Visualizing the effectiveness of audio advertising. What is the new solution "SONATA"?

In today's world, where music streaming services are deeply integrated into daily life, Spotify ads are gaining attention as a medium that leverages the unique strength of "listening while doing other things" – distinct from visual media. They deliver brand messages by aligning with users' moments without disrupting their focus or immersion.

To make this impact more measurable, SONATA was introduced. SONATA visualizes everything from store visit rates to contribution to purchases. This article introduces SONATA's features while exploring how it expands the possibilities of audio advertising.

Visualizing the Effectiveness of Spotify Ads

Until now, Spotify advertising lacked a system to quantitatively measure how much it drove store visits or purchases. Therefore, Dentsu Inc. entered into the world's first measurement partnership agreement with Spotify Japan as an advertising agency. Together, they co-developed and released "SONATA," a solution enabling quantitative verification of the effects from exposure to Spotify ads and further visualizing their return on investment.

SONATA is a measurement solution that, while protecting privacy, uses Spotify ad exposure data as its starting point and links it to various consumer behavioral data held by Dentsu Inc. for integrated analysis. Its main features are as follows, enabling end-to-end measurement, comparison, and improvement.

• Measurement of Net Advertising Effect: Calculates the net advertising effect by linking Spotify ad exposure data with behavioral data (store visits, website visits, purchases, etc.) and comparing it to a non-exposed control group.
• Multi-dimensional analysis for planning: Enables multifaceted analysis by target audience, creative, time slot, etc., to inform planning for subsequent initiatives.
• Integrated verification with other media: Beyond comparing effectiveness with TV or radio ads, it visualizes overlapping reach and exposure effects.
• Integrated delivery design for custom segment creation and effect measurement: Based on TV viewing data and store visit data, Dentsu Inc. creates unique segments. This enables integrated implementation from targeting in Spotify ads to result analysis at .

Proven Results: Store visit rate +1.58 points, estimated net increase in store visitors: 29,662 people, estimated net increase in CPA for store visitors: ¥178

KDDI's "Ponta Pass" implemented an audio ad campaign on Spotify primarily to expand service awareness and drive store visits to a specific location. Analysis linked Spotify ad exposure data with visit data, comparing visit rates between exposed and unexposed audiences:

• Store Visit Rate: 1.58-point lift
• Estimated net increase in store visitors: 29,662 people
• Estimated CPA (Cost Per Acquisition) per net new visitor: ¥178

These results were obtained.

Presenting such concrete metrics enables advertisers to assess "how much audio ads contribute to results" based on objective indicators rather than intuition.

Integration with various media contact data and client first-party data

Although SONATA is a newly released solution, multiple analysis projects using real data are already underway. The main analysis themes are as follows:

① Analysis of cross-media exposure effects
It enables visualization of synergistic effects from "audio × audio" or "visual × auditory" combinations across multiple media touchpoints like TV, video, and OOH.

Example:
・Cross-reach measurement of Radio × Spotify ads
・Cross-media effects of OOH × Spotify ads

② Standardization of Listen-Through Conversions (conversions by users who heard audio ads) and Non-Click-Based ROI Evaluation
Current advertising effectiveness measurement is built on the premise of "clicks," symbolized by the "last-click model." However, with audio ads, many cases lead to purchases or site visits without a click. SONATA enables measurement of "behavioral changes resulting from hearing the ad." We will continue to advance the standardization of "Listen-Through Conversions," which conventional metrics couldn't fully capture.

③ Dentsu Inc. and Spotify's Vision for the Future: Integrated Analysis of Client First-Party Data × Spotify's Proprietary Data
Looking ahead, we are building an environment that enables the integrated analysis of advertisers' member data and e-commerce purchase data with Spotify's fandom data and music preference data. This aims to create solutions that enhance targeting accuracy and deepen customer understanding, for example, by identifying "artists and genres that resonate well with loyal customers."

Audio Advertising Becomes a "Measurable Investment"

Audio advertising has traditionally been considered a medium where "it's difficult to quantify whether it led to action." However, with the introduction of "SONATA," audio advertising is evolving into a medium where effectiveness can be visualized.

For advertisers and marketers, SONATA delivers significant value by enabling the optimization of audio ad planning—previously reliant on "intuition" or "experience"—based on concrete performance metrics.This also presents an opportunity to position audio advertising as a medium with evidence-based performance metrics. Furthermore, the combination of Spotify's "audio experience" and Dentsu Inc.'s expertise in data integration, measurement, and operations means audio advertising is now stepping into its next standard.