Linear TV and streaming have mastered how to present ad products alongside their top talent to win marketing dollars, and more audio players are following suit.

On Monday, SiriusXM hosted “Built with Audio,” an upfront-style showcase scheduled around Advertising Week New York that packaged talent interviews and performances with executive presentations tailored to an audience of marketers.

The platform highlighted the gap in the time consumers spend listening to audio and podcast ad spend, with audio accounting for nearly 20% of Americans’ daily media time in Q4 2024, Nielsen reports.

Audio pushes programmatic

SiriusXM representatives said the platform is focused on open marketplaces and data transparency to boost marketer investment, and announced an expanded agreement with data company Snowflake.

“It’s about letting other people grade our homework,” said chief ad products officer Sherene Hilal. “We’ve built a $10 billion business in the audio space and clearly believe in it…but I do think it's time to lift the veil a little bit on the data.”

Last month, SiriusXM announced a DSP integration with Amazon, which is an effort to bring their ads across the audio space.

“We have taken an agnostic stance in the industry, and we want to be wherever you want to buy,” said Hilal. “The Amazon DSP announcement for us was really about representing a more inclusive view into audio and making sure that every vertical is represented.”

Opening biddable access was also a focus for Spotify this year, which is the leading digital audio platform for listeners under 55, according to a March Edison Research report.

“We know that open marketplaces and private marketplaces are the best ways for marketers today to really get real-time insights and measurement,” said its global head of automation sales Anne Bouttier at an Advertising Week panel. “We know that programmatic is the best way to enable that on our platform.”

Creator impact outsizes audio

The audio space is in flux as players scramble to scale: Spotify is testing a social-first approach with new direct messaging and comment features, and every platform is trying to win new formats like video and live podcasts. For many brands like SiriusXM, partnering with creators continues to be a driving force.

A theme throughout SiriusXM’s event was that influence doesn’t start or end with a single audio product. Headliners included Andy Cohen, a seasoned Bravo personality, and "Call Her Daddy" host Alex Cooper, who partnered with SiriusXM to launch podcast Network Unwell. The event's roster was not squarely podcasters, but entertainers that have not settled on a single channel.

Cooper said she was warned at the start of her career not to let her audience decide her next move, but she’s taken the opposite approach.

“I'm in my DMs when I put out merchandise and in customer service saying ‘You got the wrong size? We’ll make sure you get a new one,'” said Cooper. “My bread and butter is a two-way conversation with [the audience] because I owe them everything.”

This audience connection has given Cooper the opportunity to launch an ad agency, with Google as its inaugural partner. After growing frustrated with being the middleman and working with industries that didn’t understand her audience, she’s taking the job on herself.

“There is a large gap between influencers versus creators right now,” said Cooper. “I think influencers, a lot of them are talking about a product and then you never see them talk about it again. It's a lot of one-offs and I think Gen Z women are calling [B.S.] on it.”

Audio platforms are centering creators in their pitches to brands, with SiriusXM encouraging its talent to only take on brand deals that truly align with their interests. The value of creator input in creative was corroborated by Jen Mbunga, Google’s global influencer marketing and social agency lead, at Advertising Week.

“These creators have built communities and know how to talk to their audiences,” she said. “If you’re going to leverage them, give them some freedom.”

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