This Week's Influencer: AI Brands Need Audio Now; YouTube's View Count Gets a Boost It Didn't Earn; Creators Are Making Exit Plans; and More

It seems like AI is everywhere these days. But if you look at actual usage, only 50% of Americans use AI once a week. That’s roughly the same share of Americans who were logging on to the internet back in 2001.

If AI brands want to grow, there’s a hesitancy gap they’ll need to address. According to our new study with the Cumulus Media | Westwood One Audio Active Group®, audio is the perfect place to foster a brand campaign.

For details of our survey, as well as tips from our AI brand playbook, check out this week’s episode of The Media Roundtable.

First-time host Tucker Peleuses (Chief of Staff, Oxford Road) welcomes Neal Lucey (EVP, Strategic Planning, Oxford Road) and Pierre Bouvard (Chief Insights Officer, Cumulus Media | Westwood One) to talk about AI’s split perceptions, audio wins, and why it’s important to remember you’re not the customer. Let’s dive in.

“ If you’re an AI brand and you think most Americans are aware of you, you’ve got a lot of work to do.” – Neal Lucey (EVP, Strategy & Planning, Oxford Road)

A Tale of Two Cities – Though AI has made inroads into numerous industries and workplaces, many Americans remain unaware of AI services. There’s still little mass-market recognition of AI brands, aside from a few big names. With that awareness gap, you’d think brands would be flooding the airwaves. But so far, only Claude and Microsoft Copilot have invested significantly in audio advertising. A lot of white space remains, just waiting for the right brands to take advantage of it.

Why Audio Wins – Even though AI companies offer digital services, audio should be the centerpiece of their media plans: The demographic fit is just too good to ignore. Heavy podcast and AM/FM radio listeners significantly over-index on AI usage, awareness, and interest. A willing audience is already listening, and it’s up to AI brands to reach them.

You’re Not the Customer – Because AI is so polarizing, marketers can’t assume potential customers share their enthusiasm for the technology. Check your blind spots and pre-test your creative to make sure you’re actually connecting with your audience. And please, please don’t be boring. Dull ads cost twice as much as interesting ones.

For more insights on how AI brands can use audio to grow, check out the full episode below.

The Classifieds

Gather ‘Round the Fire for Dark-Hearted Tales

Network: Q6 Media / Episodic Downloads: 100k

Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society, I call this podcast: HORRORble. Yes, there’s now a grown-up version of Are You Afraid of the Dark?, but instead of featuring pool ghosts and haunted mirrors, the topics are far more conspiratorial. Host Askia “The Boogeyman” Booker brings in a rotating cast of exorcists, voodoo queens, cryptozoologists, demonologists, and everyday people with stories that don’t fit anywhere else.

Since HORRORble Podcast’s launch late last year, impressions per episode have doubled, thanks to Booker’s dynamic hosting style and the show’s thrilling conversations, which cover everything from paranormal encounters to deep-cut occult history. HORRORble Podcast is best suited for audiences drawn to true crime, conspiracy theories, and fictional horror podcasts. The show’s also a strong option for advertisers exploring video in Q4. Click below…if you dare.

Get The Deal

Get a Jump-Start on Startups

Network: Jonekiri / Episodic Downloads: 50k

Audiences love a good startup success story. But what about a company’s awkward in-between stage, when everyone’s still trying to figure out what they’re doing? That’s where Startups Decoded lives. The show focuses on up-and-comers who are still learning their industries, finding the devil in the details, and taking their lessons one day at a time.

Host Andy Walsh covers the full founder operating system, from idea to funding. Even when the conversations get granular–one episode featured a discussion on how to hyper-target crucial customer demographics–Startups Decoded always includes solutions to problems that affect a variety of industries. Pull on your Patagonia fleece and join the convo by clicking the link below.

Get The Deal

In Case You Missed It

YouTube Inflated Its View Count and Called It a Feature

YouTube has changed how it counts views for long-form videos and livestreams. Beginning August 24th, a view is now recorded as soon as a video starts playing. While public view counts will likely increase, YouTube says creator monetization and eligibility for the YouTube Partner Program will continue to rely on their existing “engaged views” metric, which remains available in Analytics. Advertisers should expect public YouTube view counts to inflate without any change in audience attention. The good news is that YouTube is keeping Engaged Views as a separate metric. That should remain the primary measure for evaluating campaign performance. If anything, YouTube’s change reinforces the need for consistent measurement standards across platforms. See the AMP Accords for more.

