Bonus Episode: What Makes Audio Ads Work | Volume 3 (Live at Podcast Movement 2025)

In this special live edition of Ad Infinitum, Executive Creative Director Stew Redwine takes the stage at Podcast Movement 2025 to deliver the third installment of his talk: What Makes Audio Ads Work.

This time, Stew makes it practical. With stories, data, and a few unexpected metaphors (including his dog, Maverick), he breaks down six essential lessons every marketer, podcaster, and advertiser can put into practice immediately:

1. Host’s Voice – Keep the ad in the authentic sound of the person listeners trust.
2. Host’s Words – Let them say it in their own language, not yours.
3. Early & Often – Mention the brand within the first six seconds, then keep it present throughout.
4. Sonic Branding – Build sound cues that make your brand recognizable with eyes closed.
5. Distinct & Consistent – Repetition creates memory. Resist the urge to constantly refresh.
6. Care – Tools can scale, but only human care makes the work matter.

From the history of radio to the warp-speed evolution of podcasting, Stew shows where audio is headed and why keeping host authenticity at the center is the industry’s best chance to “keep podcasting, if we can.”

It’s equal parts rallying cry and practical handbook for anyone who wants their audio ads to actually work.

Transcript

Stew Redwine (00:00):
So what makes audio ads work? Volume three. So this is the third one of these that I've done. Um, and I've, I've seen some of you guys at, at the other two. Uh, and I got feedback that I like, I need to make it more practical so it has some actually specific stuff that's, uh, actionable that you can do immediately, uh, to make your audio ads work better, which is the whole promise of it. Um, so I'm Stu Redwine, executive Creative director at Oxford Road. This, to me, is one of my highest achievements, which was this endorsement from Scott tn, the co-founder and, uh, uh, founder and CEO of, um, Bolling Branch Sheets. If he was a professional wrestler, he'd want Stew Redwine and his tag team partner. 'cause I go all in. So many of you guys that know me, no. So we're gonna go all in on this together.

(00:47):
All right. Sound good? Yeah. I need to just remember not to forget things. Okay. So I was thinking about it. Um, what, what are the most immediate things that you could, uh, immediately put into practice to make audio ads work? And so I've read a book. I actually have the proof here. This is the book that I've read. I have notes in the book, dogeared. This is actually something I've been doing more as reading physical books. I highly recommend it with all of the digital, with all the digital stuff these days. Anyway, <laugh>, um, really getting into the history of radio and looking back on radio and what happened to radio. What made it work for such a long time, uh, was the personality and the host, right? And then commercial interest came in. You guys all know the story. They broke it up into the different genres.

(01:39):
Uh, DJ's got less flexibility. You couldn't mix music formats. You had a talk sheet. It killed it. It killed it. What's cool is at the end of this book by Susan Douglas, it's awesome because she wrote it in, uh, 99 2 thou. I just gotta watch my time. She wrote it in a 19 99, 2 2000. It came out in 2000. And she basically, the, the very last paragraph, which I'm not gonna read, Miranda, I ran through this earlier and Miranda's like, don't read from the book. Um, the very last point that she makes is literally, it's like she predicted podcast. She's like, we gotta get away from the suits. We gotta be punk rock again. We've gotta be independent. It was like, oh, that's awesome. And then what's wild is it took radio 80 years to do that journey to get completely killed by, you know, commercial interest at podcasts.

(02:28):
It's funny, it's like, it's in warp speed. It's at that same inflection point. So one of the main things that's always made audio work, because audio is inherently intimate and it's inefficient, is the host reading the ads. So my first piece of advice, which is something we've been saying a lot, beating this drum at Oxford Road, is save the live reads. But like, that's, that's something you have to put into practice and really think about because there's the other, there's a efficient ways or, or you know, produce spots, whatever. We've gotta fight for the, for the host reads, but it's more than that. So what is your guys' relationship to this dog, right? What do you think my relationship is to this dog? It's my guy. Yeah. I spend hours with him every day. That's Maverick. I love him. He's three years old. If we wanted to ask Maverick to do something, would you guys have a better chance at getting him to do do it?

