Week in Review

This Week in Review has highlighted a huge variety of radio, advertising and digital news, from Facebook launching a new tool for advertisers to hackers using radio stations to deliver anti-Trump messages! Additionally, The National Lottery have used the digital age to their advantage by delivering perfectly targeted ads.

Facebook Launches Tool for Advertisers to Compare Results Across Different Channels

Facebook has launched a new method for marketers to compare how their ads perform across digital, TV, and print. The Marketing Mix Modelling (MMM) tool will let measurement partners gather information directly from Facebook, Instagram and Facebook’s audience network on behalf of their clients for cross-channel measurement and planning.

The National Lottery Uses Digital Radio to Target Ads

The National Radio has started an audio advertising campaign which varies its message, not only relying on the location of the listener but also depending on whether the listener had already heard a National Lottery ad. The advert will play messages to the listener about how many projects the National Lottery has supported in their local area. The National Lottery will also deliver a new message every time the listener hears a broadcast of the campaign, allowing for the campaign to narrate a linear story.

Podcast Dedicated to Women of Colour Launched

Award winning journalist and broadcaster, Marverine Cole, has launched Quintessential, the UK’s first ever podcast devoted to women of colour. Quintessential is a series of monthly podcasts, revealing unique outlooks as well as stories from women from all walks of life. Marverine said that the podcast will allow women to be “apologetically black”. It will also allow for coloured women to have a “seat at the table” to share views about “politics, news and current affairs”.

Report on Life at the UK’s Prison Radio Station Released

Check out The Guardian’s article on the award-winning radio station, National Prison Radio, for the insights on how the station runs. Here you will find out who runs NPR, who listens and also how it has helped the prison community. In addition, the article features real conversations with inmates, shutting down stereotypes on the kind of people who inhabit prisons.

Sunny 107.9 is Hacked with Anti-Trump Message

On the 30^th of January, hackers used Sunny 107.9 to broadcast YF and Nipsey Hussle’s anti-Trump anthem, ‘FDT’. The hackers played the song continually for approximately 20 minutes. The track contains graphic language aimed at the current President of the United States.

Station President Frank Patterson said that the station was hacked at the transmitter. Furthermore, Patterson stated on a Facebook post that “This is NOT our broadcast! We at WFBS do not take political views.”

Hackers haven’t only victimised Sunny 107.9. Several other stations across the US have also fell victim to unexpected plays of FDT.

Honda Aims to Simplify Voice Recognition System

Honda has revamped the functionality of its infotainment offerings. The vehicle manufacturer has launched updates to their voice-recognition systems in the ’18 Odyssey minivan. They have aimed to simplify the voice recognition system as well as speed up the response times. Simplifying included removing commands which control climate change as users rarely use this feature. This also includes minimising the times a user has to hit the talk button.

This week has marked the beginning of mobile ad spend’s hopeful future, with a predicted 17 percent compound annual growth rate and Snapchat investing in targeting ads. Plus, Panoply and Gen-Z Media are aiming to introduce more children to podcasts. Also, FM Scan have a live coverage map of FM radio in Norway on their website.

Mobile Ad Spending Will Grow to $72 Billion by 2021

According to a report by BIA/Kelsey, US mobile ad spending will grow from $33 billion in 2016 to $72 billion by 2021. This translates to a 17 percent compound annual growth rate. Additionally, the located targeted portion of overall mobile ad spend is predicted to grow from $12.4 billion (2016) to $32.4 billion in 2021.

Live Coverage Map of Norway Shows Where Broadcasters Have Switched Off FM Radio

Norway started switching off FM network on 11th January 2017, and luckily there is a way to track which regions are digital-only and which regions are not. FMScan.org shows a live map showing the current FM networks in Norway.

Snapchat Teams Up With Nielson to Target Ads

Snapchat revealed last Tuesday (24/01/17) that they are teaming up with Nielson‘s mobile digital ad ratings unit. Snapchat’s advertisers will be able to buy guaranteed audiences by age and gender. This move will be giving brands another purchasing option; the other Snapchat campaign buying method, via its ads API, will remain available.

Panoply Partners With Gen-Z Media to Produce Podcasts for Kids

Panoply Media has completed a partnership with Gen-Z Media to develop and produce podcasts for young listeners. The deal includes a second season of the popular kid-centered audio drama The Unexplainable Disappearance of Mars Patel. Panoply and Gen-Z Media aim to focus more podcasting on young listeners through their efforts.

Hello to all and welcome to January’s third Week in Review. Announcements and controversies have filled this week up; with both Edison Research and Deezer announcing some pretty cool things. Deezer are hoping to get new artists under the spotlight. In addition, Edison Research have released the date of their Infinite Dial! Furthermore, Norway’s controversial switch from AM/FM to DAB has already faced some difficulties, plus Podtrac have released December 2016’s most listened to podcasts.

Edison Research Announce The Infinite Dial 2017 Release Date

Edison Research and Triton Digital have announced the release date if the 25th edition of The Infinite Dial; 9^th March 2017 (7pm in Great Britain time zone). The Infinite Dial is the longest-running survey of consumer habits and behaviours associated with digital and offline media in the U.S. You can register for the webinar here.

Deezer Announces Launch of Deezer Next

Deezer, one of the world’s leading global music streaming services, has announced the launch of Deezer Next. The company created this programme with the goal to identify and champion emerging talent. Furthermore, it will hopefully create an avenue for exposure to new audiences. Deezer will work directly with their hand-picked artists to develop their profile through various methods, including playlisting and marketing support.

