CES 2025: Navigating Tech, Creativity, and Audio Storytelling

The future is here. Tech, audio, and creativity are expanding at exponential rates, and CES 2025 proves it. Consumers are dictating the rules of audio consumption, and it’s quickly become the go-to medium, present in the everyday lives of listeners. As the pioneers of audio, we made a splash at this years event, bringing the best in music, podcasts, advertising, and more.

SiriusXM Media Is, Has, and Will Continue Shaping the Future of Audio

From AI, to how we leverage technology, to investing in our corporate culture, SiriusXM Media is the audio empire that’s shaping the future of audience connection. That's why we showed up at CES in a big way. And our very own CEO Jennifer Witz was joined by Ashley Flowers for the keynote.

Curiosity Is at the Forefront

Technology today does more than just advance the way advertising is done. It changes the way we communicate, the ways we work together, and amplifies curiosity and imagination about what the next breakthrough strategies will be. As leaders navigate this ever-changing ecosystem, women are passing the mic to the next generation of leaders to inspire action and take charge of the future of the industry. Pass the Mic gives women the opportunity to shine, highlighting trailblazers in the advertising, media, and audio space. And this year' s conversations were nothing short of inspirational. Stay tuned for our Pass The Mic podcast from CES coming very soon (and check out past ones here). 

Podcast Creators are the New Influencer

Curiosity is driving conversations and Alie Ward, host of Ologies, knows a thing or two about diving into a world of unknowns and cracking them wide open. With media like TV and social created for broad audiences, it’s hard for advertisers to find the right way to connect. Creators like Alie craft authentic relationships with brands that listeners trust. And she does it all with the power of science, humor, and audio. With audiences saying podcasts are 23x more trustworthy than social media, digital audio campaigns are a must for brands.

The New Era of Audio and Tech

Technology and audio go hand in hand. Audio is a companion that shares the stage with many of our life experiences. From shopping trips to gym sessions to doing chores, listeners are tuned in with headphones on and off. As we continue to inject new technology into our daily lives, content consumption is changing along with it. 

Connected devices across the car, our home, and even our toilets, are making it easier for listeners to take audio along with them literally everywhere they go, providing a seamless experience from place to place. According to the UN Trade and Development’s Digital Economy Report, the average American owns 13.4 devices and connections today vs. 8 in 2018, a 63% increase over just five years.  And with SiriusXM Media, a seamless experience from podcasts to music to talk. 

The Magic of Audio

Sound plays a significant role in day-to-day life, influencing our behaviours and perceptions in remarkable ways. Audio advertising encompasses core components like sonic identity, sound design, music, technology, and voice. With Audio is Magic, Studio Resonate explores how it all comes together to hit a brand's specific marketing objectives. Audio is Magic is a fully immersive experience, demonstrating how advertisers can leverage audio to create tangible, impactful audio advertising strategies.

The Rise of Programmatic Audio

The opportunity in digital audio is ever-growing, and advertisers haven’t truly realized it yet. In fact, audiences are spending 30% of their time with digital audio, but yet ad spend on audio campaigns accounts for less than 9% of total media budgets. Especially when you look at AdsWizz and the programmatic capabilities it’s bringing to the game, the opportunities are endless. Anne Frisbie, Head of Global Business Development, sat down in the C Space Studio to chat all about the state of programmatic audio (including podcasts), audience targeting capabilities like contextual targeting, and the benefits of an open ecosystem.  

Navigating Tech, Creativity, and Audio Storytelling

Jennifer Witz, CEO, SiriusXM and Ashley Flowers, #1 female podcaster in the US, host of Crime Junkie, Founder and CEO, audiochuck bring expert knowledge about the world of audio and technology into the spotlight. The media landscape today is more crowded than ever and audio's ability to build deep, meaningful connections for listeners, brands, and platforms is more important than ever. Here are some highlights from their keynote conversation (full video above).

The Beauty and Growth of Podcasting

Highlight: "The beauty of podcasting is anyone can do it. All I needed was an RSS feed. And the RSS feed hasn't changed so much. But what's really changed is the tech on the business side. And the way that that's evolved in the seven years that I've been in podcasting has been unbelievable. It's better for advertisers. They really know what's getting delivered, who is there, who their ads are reaching. It is constantly still evolving. It's not been so much on the creative side, but on the business side, where the tech has played such a massive role in the evolution.”  - Ashley Flowers

Audio Is Unique

Highlight: “Audio is so unique in terms of the science, the intimacy, and the connection that it affords. Particularly with science and the way the brain processes sound, it can really impact everything from your mood, your memories, and your breathing or your heart rate. It's incredibly impactful on memory. With a lot of other media, the intimacy of audio plays into that. Audio can go where so many other media can't go. It creates that connection that you really can't get with video or other media.” - Jennifer Witz

Brand Partnerships Should Be Authentic

Highlight: “When I think about the content, I want people to be open minded, have open hearts, be willing to change their mind, be willing to learn something new. And if they're willing to do that with me, they also then deeply trust me when I tell them what my favorite toilet paper is. I don't take that lightly. Once you start losing your authenticity, even in one area, it affects everything. So when you talk about advertisers, I'm so strict about what we do and who we partner with because the second that becomes false, I don't want them to look at the content in the same way.” - Ashley Flowers 

Streaming Audio Drives On-the-Go Listening

Highlight: “There's an opportunity for us, particularly with the strength we have in the car, to provide other ad supported opportunities in a much more targeted way than, say, a phone can. But, we're going to continue to expand into adjacencies where it makes sense to support our core business. And that could be in streaming. Streaming reinforces our core value proposition. As a technology, it supports broadening our reach. It supports more personalization. We talked about how we enhance discovery, and streaming provides a lot of that opportunity, given its two way nature. There's also opportunities to provide more control of the content to really find what you want and customize it.” - Jennifer Witz

Finding the Feedback Loop with AI

Highlight: “The more we're getting these AI podcasts, the more people will be craving that genuine connection and looking to have that human touch and feel. But how do we use AI to help us make the best experience for our listeners? We've recently started using AI to aggregate the thousands of messages and comments that we get after a single episode. And then we say, ‘What were they saying about this episode? What was the sentiment? Was it positive or negative? What did they like? What are the elements of this that they're talking about so we can make a feedback loop into the content?’” - Ashley Flowers

The Human Connection In Audio

Highlight: “There's an opportunity for advertisers who are creating ads to bring in smaller advertisers to leverage AI. To create ads with synthetic voices, to adapt them for different audiences, and for them to scale their campaigns using AI where it's not necessarily going to be appropriate to have a direct sales person involved in that effort. You see this increase of technology in AI creating content but we are doubling down on humans creating content. We fundamentally believe people can tell the difference. And that is foundational to the connection that audio provides.” - Jennifer Witz

The Future of Audio Is Bright

Highlight: “We're going to continue to leverage technology. There is certainly a role for technology, in terms of how we deliver audio to our customers. That means leveraging streaming in the car as a complement to satellite to deliver more personalized experiences. There's a real demand for live linear content alongside time shifting and on demand. And we can bring both of those together with our 360L listening experience. And it's easier than ever now with things like AI to allow for discovery in and outside of the car. We have a lot more coming, it's a fascinating time to be part of audio. And the future of audio is extremely bright.” - Jennifer Witz

The Future of Audio and Tech Is Now

After connecting with creators, innovators, thought leaders, and visionaries at CES, there’s no doubt that audio and technology are pushing the media landscape full steam ahead. The future of audio is bright indeed, and SiriusXM Media puts advertisers at the forefront of it all.

 When you’re ready to be a part of leading technology and audio, let’s chat.