New research shows that advertising campaigns that incorporate audio are significantly more likely to deliver stronger commercial results, including higher profits, greater consumer trust and improved pricing power, according to a new international study released by Radiocentre Ireland and its research partners.
The research was unveiled by Professor Mark Ritson this week at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity and involved a collaboration between Radiocentre Ireland, Commercial Radio & Audio, Radiocentre, Radiocentre Ireland, the Radio Advertising Bureau, System1, Effie, MiniMBA and Little Black Book
The research, “The Secret to Profit and Trust: Audio”, analysed more than 1,200 award-winning marketing campaigns from the Effie and System1 databases across the UK, Ireland, Europe and the United States. It concludes that audio consistently acts as a “catalyst” that enhances the effectiveness of wider advertising campaigns.
The research found that campaigns using audio as part of their media mix achieved a 23% uplift in overall campaign effectiveness in the UK and Ireland compared with campaigns that did not include audio. Across all markets analysed, campaigns featuring audio outperformed those without it by 22%, with gains also recorded in Europe (16%) and the United States (5%).
Ritson also noted that the research found there was a strong relationship between audio and commercial performance. Campaigns incorporating audio were 75% more likely to generate profit than campaigns without audio. They were also associated with an 81% increase in consumer trust and price insensitivity, while customer acquisition improved by 19%.
The research also noted that the profit effect became even more pronounced as campaign investment increased. While smaller campaigns using audio recorded a 27% improvement in profitability, medium-sized campaigns delivered a 74% uplift and larger campaigns achieved an 88% increase compared with equivalent campaigns without audio.
Beyond financial outcomes, the research also noted that audio strengthened brand-building metrics. Campaigns featuring audio were 16% more likely to improve brand differentiation and recorded a 12% improvement in brand image, suggesting audio contributes to creating more distinctive brands.
The study argues that audio becomes particularly powerful when combined with emotionally engaging creative. Emotional campaigns running for more than three years generated incremental profit in 33% of cases, compared with just 6% for campaigns lacking emotional engagement. When emotional advertising also incorporated audio, profitability more than doubled.
Researchers also highlighted the importance of distinctive sonic branding. Campaigns that combined audio with recognisable brand assets substantially outperformed those using either approach independently. Campaigns using both audio and distinctive brand assets generated the strongest profit performance in the study, more than doubling results achieved by campaigns that used neither.
The report further found that sonic branding assets, such as audio logos and distinctive sound devices, ranked among the most effective tools for improving brand fluency and recall, outperforming many traditional visual branding techniques. Brand recall increased steadily as campaigns employed a greater number of distinctive brand assets.
Professor Mark Ritson, a global marketing consultant and founder of MiniMBA, described the findings as “yet more beautiful data”, arguing that “the case for audio’s effectiveness is unequivocal” and that “audio is the catalyst that makes your whole campaign work harder.”
“In a competitive landscape where advertisers need their campaigns to work even harder, the evidence again points to the power of audio,” said Ciaran Cunningham, CEO, Radiocentre Ireland.
For brands, the Effie and System1 data is clear: audio drives significantly stronger profit, deeper trust and the price resilience that protects margins. That a case first built on Australian Effie data now holds across the UK, US and Ireland only shows how universal audio’s advantage is as a catalyst in the media mix.”
Andrew Tindall, chief growth officer at System1, which carried out the research, said the evidence consistently showed that emotional audio campaigns “roughly double their profit”. He added that pairing emotional advertising with distinctive sonic brand assets and running campaigns consistently over time produced a compounding effect.
The study was produced through a collaboration between Commercial Radio & Audio, Radiocentre, Radiocentre Ireland, the Radio Advertising Bureau, System1, Effie, MiniMBA and Little Black Book. It draws on campaign effectiveness data collected between 2007 and 2023.
Download a copy of the report HERE
