Four audio companies, including iHeartMedia, NPR, Spotify, and SXM/Pandora, were rated by agency planners and ad buyers among the top media sales organizations by the Myers Report in its annual benchmarking report. They are among 21 organizations that surpassed the 50% positive performance threshold and rated in the top-2 box on a five-point scale. The other top performers include Clear Channel Outdoor, Disney/ABC TV Stations, Dotdash Meredith, ESPN, Google, Intersection, Lamar Outdoor, Locality, Meta, NBCUniversal, NBC Sports, Outfront, Talon Outdoor, Vistar Media and YouTube.
The tabulation is based on the results of a 2023 survey of 4,200 advertising agency and brand media decision-makers and influencers. The survey, fielded in August and September of 2023, was conducted by The Myers Report, a B2B research report and guide for senior media, agency and marketer executives.
“The evaluation criteria are rigorous and multifaceted, combining data-led measures with subjective insights from the industry,” says publisher Jack Myers in a blog post about the results.
The report also reflects the challenging environment faced by media sales organizations, such as various market pressures, from budget cuts to the dominance of programmatic buying. “Despite these challenges, a few organizations continue to thrive by investing in innovative strategies and maintaining strong client relationships,” Myers says.
For the first time, the report – in what it calls a “shift towards transparency” – also recognized the industry's average performers, 65 companies who have shown “satisfactory but not exceptional results.” Among the audio companies whose sales organizations average a “3” on the 1-5 scale (adequate) and received positive performance ratings by 33% to 50% of those respondents in a business relationship with them are Audacy, Beasley Media Group, Cox Radio, Cumulus Media/Westwood One, and Stitcher.
Finally, eight media sales organizations were deemed as underperformers with less than 33% of survey respondents rating them top-2 box and more than 25% bottom 2-box on a five-point scale. They included two audio companies: Apple Music and Audible.
Only those respondents who are in a business relationship with each sales organization and influential in decision-making for that media company were eligible to rate each organization.