Four peak audio industry bodies – Commercial Radio & Audio (CRA) in Australia, Radiocentre UK, Radiocentre Ireland, and the Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB US) – have presented a unified global effectiveness case for audio advertising at Cannes Lions, commissioning Professor Mark Ritson to deliver the findings to an international audience of marketers, agency leaders, and audio networks on 25 June 2026.
The session, titled The Secret to Profit and Trust: Audio, was held at LBB & Friends Beach in Cannes and drew on the Effie x System1 global Databank of 1,262 campaigns spanning 17 years – the first time the four nations’ audio industries have combined to present a single coordinated argument on audio’s place in the media mix.
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What the data shows
The research found campaigns with audio outperform those without on profit (+75%), trust (+81%), price insensitivity (+81%), and customer acquisition (+19%). Across 14 measures, the average uplift for campaigns with audio was 22%, compared to campaigns without it.
The data also found that audio nearly doubles the profit generated by emotionally driven campaigns, with the effect compounding when paired with distinctive brand assets and run consistently over time.
The study originated in Australia, where CRA analysed data from the Advertising Council of Australia’s (ACA) Effie database with independent marketing consultant Rob Brittain and Ritson, before being tested against a new global databank spanning the UK, US, Europe, and Ireland.
Lizzie Young, chief executive officer at CRA, said: “In a competitive landscape where advertisers need their campaigns to work even harder, the evidence again points to the power of audio. For brands, the Effie and System1 data is clear: audio drives significantly stronger profit, deeper trust and the price resilience that protects margins.
“That a case first built on Australian Effie data now holds across the UK, US, and Ireland only shows how universal audio’s advantage is as a catalyst in the media mix.”
Ritson: ‘An unfair advantage hiding in plain sight’
Ritson, the global marketing consultant and founder of MiniMBA, said the evidence was unambiguous.
“This is yet more beautiful data,” he said.
“The case for audio’s effectiveness is unequivocal; in every market we’ve studied globally, audio is the catalyst that makes your whole campaign work harder. For a relatively modest investment, it’s an unfair advantage hiding in plain sight. It’s the kind of evidence you cannot unhear.”