(03:27):
Or would I have a better chance? Yeah, yeah, that's right, Giles. Thanks Leah. That's the way I look at the podcast host in their audience. You've got to let them use their words. They know how to communicate. I know how to communicate with Maverick and in fact, I've even trained them a little. I, I forgot to bring my dog clicker. Um, but I use a clicker with 'em. I use treats, I use positive affirmation. And I was kind of trying to extend the metaphor like that. Those are some of the tactics of an audio ad. Sonic branding's the clicker. It's Pavlovian the treat is something good. You're giving them something good, like maybe an offer, a special offer. Positive affirmation doesn't hurt for an ad to make somebody feel good. But the host, you know, me as Maverick's wing man, I am the best one that's best suited to ask him to do something much better suited than a stranger.

(04:21):
So the host voice hosts words and that takes a lot of discipline to pull yourself back, um, on your copy points and allow them to speak like that. Okay, next up. And we're doing okay on time. So this is $14,280 million. This is approximately by my calculations, with the help of Ser Giles Martin. The amount of money that is wasted in audio advertising every year in the United States of America. So it's roughly $17 billion. The Berg Bass Institute done a famous study, the 40 by 40 that shows that 16% of advertising is correctly remembered and attributed. All right, so that means 84% of it's a complete waste. That's the amount of money that's wasted. So it's like, what's one thing you could do super practical to make your ads work harder so you're not contributing to that number is from the Journal of Advertising Research, which if you're ever looking for, like what are the pointers for the things I need to do in my ads?

(05:21):
The Journal of Advertising Research is like the, the Laws of Nature, whatever. Like that's the stuff that we know, that we know it's foundational about advertising so we can trust it. And when it comes to audio advertising and the Journal of Advertising Research and what we've seen in our own experience at Oxford Road, mention the brand name early, mention it often, and don't let a lot of time pass between brand mentions like super basic. But like I said, feedback I've gotten on some of these other sessions is to give you practical. So that is practical. And I wanna play a couple examples. Okay? So I, the have been changed to protect the innocent and we are gonna listen to two minutes of ads. Oh, there's no skip button. Um, but I didn't go with a host read. I went with produced spots. Same, same lesson applies 'cause the mentioning it early, mentioning it often, and not letting too much time pass still holds no matter how you're communicating. So let's see if this works. Oh, you guys are gonna have to tell me if you can hear it.

Announcer 1 (06:24):
There's never gonna be a better time to start cooking healthier. And you can do it no matter what it takes or how long it takes. Call your boss and tell 'em you're not gonna make it anymore. And then drive, drive like the wind until you find a bookstore. Fill your car with cookbooks till your trunk scrapes the road. Now head to the woods and forage for mushrooms and herbs or head to a farm to harvest the greenest produce you can find. You want dirt stain in your hands and sweat on your brow. You wanna fight a goat to get it all and you wanna win. And the reward for that fight is the delicious meal you're going to cook. And while you're sitting there eating it, wondering about all the time you've lost, ask yourself a question. Why didn't you just order meal kit? Cooking healthier doesn't have to be a full-time job with meal kit each week.

Stew Redwine (07:09):
Okay, so that was 42 seconds before we got a mention of the brand name. Again, I recreated that from some real creative. Um, that's the kind of stuff that you do here out there, uh, in commercial radio. And then you're also hearing that kind of stuff in podcasting. 'cause we're trying to be creative or trying to appeal emotionally. Like I said, what's recommended is say the brand name early and often and when all else fails, be clear. Clarity has a cleverness all of its own. So here's the next spot.

Announcer 2 (07:38):
Does getting a flavorful, balanced, and convenient dinner on the table night after night feel like a chore. Let meal kit take care of the weekly meal planning so you can save time and actually have fun cooking and eating amazing meals. Visit meal kit.com and choose what meals you want from an ever changing, customizable and always delicious menu. Then let meal kit shop and deliver premeasured ingredients with simple

Stew Redwine (08:04):
Recipes. Okay, you guys get the

Announcer 2 (08:05):
Picture. Come together in a,

Stew Redwine (08:06):
All right, so that was about every six or seven seconds there's a mention. So that's the really specific advice Pierre Brevard to tell you. Probably have your first mention even earlier than that. I think somewhere in the first six seconds is okay. And then every six seconds is a good way to be. Another thought on the produced spot, right? Where it was really rambling before it got to the brand. Mention, there can be a, like I'm saying, use the host voice, right? Let the host say that. Use their words. You've also gotta be listening to it and engaged and giving them feed. And they thrive off of feedback. That's what's nuts. Like every, you know, hosts are people too. They can make a segue. And what we've seen, even from a performance standpoint, like you can make a segue into the ad and they can even tell like a really long story, but way much time has passed before we get any indication that it's from the advertiser.

