What Brands Want: New Report Highlights from 50 CAOs

The Media Roundtable is back! This week we’re doing a deep dive into our new first-of-its-kind study: What Brands Want.

The study came straight from our CAO Summit where, notably 5 of the top 15 podcast advertising spenders including; DraftKings, BetterHelp, Stamps.com, Indeed, and many others, shared their insights on what they want to see in the industry. 

Dan Granger, (CEO & Founder, Oxford Road) hosts Neal Lucey (EVP, Strategy & Product, Oxford Road), Giles Martin (EVP, Strategy & Insights, Oxford Road), and expert consulting CAO Rion Swartz, (former Marketing VP at Constant Contact, Shutterstock, & LegalZoom) to sift through the report’s insights, where the industry is, and where it needs to go.

The team is talking: Podcast Measurement Tools, Brand Safety, AI Voices, and more. Let’s dive in.

“If you're investing in endorsement, podcasts, radio, host-read ads, you're investing in authenticity and trust. And if there's anything that's compromising that, it's not worth it.”

Tool Parity ⚖️ - CAOs agree: audio measurement tools aren’t great. 83% agreed audio tools are less useful than what they can get in other channels. Neal’s ideal solution? Two MMM models. One for sales and one for awareness. Of course, as they say; ‘’attribution is a bit like religion: at some point you have to pick something and decide that's what you're going to believe in.’

Lean vs. Extreme 🤬 - When it comes to brand safety, CAOs are more worried about extreme political views (62%) than they are about political lean (23%). The first steps to filtering out extreme content for your brand? Checking for bias and personal attacks with help from our partners at Ad Fontes and Seekr.

AI Voices 🤖 - 80% of CAOs we surveyed were uncomfortable using AI voices. Why? Audio works on the triangle of trust: from brands, to hosts, to the audience. Anything that endangers that trust is a liability, and at least right now, that non-zero risk isn’t worth eroding trust for extra efficiency.

Whether you’re a CAO, a podcast creator or on the network side, you need to hear firsthand what these top brands are looking for. First, download the ‘What Brands Want’ report by clicking HERE, then click the link below to hear the Media Roundtable team break it all down.

Bianca Gorodinsky