Audio Is on the Menu: Why It’s Time Food and Beverage Brands Took a Bite
As new advertising regulations loom and audience behaviour continues to shift, audio has emerged as a powerful and often underutilised channel for food and beverage brands.
A Shifting Landscape
From October 2025, new UK laws will ban paid ads for HFSS (High Fat, Salt, and Sugar) products across TV (pre-9pm) and all online channels, including social, display and video. While this is a much-needed move to protect children's health, it presents a significant challenge for marketers.
Fortunately, audio offers a way forward. Audio-only media, including radio, podcasts and streaming, is exempt. This opens up an exciting opportunity for food and beverage brands to stay front of mind with adult audiences without breaching regulations.
Audio Isn’t Just a Backup Medium
Recent data from RAJAR Q4 2024 shows that 87% of UK adults tune into radio every week (48.7m UK Adults). Digital audio continues to thrive too, with 74.2% of all adults listening via digital platforms [1]. Audio is being consumed throughout the day, from the morning commute, to the lunchtime gym session, and then while cooking in the evening. This makes audio a uniquely personal, high-attention medium. It’s also efficient: research from Radiocentre and Ebiquity shows audio delivers an ROI of £7.70 for every £1 spent, putting it ahead of online and out-of-home advertising. [2]
Why Audio and Food Go Hand in Hand
Audio is perfectly built to influence cravings and spark impulse purchases. Think about a snack brand advertising during that opportune afternoon lull, or a takeaway brand running spots on the drive home. It reaches people at the right moment, and crucially often just before a purchase.
With HFSS restrictions looming, brands will need to shift their budgets. Audio is ideally placed to take the lead in that rebalanced mix. It offers scale, memorability, and that all important emotional connection.
How to Make Audio Work for You
- Audit your media plan - begin shifting some spend into audio campaigns.
- Use a strategic sonic identity - music, voice and brand sounds all help with brand recall.
- Select the right mix of platforms - for example, you could use national radio for reach and podcasts or streaming platforms for targeting specific audiences.
- Track performance - use promotional codes, or make use of the tracking capabilities built into digital audio platforms, such as click-through data and cookie based tracking.
- Explore branded content – podcasts are a great way to build longer-term engagement and there are a number of options that we can help you with.
*Sources
1 RAJAR Q4 2024
2 Radiocentre data
