There has always been that one moment in the day when the screen finally fades, during a commute, a workout, or the quiet lull between tasks, yet content hasn’t stopped. It has simply shifted form. In a landscape overwhelmed by scrolling, swiping, and skipping, audio has been slipping in almost unnoticed, filling the gaps, holding attention, and, increasingly, shaping how brands have been thinking about digital strategy.
The Dentsu Digital Advertising Report 2026 has pointed to a simple but telling shift: Indians have been spending over 90 minutes every day on streaming, podcasts, and voice-led platforms, embedding audio deeply into everyday routines. What has once been treated as a secondary medium has now been finding itself at the center of a larger, more complex media ecosystem, one where attention has become scarce and context has been everything.
It is within this shift that Kala Bhagavalsingh, Associate Vice President – Account Management at Carat India, has been mapping the evolution of audio, not as an isolated format, but as a critical layer in integrated digital planning.
“Today, audio is not planned in isolation or treated as an afterthought. It has been integrated into the full-funnel digital ecosystem from the outset. Nearly half of Indian audio consumers have been spending more than 90 minutes a day listening to music, podcasts, and audio series, with usage deeply embedded into daily routines such as commuting, workouts, household tasks, and downtime,” she said.
What makes this shift more compelling is the imbalance it has exposed. While consumer time has steadily moved toward audio, ad spends have not quite kept pace. This gap, as the report has highlighted, has been less a limitation and more an opportunity, one that brands have slowly begun to recognise.
“However, with close to two hours of time spent on the platform, ad spends are yet to reach its potential in this space. We have seen audio move from a support medium to creating its own space in the ecosystem. Spotify, which has been growing rapidly at 35% CAGR, has been showing the third spot under OTT in comScore,” Bhagavalsingh noted.
The implications of this shift have been both strategic and behavioural. Audio has not just extended reach; it has redefined where and how brands have been showing up.
“Consumers have been spending significant time on platforms like Spotify and Pocket FM during commutes, workouts, and background listening moments. This has been giving brands access to high-attention, low-clutter environments that extend reach beyond screen-based channels,” she added.
If the first phase of audio advertising was about presence, the current phase has been about participation. The format itself has evolved, moving far beyond the traditional 20-second spot into something more interactive, measurable, and context-driven.
“Audio has evolved well beyond the traditional 20-second spot. We have been seeing strong results from interactive and contextually targeted formats. Most of the platforms have been logged-on environments, which has been giving us an edge in deterministic targeting,” she explained.
This evolution has been driven by a combination of technology and storytelling.
“Key trends have included contextual targeting by genre, mood, or time of day, sequential storytelling across audio and display, clickable companion banners, and branded podcasts and long-form integrations,” Bhagavalsingh said.
More importantly, these formats have begun to deliver on outcomes that were once considered the domain of performance channels.
“Interactive audios have been giving a wide range of KPIs to explore, from clicks to site visits and even lower-funnel metrics. We have observed that branded content integrations on platforms like Spotify have often delivered stronger recall and message association compared to standard ad spots. Completion rates on non-skippable audio have also been significantly higher than skippable video formats,” she noted.
As categories from BFSI to auto and fintech have leaned into long-form storytelling, and FMCG brands have tapped into regional audio to reach Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets, the medium has been expanding both in depth and diversity.
Yet, the real test of any medium has always been measurement, and here too, audio has been quietly rewriting the rules.
“Audio is not evaluated in isolation, we have been assessing it based on how it enhances the overall media mix,” Bhagavalsingh explained.
From attention to attribution, the metrics have been evolving to reflect the medium’s unique strengths. “From an attention perspective, we have been tracking completion rates, share of voice within podcast or playlist environments, and companion banner engagement. Audio has been benefiting from lower clutter, which has often driven stronger attentive listening compared to scroll-based environments,” she said.
At a brand level, the evaluation has been equally layered. “We have been deploying brand lift studies measuring recall, awareness, and consideration, along with pre- and post-campaign research and message association studies. We have observed that audio has been driving stronger aided recall when integrated within a multi-channel journey,” she noted.
And at the business level, audio has increasingly been tied to outcomes. “We have been evaluating through Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM), cross-channel attribution models, and conversion tracking and website visits. Importantly, we have been measuring audio’s contribution to incremental reach and effective frequency within multi-channel campaigns, rather than judging it as a standalone medium,” she added.
This shift, from isolation to integration, has perhaps been the most defining characteristic of audio’s rise. It has not replaced video, social, or OTT; it has complemented and strengthened them, filling in the gaps where screens have not always reached.
The platforms themselves have been responding to this shift, accelerating innovation to make audio more accountable and performance-driven. “Platforms have been rapidly evolving to make audio more accountable and performance-driven. Innovations have included programmatic buying integrations, audience-based targeting, contextual placements, interactive formats, and enhanced brand lift and attribution models,” Bhagavalsingh said.
Ease of access has also played a crucial role. “The shift toward self-serve and programmatic solutions has made audio easier to integrate within the broader digital media stack. As measurement transparency has improved, audio has been moving from being viewed as experimental spend to a strategically planned and sustained investment,” she explained.
What has once been considered a frequency builder has now been stepping into a far more expansive role. “Audio has been the only format that has evolved from being just a frequency builder to catering to full-funnel objectives, thanks to its interactive ad formats. This has been helping attract spend beyond traditional advertisers,” Bhagavalsingh concluded.
In an ecosystem where attention has been fragmenting and screens have been multiplying, audio has not been competing for space, it has been occupying moments. And in those moments, quietly but consistently, it has been changing how advertising has been heard, remembered, and measured.
