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Monday, February 1, 2021

iHM's Brokaw: Audio Ads Are Sanctuary For Maxed-Out Eyes


As president of digital revenue strategy at US radio group iHeartMedia, Carter Brokaw is charged with diversifying and capitalizing upon what, these days, is a spectrum of audio listening and ad opportunities far broader than “radio” itself.

In an interview with Beet.TV, Brokaw explained how new technology is helping him help advertisers to find the perfect audience across a plethora of platforms.

“I think there are a lot of people that are leaning into audio because they’re realizing the intimacy of the messaging,” Brokaw stated.

“The personalization of a lot of that messaging (has) the ability to really connect with people through their ears and not their eyes, which seem to be very maxed out these days.

“Mindshare did a Neurolab study where they looked at brand stories and then a sort of an audio basis versus a visual basis. The ones that are told audibly elicit three times more positive brand associations than the one that do it visually.”

iHeartMedia has what Brokaw calls a “flywheel” of audio touchpoints:

  • 850 broadcast radio stations that reach nine out of 10 Americans
  • more than 220 million social followers
  • almost 30 million unique listeners in podcasting

iHeartRadio now boasts live radio streams, podcasts, music playlists, and “artist-radio” station. Across iHeart’s scale, the stats are impressive:

  • 144 million registered users
  • 250+ platforms and 2,000+ devices
  • 2,500+ live stations
  • 2.2 billion downloads
  • Podcasts in focus

Brokaw says emerging digital audio formats offer advertisers heightened consumer attention.

“What’s unique about podcasting is that people are really not consuming other mediums or other media while they’re listening to audio,” he says. “You have this really fertile environment for brands to trade on the currency between an audience and a host.

“In our particular case, we do 100% host-read ads. So taking advantage of that sort of cachet has really brought to life a lot of the great storytelling that exists in audio.

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