Sound Insights

Sound Insights is the first research agency in the 'Spoken Word Audio' category dedicated solely to supporting audio & marketing creatives from ideation through to general release. 

With unique experience across all key formats (Podcasts, Audiobooks, Radio, and Audio Drama), we bring unparalleled expertise to help you navigate the complex landscape of 'Spoken Word Audio'.

Founder

Audible, Inc.

Built and led a Global Consumer Insight team, focused on creating impact with Commissioners, Producers, and Marketing teams, to help drive success for Audible Originals.  Responsible for developing and scaling tools & processes to bring the consumer’s needs & interests to life for Content creation & acquisition, as well as Content Marketing.  Dedicated to partnering with some of the smartest and engaging external partners to help create a competitive advantage for Audible to have the best and most robust understanding of the opportunities in ‘Spoken Word Audio’.

Driven to incorporate the five types of data into creating engaging and exciting insights and establish a passion for research and understanding the consumer across all stakeholder teams.  Team activities focus on four key areas: (1) bringing the consumer to life through a global content/marketing segmentation to better identify and understand the best content and match it with the best messaging; (2) a future-facing Content Trends study to help steer teams on what to create, acquire, as well as inform marketing & merchandising efforts; (3) building a ground-breaking approach to evaluate talent & IP with analytics & consumer survey data; (4) a multi-faceted testing program to help identify the most compelling content ideas, with the right talent, as well as pre & post-testing titles.  All these activities are driven to help better identify and benchmark ground-breaking original audio content that will work across major international markets and extend the Audible brand

Global Senior Research Director

Senior Customer Insight Manager

BLR Media Research Consulting

Designed and led research study that led to performance turnaround in key morning-daypart, boosting audience use by 20% in less than a year despite total radio listening continuing to decline

Led research study for key client to embrace market opportunity and provide more local content to better meet audience needs

Reviewed syndicated audience ratings to identify dayparts across the week that needed attention, and led the training effort for station staff to evaluate their own ratings data.

Provided guidance and expertise for two local media companies to create own online panels in order to better understand their audience needs and media usage behaviour.

Research Director

BBC News

Led efforts to incorporate social media usage, alongside TV/Radio/Digital, into global measurement to enhance BBC understanding of how people consume content and better allocate resources for the future

Transformed research output across project team to deliver greater strategic insights in an easier-to-understand format, to enable leadership to make better plans for future audience needs

Directing team resources to make research processes more efficient & agile to deliver more timely insights at lower costs, with the analysis to inform strategic and budget decisions

In contract role, provided team leadership and guidance in deputy position for Audiences team.  Led multiple ad-hoc projects including BBC Global Tracker and Media Usage study in Sri Lanka.

Comissioned project to automate collection of Global Audience data across all platforms to save costs and staff resources.  Led ground-breaking Qual/Quant/Analytics Device usage study to help the BBC understand how people follow news across devices.

Project Manager, Global Media Measurement

Developed three-tier research structure to broaden NPR’s understanding of audience insight beyond syndicated audience ratings to inform content decisions and demonstrate value to advertisers

Delivered cost savings by highlighting opportunity to repeat most popular, evergreen stories across the week with demonstrated minimal impact on the audience

Formed new research partnerships with key national programs that generated an additional $1 million  in revenue and led national/local collaboration to help boost performance for local News/Talk content

Developed research studies to provide broader perspective on a key program previously considered to be under-performing when in reality it was achieving higher than realised levels of success.

Provided guidance and opportunities for staff to fully develop their potential, enabling colleagues to be rewarded with promotion and for the company to retain staff for longer periods

Senior Research Manager, National Content

Developed lead role within organization for national broadcast ratings for NPR member stations.  Led number of local-level research projects to assess audience needs for news and midday-talk programming in Austin, Columbus, and Boston markets.  Partner role in unique ethnography study in Austin, TX.  Designed monthly tracking study to monitor performance of key NPR News/Talk shows.  Digital work included assessment of new show content (The Bryant Park Project), as well as web (NPR Books).  Also launched NPR Research blog for NPR member stations)

Research Manager

Senior Research Analyst

Research Analyst

MORI Test Research

Learnt basics in market research and did media content analysis and overseeing telephone surveys - to measure whether audience opinions were affected by ongoing media coverage - for a variety of clients including Volvo, Cadburys, and the London Metropolitan Police.

Research Executive

At Sound Insights, we understand the unique challenges you face as an audio creative. 

That's why we've developed a range of approaches that inform and guide the entire creative lifecycle, purposely designed to give you confidence and empower you to create your most impactful work yet.

Our approach is simple yet powerful: we listen to your needs, we collect and analyse data points & signals from various sources, and we bring the “Outside-In” to help you unlock your creative potential.  

We provide clear, actionable insights to inform and enhance your creative decisions, working across all types of data  to give you a comprehensive understanding of your audience and your audio's performance.

Our Offerings

We offer five key services to support you at every stage of the creative process:

1.	INSPIRE: We analyse cultural shifts and emerging trends to help you identify opportunities for ground-breaking audio that resonates with audiences' evolving needs 

2.	VALIDATE: We provide simple, robust testing to validate your audio ideas, ensuring you invest your time and resources into concepts with the greatest potential for success.

3.	ELEVATE: We use data to identify the talent and IP partnerships that can take your audio to the next level, helping you build buzz and audience engagement.

4.	CONNECT: We build detailed audience personas and segmentations to help you create audio and marketing that truly connects with your target listeners.

5.	OPTIMIZE: We provide ongoing testing and feedback to help you continually refine and optimize your audio & marketing assets, ensuring maximum impact and engagement.

The Sound Insights Advantage
When you partner with Sound Insights, you gain:
•	Clarity: Exclusive data & approaches with expert analysis to give you a clear understanding of your audience, your audio's performance, and opportunities for innovation.

•	Action: Our insights are purposely designed to be actionable, enabling you to make informed decisions and drive results.

•	Support: Our team is dedicated to supporting your success at every stage, from ideation to optimisation.

Working with creatives (Commissioners, Audio Producers, Content Marketers), we cut through the noise and help unlock their creative potential, blending their instincts with our insights.  Our services are designed to be flexible and scalable, to support projects of any size and complexity, across all languages.  Whether you're an independent creator or part of a large organization, we provide insights to take your audio offerings to the next level.

I've been avoiding writing this for two years.

Today I finally published it: 12 things I wish someone had told me when I was made redundant — twice.

These lessons didn't just help me survive the transition—they helped me build the foundations of Sound Insights, the creative space to build something new, the client partnerships that energise me, and the life I couldn't have designed from inside a corporate structure.

It's not a "everything happens for a reason" post. It's honest about how hard this is, and practical about what actually helped.

If you're in career transition, or supporting someone who is, I hope it helps.

Link to post below.

Ben Robins

The Audio Strategist Who Predicts Hits Before They Happen | Former Audible/NPR/BBC World Service

While everyone's talking about video killing audio podcasting, November's data from Cumulus/Signal Hill Insights revealed something different: 

🚀 Narrative podcasts still capture 54% of listening time, directly contradicting the 'Wondery cuts = format death' narrative

🚀 92% of 'video podcast' viewers are actually listening with eyes elsewhere, reminding everyone that Audio quality remains the North Star.

The new Audio Intelligence report connects three major studies to show where the strategic opportunity actually exists in 2026—including why the ad market crisis creates premium positioning advantage.

Link in the comments...

Turn Creative Instincts into Confident Bets | Audio Strategy for Creators & Commissioners who want Data that Guides, not Replaces Judgment | Ex-NPR/BBC/Audible

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