With the economy remaining unstable, small businesses have to spend more carefully than ever, and new analysis from Audacy CMO Jenny Nelson suggests audio is where those dollars work hardest, addressing three separate advertiser challenges.
The first challenge is brand building. Citing eMarketer, the post notes that 38% of small business owners name brand reputation as a top priority, and 74% say brand building is critical to long-term goals. Audio’s answer is its reach across daily routines with sponsorships, talent integrations, and live events, embedding brands in the consumer experience rather than interrupting it.
A Hellmann’s Mayonnaise campaign with tailgate activations at MetLife Stadium and the University of Maryland, hosted by WFAN, generated social shares and on-site brand engagement.
The second challenge is trust. Audacy’s Creator Impact Study, fielded online among 15,284 respondents ages 13 and older between December 2024 and February 2025, found that 74% of AM/FM broadcast or streaming listeners have purchased a brand after hearing an ad from their radio host, and 84% recommended that brand to friends or family.
Podcast listeners track similarly. Audacy’s April 2025 Podcast Study found 76% have purchased a brand after a creator’s ad, with Audacy podcast listeners twice as likely to buy advertised products compared to the general population.
The third challenge is digital conversion. Nielsen Commspoint US 2025 data shows that adding audio to existing digital campaigns drives measurable lift: 28% conversion growth for display, 11% for OTT, 9% for social, and a 26% brand awareness increase for search. An unnamed grocery chain case study puts the cross-channel argument in concrete terms: a campaign combining local streaming audio, podcast network ads, and geo-targeted display generated 64,000 additional in-store visits.
The post closes with a note on AI, with Audacy flagging answer engine optimization and digital out-of-home as areas of active development as AI-powered search reshapes how consumers discover local businesses, which follows some of the same lines as analysis from the Cumulus Media Audio Active Group.
