An Online Retailer Boosts Affinity for the Back-to-School Season

The right brand, size, and number of markers. The must-have calculator for pre-calculus. And many more very specific items.

When it comes to back-to-school shopping lists, parents are looking to check things off quickly. They’re hitting websites and aisles each summer, creating a major opportunity for brands and retailers to boost sales. 

But the window for getting attention is short, and the marketplace is crowded. More than half (57%) of parents start and finish back-to-school shopping within 30 days, and most of them (60%) finish shopping in August. 1

That’s where audio comes in—reaching parents in moments that matter.

In this case study, you’ll see how one online retailer launched a digital audio campaign to get attention and build some affinity with parents.

The challenge

Many parents favor in-store shopping for school essentials, which presented an online retailer with a challenge. Despite being a major player in the online retail space, the brand lagged behind competitors with physical locations for back-to-school shopping.

The retailer needed to shift perception to position itself as the go-to destination for school supplies. The opportunity was clear: Raise awareness during a high-spend season while building meaningful connections with parents preparing for the school year.

The solution

We worked with the online retail giant to build a strategy rooted in consumer targeting and premium content. The brand’s objectives included building brand awareness, raising affinity, and increasing association for specific attributes. 

To achieve these goals, we developed a campaign designed to offer scale and precision while delivering deeper engagement through trusted voices and premium content. 

A cross-platform audio strategy

The brand embraced a multi-format audio approach—combining streaming audio, podcast host reads, and mobile and connected device targeting. This ensured the brand could both scale awareness and reinforce messaging through repeated, meaningful touch points.

The result was a campaign designed to meet parents where they are—delivering both practical and emotional connections during a pivotal seasonal moment.

Targeted streaming audio at scale

Streaming audio ads ran across mobile audio and connected home environments, reaching parents, women 35–54, and multicultural moms with tailored messaging. These placements ensured the brand showed up in everyday listening moments, maximizing relevance and frequency.

High-impact podcast integrations

To build credibility and emotional resonance, the retailer leaned into host-read podcast ads featuring influential voices like Conan O’Brien (Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend), Mel Robbins (The Mel Robbins Podcast), and Lewis Howes (The School of Greatness). The brand’s host reads blended personal storytelling with product relevance to create ads that felt like authentic endorsements. The campaign also leveraged announcer-read ads for increased reach.

The results

The online retailer’s campaign delivered strong, measurable impact—particularly in driving affinity and reinforcing key perceptions. Mobile audio drove strong impact across brand metrics, and podcast placements delivered gains in brand affinity while reinforcing brand messaging.

Making a big impression

The campaign achieved significant scale and efficiency:

• 46M+ impressions delivered 2

• 8.8M unique listeners reached 2

The ads showed strong engagement, with mobile audio outperforming CTR benchmarks across key audience segments.

Building affinity for the brand

A Kantar Millward Brown brand study captured upper-funnel performance metrics, including:

• +8-pt lift in affinity among total respondents, signaling stronger emotional connection with the target audience 3

• +15-pt lift in affinity driven by mobile streaming audio 3

Strengthening consumer perceptions

The campaign also improved how consumers viewed the brand, a critical element to brand’s back-to-school positioning efforts:

• +5-pt lift* in perception as “a brand for people like me” 3

• +5-pt lift* in perception that the brand “makes a difference in my life” 3

These gains highlight the effectiveness of combining emotional storytelling with practical messaging—helping the brand feel both relatable and useful.

Develop A+ campaigns with us

From back-to-school to the biggest moments all year long, digital audio is your in with consumers. Over eight in 10 Americans ages 12 and up are listening. 4 And digital audio listeners spend over four hours a day with the medium. 5

With SiriusXM Media (i.e., the largest audio ecosystem in North America), you can reach these consumers in high-attention, screen-free moments all along the path to purchase.

We did it for them. We can do it for you. Let’s talk.

More about audio and back-to-school shopping