We spend our days surrounded by screens: at work, at home, and everywhere in between. But audio is the one channel that moves with us, from morning routines to evening commutes, from workouts to household chores. More than two-thirds of U.S. consumers will listen to digital audio every month this year, making it one of the fastest-growing ways to connect with audiences. Experian and Audacy are working together to solve the challenges of fragmented listening, cross-platform targeting, and campaign measurement, helping brands reach people in the moments other channels can’t.
Why audio sticks with us
Audio fits into life’s in-between moments, from the commute to the workout to the chores, when other media can’t. Unlike video, it doesn’t demand full attention; it joins the flow of daily routines. This makes audio uniquely personal, creating connections that other formats can’t replicate.
Audacy’s expertise in understanding listener behavior ensures that audio campaigns feel like a natural part of daily life. Experian’s data helps advertisers identify the right audiences, while Audacy ensures the message is delivered at the right time. Together, we help brands create campaigns that resonate deeply with listeners. By meeting audiences in their moments of focus, audio becomes a powerful tool for building meaningful and lasting connections.
“Audio is a companion in people’s daily rituals. Whether it’s doing dishes, folding laundry, or going for a run, you have audio going in your ears, and you’re really engaged with it. From an advertising perspective, that’s incredibly powerful because listeners are paying attention to the content.”
AudacyKevin Greenwald, SVP of Advertising and Audience Products
Making sense of scattered listening habits
Today’s listeners consume audio across a variety of devices and platforms. Devices like smart speakers and smart home hubs now account for over 27% of digital audio time spent daily among U.S. adults, highlighting the growing role of connected devices in audio consumption. When listeners bounce between apps, stations, and devices, it’s easy for advertisers to lose track of them. Audacy’s advanced platform capabilities, combined with Experian’s identity solutions, simplify this process by providing a unified view of audience behavior, ensuring campaigns remain cohesive.
Audio is highly adaptable, letting advertisers tweak a message on the fly by shifting tone, length, or format to stay relevant in the moment. This flexibility ensures that campaigns remain cohesive and impactful, no matter where or how listeners engage.
“Audio has a degree of flexibility that other channels don’t. You’re not tied to a programming clock, and ad lengths can vary. It’s also easy to create a great audio ad quickly, which makes it a channel ripe for experimentation and innovation.”
AudacyKevin Greenwald, SVP of Advertising and Audience Products
Following listeners wherever they go
Today’s listeners don’t stay in one place: they bounce from live radio in the morning to streaming music during the day, then wind down with a favorite podcast at night. For advertisers, that creates a challenge: how do you keep up with an audience that’s always moving? Without a unified view of the listener journey, campaigns can lose impact. With the right insights, though, every handoff becomes an opportunity to stay relevant and connected.
Audacy’s platform, combined with Experian’s identity solutions, bridges these gaps. Together, we help you follow your audience wherever they go, creating consistent experiences that drive results. This approach improves targeting and ensures that messages remain impactful.
“I hope that there’s a day coming where we can understand ad exposure in the car as well as more cars are connected and things like that. That would be really powerful.”
AudacyKevin Greenwald, SVP of Advertising and Audience Products
Your audience is listening, let’s make sure they hear you
Audio helps you connect with your audience in moments other channels miss. With Experian’s marketing data and Audacy’s expertise, you can simplify cross-platform targeting, improve campaign measurement, and create messages that truly resonate. Let’s work together to make your message heard.
Let’s talk audio strategy. Contact us today
About our experts
Kevin Greenwald
SVP of Advertising and Audience Products, Audacy
Kevin Greenwald is the SVP of Advertising & Audience Products, where he partners closely with Audacy’s sales team to deliver leading ad product and measurement capabilities for their clients.
Crystal Jacques
VP of Enterprise Partnerships, Experian
Crystal Jacques is the VP of Enterprise Partnerships, leading Experian’s go-to-market team across all verticals. With over ten years of experience in the Identity space, Crystal brings a wealth of expertise to her role. She joined Experian in 2020 through the Tapad acquisition, following her successful stint as the head of Global Channel Partnerships for Adbrain, which The Trade Desk later acquired.