(08:59):
So still allow 'em to do their thing. But sometimes you gotta nudge 'em with those brand mentions early on and then they keep talking like, before I talk to you about blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Then they tell their story. Okay? So the host use the host voice, let the host use their words. Another massive one is the answer to this question. Can they recognize your brand with their eyes closed? And this is gonna become increasingly important because all of computing is becoming conversational, right? And I know it's so dangerous. It's like focus group of one, but whatever. I'll do it anyway. My daughters, I have a senior in high school and a sophomore in high school and they talk to their, all their stuff, right? They won't even, I'm like, well, why don't you type that? And they're like, and they just talk to it, which is cool 'cause I like Star Trek with that set.

(09:46):
If you think about in that environment, how are people gonna be, they're not gonna be able to recognize the brand by sight. They gotta be able to recognize it by sound. And what I've been saying to folks, I, I've been talking about this a lot, is just, you just need the answer to that question. Can they recognize with your brand, with their eyes closed or not? Yes or no? And if it's yes, it's like great. Like, well, tell me more about that. How did they do that? What have you been doing? If it's no, it's just something you need to make peace with. I think every brand needs to have a little bit of something. So I'm gonna play, some of you heard this before, I'm gonna play, um, this video with a, it's got a number of different sonic logos in it. And I want to, I wanna say something as well, there's a lot of questions a lot of times when we start talking about sonic branding, like, well, what's a sonic logo?

(10:30):
Or what's a sonic identity or what's a jingle? It's like, look, the way I kind of look at it is it can be a number of things. It can be anything from a tagline to a UX sound to an intentionally designed emotive sound, to a jingle, to a song. Um, like you think of Home Depot, they've got the same, they use Josh Lucas' voice and then they've got the same song that they used to, which you can get, you can download. It's on my running playlist. Like it really is. Um, so it can be, I think of it as like, what what allows you to recognize the brand with your eyes closed. And then also like what's the smallest divisible sound that you still instantly recognize as that brand. That's one way that I think about it. Okay, so here we go. See how many you can count.

Announcer 2 (11:23):
1, 8, 7, 7, 800, 5, 8

Sonic Logo Montage (11:30):
Oh oh oh or farmers. I'm just so happy I got more Liberty. Liberty.

Stew Redwine (11:43):
A good neighbor. Use their, use your voice, your sonic identity. What do you think? 11? Anybody wanna go higher than 11, 12, 13? No, I got a 13. 13 here. All right. 21. There's 21 different. And I had stuff in there from Lucinda is the founder of Mok Box. Somebody we worked with a long time. So her voice has a very distinct sound, right? And then she says, I guarantee you're gonna say Oink, oink. I'm just so happy I got Moked. I consider that Sonic branding. Then you also have the NBC chimes in there as well, or Disney's, uh, song. It's what are those things that allows them to recognize you with their eyes closed? Speaking of Disney, it's related to a bigger piece of persuasion and branding, which you've got to, this is one of these other things you've gotta have an answer to, is you've got to be distinct and you've gotta be consistent.

(12:50):
And this is where I refer to my notes where my pin blew up on me, like right before it was great. Uh, yeah. Okay. So I've got a podcast called Add Infinitum. It's the only podcast about audio ads, how they work and how to make 'em work better. On one of the most recent episodes, uh, we broke down a bunch of ad actually it's out right now. Uh, Shelby from the Future, we broke down a bunch of ads from IBM and it was really interesting 'cause they were, they were podcast ads. There was a Kara Swisher host read. There was a guy, Roz host read. There was two produced spots, maybe one other host read, um, three different taglines used throughout. One of 'em had, uh, a sound, which I, I'll be honest, I didn't even know IBM had a sound and it was like three notes at at least I assume I I think that's what it was.

