Despite the growing dominance of digital channels, traditional media remained resilient in 2024, according to a new report from MediaRadar. “Radio remained relatively stable, with local radio seeing slight growth,” the ad market research firm says in a lookback at media buying trends this year. Yet the report offers another reminder that media companies’ investment in digital is a smart strategic move. Most advertising forecasts still count radio and podcasting separately, but MediaRadar says the audio siblings have become “essentially two sides of the same coin.”
Digital advertising and marketing services now account for $1 in every $5 the radio industry generates. But radio still has a long way to go. Across the total ad market, digital now captures nearly two-thirds of total media spending in the U.S., MediaRadar says, surging 8% year-over-year and reaching $107 billion for the first eight months of the year.
“Digital media meets consumers where they spend the most time and checks all the boxes for advertisers: seamless engagement, quick conversions, and measurable impact,” the firm says in a blog post. It says brands across industries as varied as home improvement, department stores, automotive, QSRs, software, and financial services are investing heavily in digital channels to reach consumers at every step of their path to purchase.
“Podcast advertising,” the report says, “offers advertisers a unique opportunity to engage listeners in a personal and targeted manner, and its rapid expansion is a shot in the arm for traditional radio stations and producers willing to bridge the gap.”
The result, MediaRadar says, is that while radio ad spending rose 3% last year, digital audio was part of the reason why it overcame headwinds facing all traditional media. For instance, print media ad spending declined 11% in 2024 vs. 2023.
One of the overriding themes in the report from Meghan Fraze, Chief Product Officer at MediaRadar, is that traditional media channels are evolving, noting in a blog post that podcasting shows faster growth than traditional radio. “These shifts highlight a broader trend where brands are not just chasing audiences, but also strategically investing in media channels that offer superior tracking and optimization,” Fraze says.
AI is 2024’s Marketing Word of the Year by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) for the second straight year. In 2025, look for it to play the role of both savior and disruptor. Advertisers and agencies will increasingly rely on artificial intelligence and other advanced analytics “to enhance campaign design and delivery, and publishers will use it to improve how they monetize their audiences and control ad fraud,” MediaRadar predicts.
But AI will also create new challenges for the industry. Case in point: Do a web search for a topic or phrase and AI-generated answers will take up much of the top space, pushing traditional search results off the screen. “This makes it difficult for sponsored search results to stay visible, especially among young users who are more likely to take AI results at face value,” per the blog and accompanying report. “To come out on top in 2025, brands will need to recognize those challenges, not bury their head in the sand.”
For “Unlocking the future of advertising: What can we expect from media investments in 2025?” MediaRadar undertook a comprehensive review of U.S. advertising expenditures across top media channels between January and August 2024 and compared those expenditures to the year before. Download the report HERE.
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