Audio has not simply survived the digital revolution; it has thrived. Here’s how marketers can make the most of the medium.
In a world obsessed with visual stimulation, something remarkable is happening; we’re falling in love with listening all over again. While industry experts once predicted television would be the end of radio as we know it, audio has continuously found new ways to capture our attention and imagination.
What explains this staying power? Perhaps it’s audio’s unique ability to play into the ‘theatre of the mind’. Unlike video, which demands visual attention, audio can accompany us during commutes, workouts, while we’re working, or engaging in other pursuits.
As marketers, it allows us to create a rich world for a fraction of the cost of doing so visually and achieve massive reach. Deloitte predicts that consumption of audio entertainment will continue to grow globally – bringing average monthly podcast listeners to 1.7 billion, music subscribers to 750 million, and radio listeners to four billion.
Power of audio in African markets
For brands operating in African markets, audio offers a compelling value proposition. The United Nations predicts that by 2050, Africa’s population will surpass 2.5 billion – representing a quarter of the world. This, coupled with the continued democratisation of audio technology, represents huge potential for both creators and consumers.
Production costs for audio remain significantly lower than video content, while distribution networks continue to expand. As smartphone penetration increases and data costs decrease, audio’s accessibility advantage only strengthens.
According to recent BRC RAMS data, 75% of South Africans aged 15+ tuned into radio weekly, dedicating an average of 5 hours and 12 minutes daily to listening. This engagement spans all socioeconomic groups, making audio one of the few truly democratic media channels.
What’s particularly striking is how audio consumption in Africa doesn’t follow Western patterns. Rather than replacing traditional radio, digital platforms complement it – 68% of social media users and 76% of music streamers in South Africa are also weekly radio listeners.
Perhaps audio’s most profound advantage stems from its alignment with deeply rooted cultural practices. Across the continent, oral storytelling traditions have, for centuries, served as vehicles for preserving history and sharing knowledge. This lays the foundation for modern audiences to be receptive to the medium.
Where brands go wrong
What many brands get wrong is not considering the medium well enough when producing audio ads.
Refining pace: Unlike reading, where your eyes jump around, live audio moves at its own pace. Your listener can’t rewind or skim – they either catch it the first time or miss it entirely.
Story shortage: Have you noticed how most radio spots give you maybe ten seconds of setup before launching into a hard sell? Listeners have learnt to mentally check out the moment they sense this pattern. The brands breaking through flip this approach, hooking you with narrative first and weaving their message naturally throughout.
The sound-alike problem: Those stock sound effects we’ve all heard a thousand times. When everything sounds the same, nothing gets remembered.
Context disconnect: Audio consumed during a morning commute needs different treatment compared to something heard through headphones during a workout. Yet many brands create one-size-fits-all audio without considering where, when, and how people will be listening. This environmental awareness should shape everything from script length to sound design.
From background noise to brand recognition
The difference between forgettable audio and campaigns that become part of cultural conversation isn’t luck – it’s craft.
Sonic branding is the strategy of using sound to reinforce your brand identity. For example, Nando’s radio ads contain a “flame grilled” sound effect, while everyone recognises the sound of a Coca-Cola can being opened.
Narrative structure also comes into play and can be the determining factor between a listener paying attention or completing switching off. If you jump straight into your sales message without any lead-up, it’s more likely that you’ll simply blend into the hours of other advertising on either side of you.
This is why it’s important to use as many strengths of the channel as you can to maximise the effectiveness. This includes details like finding the right voice for a voiceover – involving a sound engineer early in the process can make all the difference.
Standard Bank’s Fraud Is No Fairytale campaign achieves this by tapping into age-old storytelling techniques to educate listeners on modern problems in a familiar way. The Nando’s Party Now PERi Later radio ads also focus on selling a rich story first, before bringing the product offer in at the very end as the solution to the problem.
The Nando’s ads are also a prime example of context – they debuted during December, dramatising some of the shenanigans South Africans get up to over the holiday season to promote a new pre-order function in the Nando’s app.
At a time when many people would have been Ubering at night and having fun, the ads let them know they could have a Nando’s meal on its way to them when they wake up.
The future of audio marketing in Africa
Brands that will win in the future of audio marketing will have their fundamentals in order – that is, they will approach the medium with the correct strategic precision and creative intent.
On a continent where the population is young, increasingly connected, and deeply engaged with audio content, the opportunity is clear: to move beyond treating sound as a secondary consideration and instead place it at the centre of brand experience.
Prasanthan Nagan is a copywriter at VML South Africa.
