Audio’s impact on emotions: New study on the science of brand building with sound

June 30, 2022 | By: Alyson Sprague, Sr. Program Manager

Audio plays an important role in our emotional lives. We use energetic playlists to get us hyped for a workout, break-up songs to heal heartache, and podcasts to learn, laugh, and feel. The strong emotional connections consumers have with audio presents an opportunity for brands who want to build meaningful connections with their audiences.

Amazon Ads and Wondery worked with neuroscience marketing firm MindProber to collect engagement insights from 180 US consumers, aged 18 and older to answer the following questions:

  1. Emotional response to audio. What emotional response does audio elicit in listeners? Can audio content change moods? Does engagement differ between streaming audio, broadcast radio, and linear TV? How does emotional engagement with streaming audio translate to effectiveness for brands?
  2. Your brand on smart speakers. Are brand messages delivered in ad-supported audio content on smart speakers perceived differently than those delivered on other devices? How do interactive audio ads on smart speakers engage consumers? How can brands use these insights to build meaningful and relevant connections with consumers?
  3. Context and content. Do different music or podcast genres generate different levels of engagement? How do different industries perform in a variety of audio contexts? Which genres deliver higher engagement levels for each industry? How do podcasts and music differ and complement one another?

We will explore each of these questions in a three-part blog series. In this first post, we’ll explore the lessons our research uncovered about the first topic listed above, and share insights about how audio impacts listeners’ emotions. We will summarize our findings and end with actionable recommendations for brands.

The methodology for the study includes the following: recruitment, engagement measurement, and surveys.

Step 1: Recruitment: For this in-home audio study, participants were assigned to listen to a podcast and music content on mobile, desktop, or smart speakers. Each audio content selection included streaming audio ads for a diversity of ad industries.

Step 2: Engagement measurement: During the study, 180 participants were provided with a handheld device that logged engagement1 observations while they listened to eight hours of audio content at their convenience in their homes over a four-week period. Over this period, participants listened to a total of 1500 hours of ad-supported audio content on either mobile, desktop, or smart speakers. The observations were compiled to create engagement scores for each device group.

Step 3: Surveys: Participants filled out surveys before, during, and after their listening experiences. They reported current moods, and their recall of the advertised brands.

Recruitment and measurement device

Amazon Ads and Wondery worked with MindProber, a 3P neuromarketing firm. The vendor recruited 180 participants for in-home measurement, in exchange for monetary compensation. Participants were provided with a handheld monitoring device, and assigned to mobile, desktop, or smart speaker groups. They were assigned to listen to ad-supported audio content on the assigned device for eight hours at any time within a four-week period.

Engagement measurement

Amazon Ads and Wondery worked with MindProber to measure audio engagement scores, defined by various physiological responses detected by a device that participants held while listening to ad-supported streaming audio content.

Survey measurement

Participants were asked a series of questions before, during, and after their listening sessions. Moods, emotions, and the like/dislike of the content was collected before and during the listening experience. Ad effectiveness metrics – such as ad recall, awareness, favorability, or consideration for the brands advertised – were collected within 24 hours after the listening session.

Terminology: the following terminology is used in this study.

Participant

Refers to the 180 participants who opted in to participate in the research study.

Engagement

Engagement is defined as various physiological responses detected by a device that participants held while listening to ad-supported streaming audio content.

Mood

Refers to participants’ self-reported mood collected via survey before, during, and after every audio listening session. Used synonymously with emotions.

Listening sessions

Refers to the sum of all sessions where participants listened to ad-supported streaming audio content.

Insight #1: Listeners have an emotional connection to audio, especially when listening on smart speakers.

After listening to streaming audio sessions, the most common emotions reported by participants were positive, the study shows. For example, happiness, joy, optimism, and confidence were the top four reported moods. Anger, annoyance, and sadness were the bottom three.2

Emotions reported by participants after listening to streaming audio

Happy: 60%

Pink bar showing 60%

Optimistic: 41%

Pink bar showing 41%

Confident: 30%

Pink bar showing 30%

Joyful: 22%

Pink bar showing 22%

Trusting: 10%

Pink bar showing 10%

Sad: 6%

Pink bar showing 6%

Doubtful: 4%

Pink bar showing 4%

Pessimistic: 3%

Pink bar showing 3%

Annoyed: 2%

Pink bar showing 2%

Angry: 1%

Pink bar showing 1%

We compared the emotional response reported for each group: mobile, desktop, and smart speaker listeners. We found participants who listened to streaming audio content on smart speakers reported higher levels of optimism, joy, happiness, and trust, than those who listened to the same content on mobile or desktop.

Insight #2: Streaming audio has the power to change moods.

A majority of participants (51%) reported a shift in mood after their audio listening experience. Mood shifts differed by genre. For example, 55% of participants who listened to pop music reported a positive shift in mood, while 27% of participants who listened to true crime podcasts reported a negative shift in mood.

Audio has the power to change moods.

Green donut chart showing 51%

Reported a shift in mood after listening to streaming audio

Insight #3: Streaming audio drives higher engagement than broadcast radio or linear TV.

We collected engagement levels using the handheld measurement device described earlier in this post. We compared our streaming audio readings to benchmarks in MindProber’s benchmarking database for broadcast radio and linear TV. Our research highlighted consumers had higher engagement levels on streaming audio than other media channels. This result was statistically significant.

Engagement index by media channel

Broadcast radio: 63%

Green bar showing 63%

Linear TV: 69%

Orange bar showing 69%

Streaming audio: 100%

Blue bar showing 100%

How to read:

Streaming audio delivered +1.6x higher engagement than benchmarks for broadcast radio.

Streaming audio delivered +1.4x higher engagement than benchmarks for
linear TV.

Summary and recommendations

Based on these findings, we see that streaming audio has the power to impact how consumers feel and experience the world. Most frequently, streaming audio makes consumers feel happy, optimistic, joyful, and confident. When streaming on smart speakers, listeners report even higher levels of joy, trust, and confidence. Our research also found that streaming audio is an engaging media for listeners, outperforming engagement scores for both broadcast radio and linear TV.

Whether listeners are working out in their living rooms or cooking in their kitchens, brands looking to connect with audiences may want to consider working with Amazon Ads to help build a connected home strategy. This may improve audience engagement by delivering your message on smart speakers on the Amazon Music ad-supported tier. Brands can also work with Wondery to create customer messages that appear during branded segments within podcasts.

What’s next

This blog post is the first of a three-part series covering insights and recommendations from the study, Audio’s impact on emotions: The science of brand building with sound. In our next post, readers will learn about the power and impact of listening to streaming audio on smart speakers. And we will dive into how ads with Alexa calls-to-action (Alexa CTAs) can help change consumer perception and behavior toward your brand.

For more information, please download this free report (available in English only).

Discover how your brand can start using Amazon audio ads, or get in touch with your Wondery or Amazon Ads account executive to learn more.

1 Engagement is defined as various physiological responses detected by a device that participants held while listening to streaming audio
2 Audio’s impact on emotions study, 2022