New Study: What Marketers Can Do to Improve Podcast Ads
Audio Advertising Success Story: Mercedes
Mercedes drives change, and its brand, through audio
The Objective
From a film celebrating the vision of Bertha Benz to mentoring sessions on the “She’s Mercedes” site, Mercedes-Benz has long been devoted to promoting female empowerment in myriad ways. It’s logical, then, that the automaker would partner with Wonder Media Network (WMN), the women-run, audio-first podcast company with a focus on bringing out underrepresented voices, to continue their work.
As a part of their Women’s History campaign, Mercedes sponsored a month of Encyclopedia Womannica, a five-minute daily podcast about women in history, to surface stories about trailblazing women like Bertha Benz and racing legend Ewy Rosqvist. The buy included daily ad spots, renaming the month to ‘Women in the Driver’s Seat,’ a bonus episode of content and more.
Rather than pushing a direct call-to-action, the ads were designed to continue a narrative across the month — to drive listenership and, in turn, the positive perception of Mercedes as an authentic champion of the issue.
While all of their efforts were well-received anecdotally, Mercedes and WMN needed quantitative proof that the message and tone they were trying to impart were resonating with people.
The Approach
WMN crafted the spots with the Mercedes team and analyzed their impact from a number of angles on the Veritonic platform.
- Four different audio ad creatives, tested against each other and the tier-1 automotive benchmark
- Targeting: Females, 18-54, $75k+
- Testing components: emotional attributes including trust, empowerment, relevance; recall; purchase intent; brand lift (favorability and awareness)
Our Result
Each of the spots outperformed the benchmark (tier-1 automotive) for key metrics:
- Double-digit increase in purchase intent (13% on average); at least 7 ppt above the benchmark
- The ad featuring both Bertha Benz and Ewy Rosqvist beat benchmarks for key attributes: +9% for uniqueness, trust, and relevance; +5% for empowerment
- 21 pp lift in perception that Mercedes is dedicated to gender equity in the workplace and beyond to after hearing the spots
- 7 pp lift in brand favorability after hearing the spots
- 18 pp lift in purchase intent after hearing the bonus episode promotion
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