We Nailed 9 of 10 of Our 2023 Predictions. What’s Next for 2024?
Chief Audio Officers, as we plan for 2024, it’s the perfect time to go back and see how well we predicted audio in 2023. Because as Churchill said; “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
So how did Oxford Road do on our 2023 predictions? TL;DR, scary good. Like a 90% hit rate. And not to toot our own crystal ball, but for all the CAOs who care about where audio is heading, you’ll want to hear what we think is coming down the RSS feed in 2024.
Hosting the Media Roundtable once more is Oxford Road Founder and CEO, Dan Granger, joined by fellow Podcastradamuses James Ingrassia, Spencer Semonson, and Stew Redwine.
“[Audio] is the last kitchen table conversation that exists in this country.”
Dan Granger, Founder and CEO of Oxford Road
So, let’s recalibrate our crystal ball and make a full tarot deck’s worth of bold predictions that’ll no doubt shape your year and budgets.
1. Grading our Homework 🔮
We made 10 predictions at the beginning of 2023 and 9 came true (the 10th was about an emerging remnant marketplace–we think we’re still right on it happening, but wrong on the timing).
Some of our top-called shots:
The Age of Verification ✅- We predicted a significant focus on ad delivery verification with more emphasis on where ads land in podcasts and standardizing verification– that hit in a BIG way.
Brand Safety and Suitability 🦺- We said the tools were coming to make it safe for big brands to enter the podcast space and they absolutely arrived.
Big Brand Bucks 🤑- We predicted a shift from D2C to brand advertisers (helped by the brand safety tools) and that happened in a very real and measurable way.
2. How we see 2024
To help you make better choices (and also hold our feet to the fire come 2025) we’ve compiled one handy source of truth of all our expert predictions for 2024.
What kind of 2024 are we tuned into?
There’s strong agreement that listenership (and revenue) will go up in aggregate (h/t to an election year).
CPMs and Content Investment look to trend down, thanks in part to radio’s melting ice cube and production companies trying not to get burned… again.
For the industry, we’re betting that chaos prevails over standardization.
Plus, our experts are calling some other big shots for 2024:
⚖️ We’re counting down to the first advertiser sued for a fake AI endorsement. (To make sure it’s not you, Dan’s advice is a good starting point: “Don't pay somebody to say that they did something they didn't actually do.”)
📋 2024: the year of HDYHAU - because you need attribution that won’t get destroyed when Google changes its policy.
🎤 Not satisfied merely dominating all things music, Taylor Swift will launch a podcast that crushes all others (Sorry, New Heights).
For full breakdowns of these bold predictions and a whole lot more (including Oxford Road’s hot dog marketing experiment and Spencer’s lasting anti-iPhone bias) listen to the full episode by clicking the link below. For a full, detailed report on all of our 2024 predictions, click here.