Every year, Audio Days Paris feels like a special moment. A day when our industry pauses just long enough to look at where we’re going. This year carried a special energy. From the first session to the final conversations over lunch, you could feel how quickly audio is moving and how committed everyone is to shaping what comes next.
I had the honor of opening the morning, and every speaker that followed added another layer to the same story. Audio is beyond just growing. It’s maturing, deepening, and gaining traction in ways that are reshaping the media landscape.
Major Trends in International Digital Audio
We started the day looking at how audio fits into daily routines in France, and the numbers line up in interesting ways. Statista’s Online Radio in France report shows that about two-thirds of digital listening in the country now happens in podcasts, which says a lot about how the format has matured. eMarketer’s Global Media Intelligence 2024: Western Europe backs up the broader trend, noting that 61% of people in France listen to digital audio each month.
Younger audiences lean even harder in this direction, choosing streaming and podcasts over traditional radio. Yet advertising investment still lags behind actual listening behavior, which means brands are overlooking a powerful moment to reach people when they’re fully engaged.
What struck me as I prepared this session was how consistent these patterns are across markets. We’re watching a global shift happen at the same time, and it’s creating a foundation for audio to take a much more central role in cross-channel strategy.
How to Evaluate the Effectiveness of Audio Campaigns
The first session was led by Damian Scragg, General Manager of Commercial and International at Veritonic, who broke down what it really means to measure the impact of audio. He started with creative testing, which helps teams understand how an ad performs before it goes live by looking at elements like memorability, engagement, and intent. Once a campaign is running, measurement turns to real audience impact.
Attribution tells you what happened, while brand lift explains why it happened by comparing exposed listeners with a matched control group. The campaign he highlighted with Bwin, a leading online sports betting brand, showed how this plays out. Consistent brand mentions, upbeat music, and sports-themed creative drove clear gains in awareness and strong results among sports event attendees, proving the campaign didn’t just hit its reach goals, it meaningfully shaped perception.
Fireside Chat: AI, The Power to Amplify Campaign Impact
Morgane Peron, Director of Audience Data Operations at AdsWizz, then joined Damian to explore how AI is already influencing every layer of digital audio, from creative development to targeting and attribution. They explained how AI speeds up the work of connecting creative performance with audience behavior, making real-time insights possible.
Damian noted that AI isn’t about replacing people, it’s about helping marketers spot signals they’d never catch on their own and act on them faster. Morgane emphasized how AI supports smarter decisions throughout a campaign, strengthening everything from planning to optimisation and showing how it’s becoming a powerful force for improving the effectiveness of audio campaigns.
The Host-Read Format: An Immersive Audio Experience
Marc Grunfeld, Director of Audio Production, Lagardère Publicité News, and Viviane Rouvier, Director of Brand Content and Cross-Media, Lagardère Publicité News, delivered one of the most memorable moments of the morning. Their collaboration with television and radio host Christophe Hondelatte showed how a trusted voice can turn a simple brand message into something listeners actually feel. When the storyteller is someone the audience already knows, the connection shifts from transactional to personal, and that’s where audio becomes its most powerful.
They also dug into what really makes a host read work. It isn’t only about what’s written or how it’s delivered. It’s the small details like the natural pauses, the personality, and the sense of timing that make it feel genuine. Viviane and Marc pointed out that emotional resonance isn’t something you can engineer. It comes from trust and craft, and audio is one of the rare mediums that can carry that kind of closeness straight to the listener without losing its warmth.
The Complementary Nature of the Formats for Increased Efficiency
Clément Jannot, Media Trader for Audio and Cinema at WPP Media, and Camille Biehler, Key Account Director at Acast, walked us through their collaboration with the Association Petits Princes and showed how sponsored segments and co-branded content can create real emotional depth. What stood out was how naturally the message fit into the listening experience. Nothing felt bolted on. It sounded like part of the story itself, which is exactly why it resonated.
