A Moment for Audio

23 Mar

IThe past week in audio shows exactly why this channel is still worth marketers’ time, but also why it needs planning, not guesswork. Between HEARD 2026, talent headlines, and network rebrands, there’s a lot happening, here’s our breakdown.

HEARD 2026: Audio’s Core Strengths Still Shine

At HEARD 2026, the industry doubled down on the basics that make audio so effective:

Excess Share of Voice (ESOV) – brands that invest consistently still outperform competitors.
Emotional creative – intimacy is audio’s superpower; connecting with listeners emotionally drives recall and action.
Long-term campaigns – audio works best when sustained rather than bursty.

Product innovation: Audio ID Phase 2

Streamlines cross-network buying
Provides de-duplicated reach across platforms

Why this matters for marketers:
Audio is finally easier to plan and measure at scale. You can buy across networks confidently, compare performance, and target efficiently.

Read more at Commercial Radio & Audio, HEARD 2026 summary

Kyle & Jackie O: Great for Reach, Less Great for Stability

The situation with Kyle Sandilands and ARN Media is… a lot.

Beyond the headlines, it highlights something pretty fundamental about audio:

Big personalities = big audiences
Big personalities = big risk

Here is our summary of the situation:

What happened: Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O Henderson are taking legal action against ARN Media after their breakfast show was terminated. They claim the termination was “unconscionable” and without proper grounds.

Impact on the industry: Highlights how big talent drives reach and revenue, but also carries risk. Shows the fragility of personality-led strategies — when a flagship show is removed, audience and revenue can shift quickly.

Implications for marketers:

Talent-driven campaigns can create massive engagement, but shouldn’t be the only pillar of a strategy.
Diversifying audio placements across networks, podcasts, and streaming reduces risk.
Brand safety and reputation monitoring remain crucial when leveraging high-profile shows.

When one show can carry a network commercially and then suddenly disappear into legal drama, it’s not just gossip, it’s a planning vulnerability.

And it’s e xactly why brand safety and diversification keep coming up (for good reason).

More info here.

Ratings: Even the Biggest Aren’t Bulletproof

The latest ratings showed a familiar pattern:

Strong, established dominance in Sydney
Difficulty translating that success into Melbourne

This isn’t just about one show, it reflects a broader trend:
audiences are fragment ing, and growth is harder to achieve than it used to be.

What this means:

Scale is no longer a given, it need s to be built across multiple touchp oints
“If it works in one market, it’ll work everywhere” is less true than ever
Frequency and consistency matter more when reach is harder to come by

At Kaimera, this is why we push toward layered audio strategies, not single-channel bets.

Nine Radio → Tapt Media

The move from “Nine Radio” to Tapt Media under Nine Entertainment is less about a name change and more about what it signals.

It reflects a shift from:

Live → on-demand
Single channel → multi-platform
Scheduled listening → audience-controlled consumption

What this means:

Audio is no longer just “radio spots”, it’s a mix of streaming, podcasts, catch-up and live
Planning needs to reflect how people actually listen now, not how the industry used to sell it
There’s more opportunity to extend campaigns beyond traditional placements

The watchout:
Repositioning is happening faster than standardisation, so the ecosystem is still a bit messy to navigate.