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Don’t Build Your Brand Around a Person Who’s Building Their Way Out

As the creator economy matures, more creators are planning for what comes after being the face of their business. According to data from the Consumer Technology Association, 42% of U.S. creators and 60% of full-time creators now have an exit plan. Whether through acquisitions, succession planning, or building businesses that can operate independently, creators are increasingly treating their brands as long-term companies rather than personal channels. This is a reminder not to overbuild around any single creator. Five years is probably a reasonable benchmark for the lifespan of most creator partnerships. The strongest marketing strategies will continuously test emerging creators while maintaining relationships with the few who continue to earn their audience over time.

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AI Made Its Podcast Debut as a Media Buyer, But Veterans Aren’t Impressed

Podcast News Daily reports Butler/Till and iHeartMedia completed what they call the first agentic AI media buy for premium streaming audio and podcasts. Working for an unnamed agricultural brand, AI agents executed buys within human-set rules, delivering streaming audio 42% more efficiently than direct buying and placing 48% of podcast impressions in non-skippable mid-rolls versus 33% traditionally. If one of the key optimizations is shifting more weight into mid-rolls, AI is confirming conventional wisdom rather than discovering something new. The real value will come when AI helps experienced buyers uncover opportunities that weren’t already obvious.

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#SaveTheLiveReads

Moms and Mysteries Just Made an Alpaca Hoodie Sound Essential

Melissa and Mandy of Moms and Mysteries: A True Crime Podcast bring this week’s #STLR with a hilarious and highly relatable take on PAKA Apparel. Melissa notes the challenges of summer living in Florida, where she’s constantly alternating between being outside (where it feels like “the surface of the sun”) and being inside (where air-conditioned stores make it freezing cold). That dilemma is why her PAKA hoodie has become a year-round wardrobe staple. She also highlights how alpaca fiber keeps the hoodie soft, breathable, and thermoregulating, making it an item she actually reaches for rather than just keeping it in her closet.

The read gets even more compelling when she shares that each PAKA hoodie is made from start to finish in Peru and handwoven by artisans, giving the product a sense of craftsmanship. It’s a perfect example of turning a description of a simple wardrobe staple into something listeners can genuinely see themselves living in.

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OXFORd In The News

AMP’s Definition Aligns with Consumer Reality

Signal Hill Insights used the AMP Accords’ definition of a podcast as the lens for a deep dive into how nearly 5,000 Americans actually describe the medium, and the findings offer useful context for why the standard matters. The data, drawn from Sounds Profitable’s 2025 Podcast Landscape study, shows that most Americans can coherently define a podcast. But only about a third of those surveyed spontaneously lead with audio or listening in their description, while just 7% of podcast consumers define the medium as video-only. The takeaway: Audio remains podcasting’s defining edge, but the industry still has work to do to make that case to audiences who discover the medium via the screen.

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Weekly AI Use Is Where Internet Use Was in 2001

Oxford Road and Cumulus Media’s Westwood One published “The Great AI Divide,” a joint report on AI brand marketing, with coverage landing across Sounds Profitable, Roastbrief, Ads of Brands, Podcasting Today, Radio Ink, and Inside Radio. Among the findings: Heavy podcast and radio listeners significantly over-index on AI awareness, making audio a natural fit for brands trying to close that gap.

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Read The Report Here

Four Outlets, One Finding: Stop Buying Comedy by the Headliner

Our August ORBIT rankings on top-performing Comedy podcasts landed across Podcast News Daily, Podcasting Today, Roastbrief, and Sounds Profitable, all centering on the same finding: Only four shows from last November’s top 15 made the new list, and four of the five most efficient shows cost less than $2,500 per episode, while chart-toppers commanding premium rates frequently don’t crack ORBIT’s top 50. The genre is improving, but the roster of winners is in constant flux, and set-and-forget comedy buying is leaving performance on the table.

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