Steel Recaps March’s Top Marketing News of 2025

As a service to our clients and partners, Steel summarizes the top stories in marketing and advertising each month. Please reach out to Kirsten Cutshall for more discussion on this month’s marketing news or with anything that is on your mind. We would love to hear from you!

Video Transcript

I’m Kirsten Cutshall with Steel Advertising. It’s March, and here’s your top marketing news in under 5 minutes.

Ad-supported audio constitutes 20% of daily media time. 

Radio is not dead. Nielsen and Edison Research’s The Record is a quarterly report card on how U.S. consumers spend their listening time. According to the most recent 2024 edition, ad-supported audio now accounts for 20% of Americans’ daily media time. This includes a mix of platforms like broadcast radio, podcasts, streaming music services, and satellite radio. 

Radio continues to lead the market. On average listeners spent 67% of their ad-supported audio time with radio, 18% with podcasts, 12% with streaming audio services and 3% with satellite radio. Streaming services have seen modest growth, driven by expansions in news and sports content. 

However, audio consumption varies by age. While radio leads with every age group, for ages 18-34 podcasts and streaming receive significant attention. With this age group, radio commands only 47% of time while podcasts receive 32% and streaming makes up 20%. 

Marketers looking to build reach in the 18-34 age group must layer on multiple audio channels to build up coverage levels.  

Next, it appears that media consumption in the US has reached a saturation point. According to emarketer, US consumers now spend approximately 12 hours and 42 minutes daily —a figure that is showing signs of stagnation for the first time. The last few years saw consistent growth as audiences spent both increased time with media and increasing use of concurrent media screens, Now, though audiences are still spending significant time on digital video and social media platforms, the growth in overall media consumption is slowing.

For marketers, this saturation presents a new challenge.as audiences are both distracted and  fragmented into pluralities. This is most pronounced with younger demographics. However, programmatic multichannel media buying provides a way to reach audiences as they swing between different channels and outlets. 

Finally, ad-supported gaming promises more revenue for gaming companies. 

This month, Sensor Tower, a leading provider of data on the digital economy, released its annual State of Mobile Gaming Report for 2025. While growth in gaming app downloads was mild, ad-based revenue is up. It’s no surprise that gaming companies are following the money. 

With player engagement at an all-time high, with more and more users spending time in mobile games, the market for programmatic gaming placements is maturing.  

8% more players are engaging with mobile ads and total gaming sessions rose by 12% year over year. Interestingly, TikTok is the leading discovery platform for mobile games. 

Marketers can take away two things. 1. Ad-supported gaming is capturing a wider audience, and 2. If you are not allowed to use TikTok in your media mix – you might want to find that audience through gaming ads. 

Thanks for listening and don’t hesitate to reach out if you want to discuss further. By staying agile and in the know, you’ll be well-positioned to navigate the evolving marketing landscape.

I hope this helps make your job easier. Feel free to reach out if you want to talk about these topics or anything marketing. 

Sources:

Ad-supported audio constitutes 20% of daily media time

https://www.nielsen.com/insights/2025/the-record-q4-audio-listening-trends/ 

Media consumption in the US has reached a saturation point

https://www.emarketer.com/content/us-media-consumption-hits-saturation-point 

Finally, ad-supported gaming promises more revenue for gaming companies. 

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sensor-tower-mobile-gaming-rebounds-in-2024-as-player-engagement-and-spending-reach-new-highs-302398268.html