Latest posts
In our Ask the Expert series, we interview leaders from our partner organizations who are helping lead their brands to new heights in AdTech. Today’s interview is with Samantha Zhang, Senior Data Scientist, and Jim Meyer, General Manager of the DASH TV Universe Study at the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF). DASH is an annual tracking study conducted by the ARF to define and better understand TV audience behavior and household dynamics. What does DASH measure, and how does it help the industry understand TV consumption today? By capturing hundreds of individual- and household-level data points from each respondent in a rigorous and nationally projectable sample, DASH creates a comprehensive picture of U.S. consumer TV “infrastructure” – how America watches. Core elements in DASHElements that create context in DASHTV setsLocation | brand | smartness | service modes | sources DemographicsConnected devices Game consoles |video players | streaming devicesYesterday viewing Daypart | TV/device genre | Out-of-home viewingMobile devicesOwners | sharing usersShoppingOnline and in-store | Exposure to major RMNsInternet serviceModes | ISPs | connectivity by device Streaming audio Streaming TVSVOD/AVOD tiers and sharing | FAST Email accounts and apps Live TV Modes of access | including casting from devices Social media For example, DASH gathers: Data on every TV set, including brand, room location, age, “smartness,” and connection devices and modes Household connectivity and video service data, even in homes with no TV set Internet Service Providers (ISP) and TV service usage, including Multichannel Video Programming Distributors (MVPDs), virtual vMVPDs, streamers (ad-supported and premium), and Free Ad-Supported Television (FAST) channels Person-level ownership and usage of video-capable mobile devices, including smartphones, tablets, and laptops Measures of viewing and co-viewing across dayparts, devices, and services Additional modules covering shopping and retail media networks, streaming audio, social media, email, and apps Broad coverage and granularity make DASH a uniquely robust source of truth for practitioners across the industry, including measurement experts and ad programming strategists. DASH also reports regularly (and publicly) on key industry dynamics. DASH identified a growing segment of device-only viewers – now nearly 9 million households that watch TV, but do not own a TV set – and highlighted the implications of that trend for traditional ratings systems based only on households with TV sets. Households (HHs – million)2025 HHs (M) U.S. penetrationChange vs. 2024 (M)Total US134.8100%+2.7Connected TV (CTV)114.685%+2.1TV (Set)124.292.2%+1.1Device-only8.86.6%+1.6TV-Accessible133.198.7%+2.7 DASH called out the rise in app-based pay TV and proposed a new connection framework that better represents the modern TV world, in which linear and streaming overlap. DASH also defines the universes of households reachable with advertising. This graphic, for example, shows how all ad-supported linear and streaming properties in aggregate define the true scale of TV advertising. While 35 million households (and growing) are reachable only with streaming ads and 13 million (and falling) only with linear ads, most households are reachable with both, underscoring the importance of understanding the “overlap.” Who uses DASH data, and what decisions does it help inform? There are three primary users of DASH, each with its own use cases: Measurement providers, including Nielsen, use DASH to calibrate viewership data, turn household data into persons data (and vice versa) and estimate potential reached audiences–what the providers call media-related universe estimate (MRUEs)–for the calculation of ratings. Not surprisingly, measurement companies were the first to see the value that an independent TV universe study could provide. Media companies, including major broadcasters and streamers, use DASH to add context and color to their ad sales presentations – and to track the measurement providers, whose ratings play a major role in valuing ad inventory. AdTech companies, including Experian, use DASH to create high-value audience segments for activation. The recent accreditation of DASH by the Media Rating Council (MRC) and adoption by Nielsen as an input to its TV ratings have generated interest from a broad range of companies. We are actively pursuing new licensees and partners to make DASH more useful within, and even outside, the TV ecosystem. What does MRC accreditation signify, and why is it meaningful for DASH? MRC accreditation means DASH passed a rigorous audit conducted by Ernst & Young over many months, which validated our methodology, controls, and data quality. MRC accreditation establishes that DASH is an industry-standard dataset. While the service provider normally announces its own accreditation, the MRC took the unusual step of issuing its own release on DASH, announcing the accreditation of DASH for TV universe estimation and endorsing the study for broader, cross-media use. How does Experian use DASH data to build audiences? The segments combine specific TV usage habits and behaviors from DASH with Experian data on demographics, spending, and other contextual inputs to create a fuller view of consumer viewing behavior. They are designed to be valuable to advertisers in many categories and planning contexts – and to be customizable to fit advertisers’ media targets. The segments can be used to: Apply or suppress audiences to improve target coverage across a campaign Better align media and creative Reach elusive but high-value viewers, such as Ad Avoiders Drive valuable consumer behavior Achieve specific advertising objectives What are some practical use cases for DASH-based audiences? Here are some practical use cases for four different kinds of DASH segments in five different advertiser categories. Travel Co-WatchersA couples-only resort uses TV Co-Watching Households without Children to strengthen target reach and ad memory recallA big theme park destination uses TV Co-Watching Households with Children to reach families in moments of togetherness Home Entertainment TV Owners and Brand LoyalistsA premium TV manufacturer uses the overlap of Multi Brand TV Owners and Single Brand TV Loyalist Households to market its newest TV model to its most loyal consumers. Fast Food Screen Size ViewersA fast food chain with a high-impact new brand campaign uses Large Screen TV Viewers to better align the media and creativeThat same fast food chain uses Small-Screen TV Viewers to drive store traffic by increasing exposure of its retail campaign among on-the-go viewers Financial Services Cord Cutters A personal cost management app and a cash-back credit card target Streaming-First Cord Cutter Households to reach young, tech-savvy, cost-conscious consumers Thanks for the interview. Where can readers learn more about DASH? We started work on DASH seven years ago, and it’s been fun to watch it “grow up.” Our partnership with Experian is a big step toward putting DASH to work for advertisers and agencies. To learn more, visit our site at https://theARF.org/DASH or contact us at DASH@theARF.org. Contact us About our experts Samantha Zhang, Senior Data Scientist at ARF Samantha Zhang is a Senior Data Scientist at the Advertising Research Foundation working on the DASH TV Universe Study, with additional research spanning areas including attention measurement, digital privacy, and artificial intelligence. Jim Meyer, General Manager, DASH, at ARF Jim Meyer is general manager and co-founder of the ARF DASH TV Universe Study and managing partner of Golden Square, LLC, which advises media and research technology companies on growth strategy and development. Latest posts
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