Priority Sounds Audio Advertising: A UK Marketing Overview
If you spend most of your day with headphones in or a smart speaker chirping away in the corner, you’re exactly why brands are getting so interested in Priority Sounds audio advertising.
Audio has quietly become one of the most powerful ways to reach people in the UK. We stream music on Spotify and Apple Music on the train, ask Alexa for the weather while making breakfast, and stick a podcast on for the washing up. All of that is ad space, and agencies like Priority Sounds are built entirely around helping brands make the most of it.
So what actually is Priority Sounds audio advertising?
Priority Sounds is a UK audio advertising and branding agency that focuses on connecting brands with audiences through sound, across radio, podcasts, digital audio and smart speakers. Instead of trying to be everything to everyone, they sit squarely in the audio world and build campaigns that work where people are already listening.
Think of it in three main chunks.
First, there’s traditional radio. That’s still a huge deal in the UK, from big national stations to local radio that people have on in the car or at work. A 30‑second spot in the middle of a breakfast show can reach hundreds of thousands of listeners in one go, and radio still enjoys relatively high levels of trust compared with some online formats.
Then you’ve got digital audio advertising. This is where things get really interesting. Priority Sounds runs campaigns across streaming platforms, online radio and other digital environments, using data to target very specific audiences. Instead of just shouting into the void, brands can reach people in certain locations, age groups or interest segments, and only pay to speak to the listeners that actually matter to them.
Finally, there’s podcast and smart speaker activity. Podcasts are incredibly intimate: you’re literally in someone’s ears while they’re walking the dog or commuting. Smart speakers are in millions of UK homes now, which means branded messages can appear as part of everyday voice interactions. Priority Sounds audio advertising leans into that, creating audio content and ads that feel like part of the listening experience rather than a jarring interruption.
One of the big selling points of digital audio is targeting and measurement. Programmatic audio buying lets campaigns run in real time, showing different ads to different listeners based on who they are, where they are and what they’re listening to at that moment. If a brand wants to reach 25–34 year olds in Manchester who listen to fitness playlists in the morning, that’s the kind of brief that programmatic audio can actually handle. You’re not guessing, you’re selecting.
On top of that, results are far clearer than they used to be with radio alone. With streaming and smart speaker campaigns, brands can track impressions, completion rates and listener behaviour. Did people hear the full ad? Did they hear it several times? Did they respond to a specific call to action? Priority Sounds positions itself around delivering “precision‑targeted campaigns” for exactly that reason.
Creative still matters, though. There’s no point in clever targeting if the ad itself is forgettable. Priority Sounds works on audio branding as well as pure media placement. That means things like sonic logos (a recognisable audio cue you hear every time the brand appears), consistent voiceover styles, and scripts that match the tone of the channel. A podcast host‑read ad will sound very different to a punchy commercial radio spot, and it should.
There’s also a practical UK angle that often gets missed. Audio advertising in this country has to meet regulatory standards and, on broadcast, clear specific checks before it goes live. Agencies focused on audio understand how to get scripts approved quickly and keep brands on the right side of the rules, which is particularly helpful for financial services, health, or anything remotely sensitive.
For UK marketers, one of the big attractions of Priority Sounds audio advertising is how flexible it can be. A small business might test the waters with a tightly targeted streaming campaign in one city. A national retailer could run a mix of commercial radio, digital audio and podcast sponsorships across the country, all under one coherent audio brand. Because the spend is measurable, it’s easier to justify than you might expect when you’re staring at a budget sheet.
Most importantly, audio fits how we actually live now. Screens are everywhere, but there are plenty of moments when people genuinely don’t want to look at another one. Walking, driving, running, cooking, tidying the house: these are ‘screen‑off’ times when audio has the stage to itself. If your brand can speak clearly, memorably and at the right moment in between songs or before a podcast episode, you’ve got a real shot at being remembered.
Top photo by Tomasz Gawłowski on Unsplash
