Track 1: Why Programmatic Audio and Why Now

In this deep dive, programmatic expert Melinda Clow, Managing Partner for Activation and Digital Partnerships at Omnicom Media Group UK, discusses the rise of programmatic audio and the opportunity it presents for brands. The conversation explores audio’s unique strengths and evolving role in programmatic advertising, highlighting how data, measurement, Podcasts and AI innovations are driving its growing impact within the wider media mix.

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Robin: Audio advertising isn’t exactly a new phenomenon, it’s existed for more than a century through channels like radio, but what sets programmatic audio apart, and why is it gaining momentum now?

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Melinda: Fundamentally it’s the ability to be more agile and flexible in your campaign, being able to optimise in flight, to have full control over where you buy and how your ads show up; and  how to use different data and decisioning. All of those wonderful benefits that programmatic technology brings. As soon as any channel is integrated or has that decisioning ability, then you will help deliver efficiencies to client campaigns.

What I do see is that the narrative for programmatic technology is becoming stronger in the audio space, particularly in the last 12 months, through more integrations, enhanced capabilities, the ability to measure in different ways and to integrate audio as part of omnichannel campaigns, and the efficiencies of consolidation through buying platforms. I think that's where the industry is probably catching up now, where you're seeing more traction and more noise in the industry about the capabilities of audio. 

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Robin: From an agency or brand’s point of view, what is it about audio as a medium that's especially unique or valuable to advertisers in 2025?

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Melinda: The rise in connectivity has given people the ability to stream their favourite audio content wherever they are, whether that’s at home through a smart speaker, in their cars or through their phones on the go. That provides more opportunities for brands to connect in different ways and use those signals to target more efficiently and more effectively. So being able to use things like location data in really clever ways to be both relevant, addressable, but also deliver messaging to people that's really going to resonate based on the environment that they're in. That's what's exciting particularly for programmatic technology as it can bring in this layer of additional data, additional ways to target, and ways to measure. 

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Robin: It's interesting that you talked about how brands can address their audience through audio using the different signals available. Is addressability a challenge? Is the lack of deterministic data an issue or does that present an opportunity to pivot into more contextual-led strategies?

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Melinda: It's definitely a challenge because of the different environments that you have to think about and the nuances between capabilities. For example, anything that is delivered through smart speakers, there is far less data available. So you can't match to as many audiences and therefore you have to take in proxies, but it's similar to other environments where there aren’t as many audience signals. For example, there are many parallels with CTV and needing to deal with cookieless environments but there are other ways to layer on decisioning. You just need to think about it in a different way. 

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Robin: You mentioned some of the parallels that Audio has with CTV as a channel, such as with measurement. How big a challenge is attribution on Audio? What outcomes or metrics do you use programmatic audio for?

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Melinda: There are legacy challenges here because we can measure effectively from a broad channel perspective with MMM. We might understand the impact of radio and digital audio, but it's hard to get a granular understanding of these channels due to some of that deterministic disconnect we spoke about earlier. For more digital performance metrics, we are seeing improved capabilities such as modelled measurement outputs, as well as consumers taking more immediate actions with audio prompts such as ‘search for this’ or ‘use this code’, all of which enables us to measure audio as a performance-driving channel.

But returning to the start, one of the benefits of programmatic technology and running Audio with other channels through the same DSP is that you can follow these user journeys, and understand how different mediums and exposures affect behaviour.  Some of that measurement is modeled, but it's modeled based on available signals. So, as I said, it's better to know some of that than nothing at all.

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Robin: We spoke previously about how contextual targeting has a role to play within a programmatic audio strategy, especially as a way to combat challenges around addressability. Is this especially true for Podcast inventory? How big a consideration is brand safety and suitability within that environment?

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Melinda: Podcasts absolutely give you the opportunity to align contextually. If you’re looking to reach entrepreneurs or SMBs, for example, you could consider targeting podcast genres or topics around self-improvement, business acumen or self-motivation. 

But for brands showing up in that podcast environment, we work closely with them to help them make informed choices on risk tolerance. If you're scaling and amplifying ads across multiple podcasts, there needs to be consideration for brand suitability choices. Fortunately contextual capabilities have significantly improved, fueled by AI, where the speed at which content can be transcribed, and context and sentiment understood, happens far quicker.

From our point of view, transparency of content reporting in those environments is important to clients because we need to know where the brand is served. But clients also need to appreciate that some podcast environments that work well for reach and attention engagement may seem a bit counterintuitive. True crime, for example, is one of the best performing genres. If you were taking a very blunt and macro approach to brand safety, you might typically avoid crime content. In a podcast environment, this is one of the richest and most entertaining territories to gain reach and active attention.

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Robin: Shifting gears, how do you see programmatic audio combining or complementing other channels within the wider media mix?

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Melinda: Measurement capabilities enable us to see audio's influence in the wider media mix, understanding audio exposure alongside display, video, and digital out-of-home. Some of that cross-channel insight comes from the media owners themselves, where partners like DAX have a first party footprint across both Audio and Out-of-Home inventory. And some lies in a DSP’s ability to tie together audience exposure across channels.

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Robin: That almost brings us to the end. Looking ahead to 2026, does your crystal ball reveal any trends or untapped areas we should keep an eye on?

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Melinda: I think it's probably already happening, but Gen AI will only help more brands get into this space by automating certain production capabilities. And again, that technology is improving to ensure brand voice is used correctly. So, I think that's an opportunity for smaller brands that may not have the ability to generate audio assets.

The ability to do dynamic creative will also get better and faster, with lower production costs. In the past, challenges in measurement have made it harder to demonstrate what uplift DCO was having that could offset the cost, but we can expect a big uptick in adoption going forward.

And I think the other area on the rise is how Audio fits in with the retail media space, thinking about how audio shows up in-store and those opportunities. For retailers, making more of that inventory available in digital and programmatic environments will happen.