. Business owners might be hearing that it’s coming - “yeah yeah people like podcasts these days, whatever” -  but they’re not truly hearing the power.

Because consumers are hearing. And podcast popularity is merely the tip of the iceberg. Audio is dominating the consumption, marketing & business landscapes, and it’s only going to grow. We have the data to prove it, so let’s parse it out across three popular realms.

Podcasts

Let’s tackle that iceberg tip first. 

As of 2022, over ⅓ of Americans listen to podcasts regularly. For context on a weekly scale, more Americans listen to podcasts than have Netflix accounts. And while COVID may have been a terrible time overall, it certainly wasn’t for podcast growth. Downloads were up 17% compared to just 2020. 17% in two years!

Beyond the increase in popularity, there is something distinct about podcasts (and one upcoming audio medium) that makes it attractive for advertisers, compared to, say, television or print.

People love their podcasts for more than just the content. They love, and trust, their hosts.

This is massive because of the credence it adds. Testimonials given by hosts compel listeners much more than a standard, impersonal advertisement in between sitcom scenes or recipes in a cooking magazine.

Speaking of testimonials, they’re probably even more effective for small businesses in particular, in another audio format…

Radio

Ah yes, the king of top-of-mind awareness.

As radio is so much older than podcasts (the first radio transmission occurred in 1895), many have dismissed it as ineffective, irrelevant, and fading. And, welp, it’s just not what the numbers say. Let’s stick with the testimonial angle:

Radio holds the highest share of collective trust across all advertising channels. That is valuable in normal times, but think about our times, where people are more distrustful of institutions and media than ever before. When you get your business’ word on the radio, it carries weight because of the medium specifically. Why?

It’s local, and it’s community-oriented in the purest sense. People know that when they’re tuned in to their favorite stations, they’re partaking in that community, enhancing it, and supporting it afterward when they patronize businesses they hear about. The affinity listeners have for their podcasts guests frankly pales in comparison to the affinity radio listeners hold for their AM/FM hosts, because those hosts are fixtures in the same community that surrounds them. One could even say they’re friends, in a sense.

Expanding out, here is some more data establishing radio as a force to still be reckoned with:

• Currently at $69.64 billion, the global radio station market is expected to reach $81.93 billion in 2026 (compound annual growth rate of 3%).

• Radio reaches 41.2 million monthly listeners who are baby boomers. That equates to an astonishing 98% in the U.S..

• 55% of Gen Z (ages 13-24) listens to radio. To be frank, this is probably the prime retort to the radio naysayers.
  

Streaming

All horses are animals but not all animals are horses. That’s kind of like the relationship of podcasts & radio, underneath the “streaming” umbrella.

You may have heard about Netflix’s tumble earlier this year, after a significant hit to their subscribers. Look, we couldn’t connect the dots in a court of law with physical evidence, but we would bet our bottom dollar this stems from a shift toward audio streaming.

• Americans stream an average of 75 minutes of just music per day. Gen Z is a huge dominator here, topping out at a whopping 97 minutes per day.

• There are 2.4 million streaming podcasts as of Q2 2022.

• The global music streaming market is expected to grow from $24.09 billion in 2021 to $27.24 billion in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.08%.
  

Why is Audio Marketing Taking Over?

Paradigm shifts within industries usually have the same chief cause when you distill them - convenience, and wowser does it apply to the audio marketing takeover.

It’s not that consuming social media ads, television, print, billboards, heck, the back of a bus, is hard. But these all require you to be doing something specific to consume them (television admittedly least among them)

Audio, however, is supremely flexible. Wherever you go, when you go and how you go, it goes. Driving, exercising, cooking, cleaning, flying, winding down to sleep and gearing up for an interview. Audio can be everywhere, which means savvy advertisers can be too.

But there’s more than just where it can go. It’s how it can then resonate. Remember how we touched on the relationship people have with podcast hosts and, more strongly, local radio DJs? Parlay that, and think about when that relationship can enter people’s kitchen every night, or keep them grinding on the treadmill.

Audio isn’t only convenient. Its very nature deepens connections, pure and simple.

Audio Marketing for Your Small Business.

We’ve covered the three massive audio arenas, but depending on the size & customer base of your company, podcasts and music streaming may not be best suited for your realistic sales goals. Enter good, local radio, something we have specialized in to the tune of Boise-area dominance. 
So whether it’s you or someone you know that has a small business that wants to spread awareness and increase sales while leaving competitors in the dust, we offer the most engaged listeners in the Treasure Valley.

So let’s chat.