Naomi Gorringe.
Naomi Gorringe, Head of Marketing, Southern Cross Austereo.
Over the past five years, digital audio consumption in Australia has increased significantly, with podcast listening growing more than 40%, and radio and music streaming seeing double digit growth. Listeners have been embracing new formats, with COVID lockdowns years ago supercharging the pace of change – increasing uptake of smart speakers and driving momentum in podcast listening.
LISTNR launched in February 2021 amid a surge in behaviour shifts with a marketing strategy focused on hero-ing high-value content to acquire a known audience. Five years on, the focus has shifted towards understanding listener behaviour; what people want to hear and how they want to consume it.
This month, we have launched two key consumer initiatives that reflect this shift; a new brand platform: ‘What Aussie ears want to hear’, and LiSTNR Playback, a reflection of what people listened to over the past year.
The first five years of LISTNR’s brand strategy centred around the content; the genres available and highlighting the key titles that called LiSTNR home, now the strategy prioritises the listener – what they want to hear, delivered where they want to hear it, recognising the communities listeners create through their love of audio – whether that be connecting with others via their favourite podcasts, love of music, passion for their sporting team or listener’s parasocial relationship with their breakfast radio hosts.
The launch campaign personifies ears to celebrate individual preferences, highlighting the diversity of Australian listening habits. Every set of ears has a very unique set of preferences, this campaign celebrates that by giving them a voice. The film element of the campaign is anything but dull - the battle for attention is the first hurdle marketers must clear and this campaign leaps over that. The singing ears were oversized silicone ears brought to life by Melbourne puppeteers, then superimposed onto the actors in the finished film. In a sea of AI generated content, these ears are as real as singing ears can get. This has made TikTok a little uncomfortable; as the singing ears appeared in users’ feeds, the 6-second version racked up thousands of likes and shares in the opening days, with hundreds of comments ranging from “this is cursed and funny at the same time” to “fire the marketing team”. It’s music to our ears (pardon the pun), because we agree with whoever first said, “the cardinal marketing sin is being boring”, and everyone who said “the biggest risk is taking no risk”. This campaign shows how creative storytelling can spark genuine engagement, proving that taking risks resonates with audiences. If people are feeling something and take the time to comment or share and like the campaign, we have done something right.
As we work to drive awareness and acquire new listeners via the brand campaign, we are also rewarding our loyal listeners with “Playback”. This data-driven initiative creates interactive, meaningful experiences, celebrates listening habits, encourages discovery of new content and rewards loyalty. LiSTNR Playback offers a personalised reflection on each listener’s past year in audio. One of our most complex data-driven campaigns to date, it allows users to celebrate their unique listening habits, share favourite content, and explore their audio personality.
While the end of the calendar year is increasingly cluttered with tech brands offering users ‘year in review’ experiences, people love them and share them, and as we learned in last year’s inaugural edition, engage even more with the content as a result. To stand out, we deliberately timed LiSTNR Playback away from the busy end of year, aligning it instead with LiSTNR’s 5th anniversary. If you’re an active user of the LiSTNR app, keep an eye out for whether you’re a pop powerhouse, super sleuth, rock royalty or more when you receive your LiSTNR playback this week.
The evolution of LISTNR mirrors broader trends in digital audio. While investment in the total online advertising market in Australia has grown rapidly, reaching $17.2b in the 2025 financial year, success depends not just on scale, but on combining technology and data with local insight and human connection. Since launch, LiSTNR has developed the AdTech capability on par with big global tech players, while maintaining a local and human centred approach that connects brands, creators and audiences via a managed service. Understanding listeners is no longer optional, it is central to winning in digital media.
To find out more about LiSTNR’s AdTech capability visit: https://advertise.listnr.com/network/listnr/listnr-adtech-hub/
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