MassiveMusic's 'Sound Science' Study Reveals How Music Drives Advertising ROI

A first-of-its-kind study by MassiveMusic, in partnership with the IPA, Les Binet, Ravensbourne University, Prof. Daniel Müllensiefen, University of Hamburg, and CloudArmy has scientifically proven that choosing the right music doesn’t just have the ability to raise advertising effectiveness, but can lead to significant and tangible ROMI.

The study, published in a new report titled Sound Science: How music is the missing link in marketing ROI by MassiveMusic, is the largest and most rigorous conducted into the impact of music in advertising in the UK, delivering the strongest evidence yet that music isn’t just a creative flourish, but a powerful and essential business tool.

150 of the UK’s most prominent ads on the IPA database were tested on 7,500 UK consumers and evaluated using Campaign MusicIQ MassiveMusic’s consumer research methodology. Every piece of campaign music was tested on four metrics:

• Engagement: How much a track captures the audience’s attention
• Fit: How well the music matches the visuals
• Surprise: How creatively surprising the music is
• Recall: How well it can be remembered

This implicit behavioural testing was then linked to business data from the IPA and revealed powerful insights that prove music’s increasingly important role within the marketing landscape. It draws a direct line between strategic music choices and real business outcomes.

Key findings:

Engaging music is 32% more likely to see a campaign get a higher return on marketing investment - in some cases gains can be up to double.

ROMI matters because it quantifies how well an ad generates profit– the 'bang for your buck'. For the first time, this study has proven that music is a significant contributor to a high return of investment. If listeners connect with the track, they’ll feel warm toward the brand, prompting higher sales and therefore returns.

Music customized for fit dramatically reduces price sensitivity - up to 7x more effectively than campaigns with lower musical fit

The study revealed that when music fits closely with the visual, it decreases price sensitivity, meaning consumers will be willing to pay higher prices. But if the music matches too perfectly, it can reduce the element of surprise that helps things go viral, making the brand less likely to gain sudden fame. Custom music that has been created to match the film's story and timing had the highest chance of achieving a strong fit.

Surprising, highly unexpected music choices drive a 5x brand fame lift

Surprising music-an unexpected choice or hidden gem- can capture attention and make an ad stand out. The study found that using highly surprising music strongly increases brand fame, with the top 20% musical choices being 26% more likely to make a brand more widely known. Additionally, it saw a positive correlation between the use of surprising music and ROMI – proving that originality pays off. Costa Coffee’s 2016 'Creating a Nation of Coffee Lover’s' campaign scored most highly on this metric.

Highly memorable music can make your brand 4x more effective at driving brand salience

Memorable music strengthens brand recall and reinforces campaign messages, which increases mental availability of the brand. The research demonstrates that when music is easily remembered, it will help the brand be top-of-mind in a purchase situation. Catchy, easily recalled tracks, such as TUI’s 2020 'How We Crossed the T’s and dotted the I’s and put TUI at the top' campaign scored highly here.

So, when selecting music for a campaign, consideration should be given to whether it is surprising, fitting, engaging, and memorable. These qualities serve as strategic guardrails, informing choices that not only enhance creative impact but also deliver proven commercial results. The findings of the study make clear that, when used strategically, music is not merely an artistic element but a measurable driver of marketing effectiveness and return on investment.

Roscoe Williamson, global strategy director, MassiveMusic, said, “This collaboration with the IPA has allowed us to bridge the gap between musical creative intelligence and evidence. It’s now proven that music is a powerful, multifaceted lever of campaign effectiveness and that there are repeatable ways to select, brief, curate, or create music that actively fosters it.”

Laura Devis, researcher, MassiveMusic, said, “Advertising is emotion, and emotion is music. As the industry increasingly brings data and strategy into the creative process, we have new ways to understand what makes an ad work. Isolating the impact of music will not only show why it works, but provide a deeper understanding of how it works. This study is a first step– I’m excited to see how this field evolves, and to help shape it.”

Laurence Green, director of effectiveness, IPA , said, “The IPA’s effectiveness resource is here to help the advertising industry’s makers, not just its measurers. What’s wonderful about this research is that it doesn’t just prove that sound delivers concrete commercial returns but also shines an intelligent light on how it does.”

Les Binet, Ravensbourne University, said, “The power of music is massively underrated. To date, surprisingly little research has been done on its effects. With the results of this study uncovering its effectiveness, music will be the differentiator that helps define many of the most effective campaigns moving forward.”

Prof. Daniel Müllensiefen, Goldsmiths, University of London, said, “This study is a milestone in research on the effectiveness of music and audio in advertising. It is the first one to actually link directly real-world business effects to the implementation of music in advertising campaigns, including data across many different campaigns, brands, and product categories.”

Thom Noble, president, CloudArmy, said, “It’s now well established in cognitive and behavioral science that to really uncover people's reactions to music in advertising, we need to capture data at the deeper, non-conscious level. What makes this seminal study doubly compelling is bringing together IPA business effectiveness metrics with implicit level response metrics.”

To access the full research to see what ads performed well, or other media enquiries please contact Propeller Group on massivemusic@propellergroup.com.