They also made a strong case for thoughtful multi-format planning, especially when a campaign is trying to carry a consistent emotional thread across different touchpoints. Their results showed that when formats support one another, engagement holds and recall climbs. It was a clear reminder that structure matters as much as storytelling when you want listeners to stay connected.
Unified ID, First Party Data, and New Monetization Levers
Morgane Peron, Director of Audience Data Operations at AdsWizz, Gael Demessant, Chief Digital Officer at First ID, and Damien Alzonne, Head of Media at LiveRamp, explored how identity is reshaping the business side of audio. With listeners moving between smartphones, smart speakers, desktops, and even filmed podcast formats, unified IDs are becoming essential. They reconnect those scattered touchpoints and give advertisers a much clearer sense of who they’re actually reaching. Their session felt like one of the most forward-looking moments of the day, a reminder that first-party data is only going to grow in value.
I appreciated how much attention they gave to the creative implications. Strong identity frameworks aren’t just a technical upgrade; they influence the kind of experiences brands can design. Better data gives teams the freedom to build audio moments that feel more relevant and more personal, and that shift will ultimately raise the bar for what great audio campaigns can deliver.
How Agencies and Publishers Are Redefining the Audio Landscape
Quentin Spineu, Account Director at AdsWizz, Julie Nativel, Head of Audio at Heroiks, and Linden Luthelo, Directeur Commercial, Audio Digital, M6 Publicité brought forward a lively and refreshingly honest conversation about how agencies and publishers are adapting to rapid change. They touched on everything from new host read approaches to the growing demand for premium environments and the need for closer collaboration across teams. What struck me most was how aligned they all were around the same core priorities. Better storytelling, better measurement, and better experiences for listeners.
They also highlighted how open the industry has become to experimenting with new models. The willingness to test, refine, and rethink is no longer limited to a single part of the chain. There’s a shared recognition that real innovation happens when every player, from publishers to agencies to tech partners, pushes forward together.
FC26 by AudioM: A New Podcast Experience with RMC-BFM ads
Mickael Gaspar, Deputy Sales Director at RMC BFM Ads, and Sébastien Ruiz, Head of Audio and Cinema at WPP Media, introduced FC26, a football-inspired concept built around paired pre- and mid-roll placements that create a sense of narrative sequencing. The approach delivered strong results, with high engagement and impressive recall among a clearly defined fan audience. It was a great reminder of how thoughtful sequencing can reshape the listener experience and make an ad feel more like part of the content rather than a break from it.
What I found especially compelling was how they used fan culture as the creative foundation rather than just a thematic accent. That depth of understanding is what turns a campaign from something functional into something memorable.
Improving Advertising Strategies Through Cross-Media Data
Vladimir de Goiti, Sales Executive at Fluzo, and Anne Marie Kalinka, Managing Director at Amnet France, shared insights that highlighted audio’s growing importance in cross-channel planning. Their work on the Renault Austral campaign showed how audio reaches people that TV and online video often miss, especially younger audiences who spend far less time with linear formats. What really stood out was how audio reaches people that other channels fail to touch. It’s far more than a frequency booster.
They outlined how cross-media measurement reveals things you’d never catch with attribution alone. When you look at exposure across channels, it becomes obvious that audio isn’t just piling on more frequency. It brings genuinely new people into a campaign and changes the overall reach. Their take made it easy to see that if you want real market coverage instead of the same impressions showing up again and again, audio has to be part of the mix.
What’s Powering Audio’s Growth
A few themes stood out: specialized podcasts, smarter curation, smart speakers, multi-device habits, and broader adoption. Together, better tech, stronger storytelling, and growing advertiser demand are pushing audio forward fast.
Audio now stands alongside major digital channels with sharper measurement, more creative formats, and smarter identity tools. The energy in the room showed real momentum. I left Audio Days Paris inspired and excited for what’s ahead.
- Check out the Audio Days Paris 2025 presentations, available in French and English.
- Ready to level up your audio strategy? Connect with us.