(13:39):
And um, and then Guy Ross and Kara Swisher didn't self-identify, you know, and they didn't personalize either. They literally read the exact same copy. So it was very inconsistent and there was no distinction. So those two things are critical because you're creating these memory structures in people's minds and the, and, and sometimes I think we can get obsessed with wanting to refresh or change things. It's like, look, I want that to look like that in let's say 15 years when I go there with my grandkids, right? You know what I'm saying? We could probably put it off 18 years or so. I mean, she's a senior, but we want it to be the same. And it, and it needs to be distinct. And one other thing I wanna make sure we touch on. So we're talking about use the host voice, let the host use their words, utilize Sonic branding. And I, I actually, I'll, I'll make one more point on Sonic branding is that, um, the ones most likely that come to mind are like Netflix, McDonald's, um, even though it's dated now, which is like, ugh. But I still like it as Intel inside. They were all very intentionally designed. All of those had a lot of intention. Do you have a question

Sonic Logo Montage (14:57):
Before and after? Are you talking about the sound before and after the ad to do the Sonic branding? Or are you talking about like the intro? 'cause I do like music during my intro.

Stew Redwine (15:09):
Yeah.

Sonic Logo Montage (15:09):
But then there's also some people that do like music before and after to like introduce the ads that are coming and then going back to the show. So I'm wondering if that's what you're talking about.

Stew Redwine (15:22):
Uh, I'm primarily looking at it through the lens of an advertiser. I think anything you can do that, it's all Pavlovian. So anything you can do that's consistent, that's setting them up for what, that we know this is gonna happen every time. And I'm supposed to feel a certain way about it so that I can know this thing is gonna happen. But I'm glad you actually said that. Look, uh, two quick things. My main point with this, uh, Antonio Lytics is we had this guy grading a bunch of our ads named Antonio Coronado. And we have a system we use for grading ads called Audio Lytics. So I would call him Antonio Lytics. And Overnight, with this AI stuff, what used to take thou hundreds of hours is poof, it's gone. So this is a cool episode to listen to like, oh, what something a human used to do.

(16:06):
Now robots are doing, which we're, we're using more AI tools at Oxford Road and in fact where you've got a partnership with Wonder Craft where they provide the, um, audio production tools, uh, their platform is awesome. And this is for real. Uh, you get one free month of Wonder Craft on us. Well, it's a $700 plus value right now if you scan that, uh, promo code. So you'll sign up, you'll be putting on our newsletter to find out more about Audio lytics as we're with a lot of care. We're looking at how to incorporate AI into the creation of audio ads. Um, and we're doing that with Wonder Craft for the actual produced audio. So if you act right now, you can get that.

(16:54):
Okay. And yeah. Okay, so I'll wrap up with that. I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll wrap it up here. These are the six things that I wanted to leave you guys with. So use the host voice, let the host use their words. Say your brand name early and on o often sonic branding. You know, just can they recognize you with their eyes closed. Okay, that's the, that's the que You just gotta answer that. Yes or no. And then what's your answer? Be distinct and consistent in some way, in some, in some shape or form. And then care. This is my big point for ai, right? Like, look, you can check your brain at the door. We're all like, I use chat. GPT, my name is Stu and I use chat GPT. All right, I know you all do. They, and you've seen the studies too of our brains.

(17:40):
Like, this is your brain on chat, GBT, like very little activity. Google search. A little more activity, way more activity. If you actually think, I think there's another component which is care. You have to care. 'cause if you care, it doesn't matter what tool you're using, that's what's gonna point you at your highest and best aim is actually caring about the output. And then it's like, yeah, use ai. Don't use ai. Like, I don't know why you wouldn't. The important part is somebody caring about the output. Um, and with that, I want to invite you all to tonight at six 30. If you didn't know about this at the Sounds Profitable Lounge, uh, is Age of Audio is an awesome documentary by Sean, Michael Colon. Um, so you can come see it. It's really, really cool because it's like the history, it's the history of podcasting basically up to this point. And then what's wild to me, like I'm saying from talking about the history of radio, it's like podcast has done what, it took radio like almost a century podcast. Did that same thing in like 10 years. And we're at this inflection point, like we have podcasting if we can keep it. And that's keeping it in the host voice and letting the host use their words. And I think I'm about at time, we'll leave it at that. Thank you guys so much.