Today’s radio broadcasters face an increasingly challenging competitive landscape.
Audio competes not only with other audio platforms but with virtually every form of media imaginable for audience attention and advertising dollars. In that environment, helping broadcasters maximize audiences remains critically important, but it is no longer sufficient.
Broadcasters also need tools to monetize their existing audiences.
That reality has led us to an important conclusion at Coleman Insights: radio’s future depends not only on proving its effectiveness, but also on making it dramatically easier to buy.
That’s why we’re excited to introduce Resonate to the radio industry later this year.
Developed by Canada’s Pattison Media, Resonate is a programmatic buying platform designed specifically for broadcast radio. Its mission is straightforward but transformative: make radio easier to buy by allowing advertisers to purchase radio inventory programmatically, much as they already do with other media platforms competing for their advertising budgets.
Think about how advertising works today.
Agencies can buy display ads, connected TV, streaming audio, digital video, and countless other forms of media with just a few clicks. Increasingly, advertisers expect the same ease of purchase everywhere they spend money.
Radio, despite its enormous reach and proven effectiveness, has often remained outside that ecosystem.
As a result, many buyers—particularly younger ones—either don’t buy radio, don’t know how to buy radio, or simply don’t have time to navigate the traditional buying process.
That’s not because radio doesn’t work.
It’s because, in many cases, radio is harder to buy than the media it competes against.
Resonate seeks to change that.
By connecting broadcast radio inventory to programmatic buying systems, Resonate creates a path for advertisers to access radio using familiar tools and workflows. The goal isn’t to change what makes radio special. It’s to remove friction and make it easier for advertisers to invest in one of the world’s most powerful media.
The opportunity is significant.
Programmatic buying has transformed categories ranging from digital display to connected TV to out-of-home advertising. In fact, out-of-home media—one of radio’s fellow traditional media channels—has experienced meaningful growth in recent years as programmatic buying has become a larger part of the business.
Imagine what could happen if radio became easier to buy, easier to scale, and easier to include in the media plans of advertisers who may not currently consider it.
That possibility is what excites us most about Resonate.
If you know Coleman Insights, you know that helping audio brands succeed has been our mission for more than 45 years. Even as our 2024 acquisition by Quest Global Research Group has enabled us to expand into new industries, our commitment to helping radio thrive remains unchanged.
In recent years, that commitment has increasingly extended beyond audience growth and into audience monetization.
That’s why we introduced services such as Ascend Brand Lift Studies, which help advertisers measure the impact of their campaigns, and Validate Audio Attribution, which demonstrates how radio advertising drives consumer action.
Validate itself is the product of our partnership with Pattison Media—the same innovative company that created Resonate and with whom we are now bringing this technology to market.
We believe radio’s future remains extraordinarily bright. The medium still delivers massive reach, emotional connection, and proven advertising results.
Now it needs buying experiences that match the expectations of today’s advertisers.
That’s what Resonate is designed to do.
And that’s why we believe this blog—and this platform—should resonate with you.