This American Life is Most Listened To Podcast of December 2016

Podtrac have released the United States’ top 20 podcasts of December 2016. This American Life was December’s top podcast. Then followed RadioLab, TED Radio Hour and Freakonomics. The entire top seven slots did not change from Podtrac’s November accounting.

Norway’s Digital Radio Network Suffers Disruption

It had just been a week since Norway started shutting down its FM network on 11th January 2017 when they suffered their first disruption. Some parts of the country were left without DAB on 18th January, when two separate and simultaneous cable breaks caused by human error. However, the connection was re-established after about three hours.

This Week in Review has highlighted some innovations in the digital sector, with audio streaming now becoming the largest share of audio consumption. Furthermore, SoundCloud and Pandora have made some executive decisions. Additionally, digital radio has taken over cars, with 8 out of 10 cars registered in 2016 featuring the latest digital radios.

Audio Streaming is More Popular Than Buying Music Digitally

Nielson Music has released its 2016 U.S. year-end report. The report shows that 2016 saw an overall year-on-year volume growth of 3%, mainly due to the 76% increase in on-demand audio streams compared to 2015. On-demand audio streaming has now grown to 38% of total audio consumption; becoming the largest share of consumption. For the first time in history, on-demand audio streaming share has now surpassed total digital sales.

SoundCloud Makes Executive Changes

SoundCloud’s co-founder, Eric Wahsforss, is stepping away from the role of CTO and instead taking the new position as chief product officer. To replace Wahsforss, Souncloud has hired Yahoo’s vice president of engineering, Artem Fishman, as the new CTO.

8 Out of 10 New Cars Now Fitted with Digital Radio

84% of car models registered last year are now fitted with digital radio. In 2016, 2.28 million cars hit the road with digital radio; this is the first time the two million milestone has been reached. Over the past five years, the number of newly-registered cars factory-fitted with digital radio has increased more than four-fold. This is thanks to major investment by manufacturers.

Pandora to Reduce its Employee Base

Pandora plans to reduce its U.S. employee base by approximately 7% by the end of Q1 2017. This is to to “focus the company on the most significant opportunities” (Tim Westergren, Founder and CEO of Pandora). It will cost Pandora about five to seven million dollars to make these cuts because of severance packages and benefits costs.

Welcome to Exaget’s first Week in Review, a weekly roundup of all things radio, digital and advertising, of 2017. This week has marked the end of Norway’s FM network and the beginning of two partnerships between Ford and Toyota and iHeartMedia and Google. In addition, Pandora take a step into the future by adding new mobile ad formats to their streaming service.

Norway will be the First Digital Only Country

Norway will become the first ever country to shut down its FM network. Instead, they will be switching to digital radio to allow investment in this sector. This change will take months to be fully implemented. However, the change has been heavily criticised by many, even though digital radio will result in clearer sound, more channels and will be less likely to fail in extreme conditions; which is a lot better and safer in case of emergency.

iHeartRadio to Integrate with Google Home

Google Home, a voice-activated speaker, is only improving and will soon be integrating with iHeartRadio, a digital radio platform, to play music from specific stations or songs. As a result, users will get access to thousands of live radio songs. In addition, a podcast functionality will be coming soon. iHeartRadio has the largest national reach of any radio or television outlet in America; it has over a quarter of a billion monthly listeners in the U.S.

Pandora to Add New Mobile Ad Formats

Pandora, a music streaming and automates music recommendation service, has announced that they will be adding new mobile ad formats on 19^th January 2017. They will roll out their first muted video and responsive mobile display ads. This will enable advertisements to adjust according to phone screen size. These new mobile ad formats will be the first in its Visual Ad Experience suite.

Ford and Toyota Create Digital Dashboard Alternative

Ford and Toyota have formed an alliance of car companies and software developers. They intend to create alternatives to Apple CarPlay and Android Auto called the SmartDeviceLink Consortium. Apple and Google are the leading suppliers of smartphone integration in dashboards. Ford and Toyota’s efforts aim to develop a standard, customisable solution for car makers. Additionally, they hope to stem the growing influence of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

Welcome to 2016’s last ever Week in Review. This week’s review has made us question whether 2017 will in fact be the year of cassette tapes and voice controlled connected cars. Plus, could the vast increase in digital ad spend mean the end of FM/AM radio ad spend?

Cassette Tapes are Making a Comeback

There is a mounting demand for radio cassette players; mainly among senior citizens who are more familiar with the cassette tape as opposed to nowadays’ vastly complex audio technology. People are also warming more and more to cassettes. This is due to the fact that they can give you a physical music collection; people find stacks of cassettes much more appealing than storing music in their iTunes library. Some artists are even choosing to release new material on tape. Furthermore, the presence in an analogue recording on a cassette player simply does not compare to a modern day digital recording.

Amazon’s Echo Dot Could be the Future of Connected Cars

Amazon’s Echo Dot, a voice-enabled speaker line, may have the potential to solve in car distractions. Although the Echo Dot still needs a lot of improvement to become audio competent, it is an excellent start on innovating the way we listen to audio in cars. The Echo Dot’s voice control will enable for drivers to listen to what they want; to skip a song or to change radio station without having to dangerously distract themselves from the road by fussing about with buttons or their phone.

Advertisers spend 17.6 billion on digital in Q3

According to IAB, advertisers’ 17.6 billion digital ad spend marks the highest third quarter for digital advertising spending on record. This means that advertisers are spending about the same amount of money in digital advertising in one quarter as they do on radio all year. The money spent on digital is 20% higher than the third quarter in 2015. It is also 4.3% higher than the money spent on the second quarter on 2016.