Exaget Week in Review: Internet Listening, Streaming Audio and Mobile Ad Spend
Internet listening reached all-time highs in October, according to data released by Triton Digital in its Webcast Metrics Top 20 Ranker. The cumulative number of AAS was 2,205,211 for domestic listening from 6:00am to 12:00am, Monday through Sunday. Top-line listening growth represents a 5% percent gain from the previous month.
Internet radio and streaming audio have inched toward mainstream use, but still lag other media consumption types. A new study from MIDiA Consulting (Media Insights & Decisions in Action) seeks to discover why — while profiling digital music users generally.
IAB research reveals that nearly 39% of respondents claimed that new budgets are being allocated for mobile ad spend, whilst mobile privacy and brand safety remain top challenges for UK media agencies.
Here’s this week’s round up:
Internet listening breaks records in October
Within the ranking, the best nominal month-over-month success belonged to market leader Pandora, which dramatically led the top-20 field by gaining over 85,000 average active sessions. In percentage terms the monthly top-gainer was Cox Radio, which grew active sessions by 25 percent. The largest monthly drop-off is attributed to EMF, whose October metrics tracked at 89% of September.
MIDiA study analyzes why streaming audio is still niche
Titled Decoding the Digital Music Consumer and sharply written by MIDiA founder Mark Mulligan, the survey is U.K.-centric, with a sample size of 1,000 respondents. The broadest discovery point is that digital music as a whole remains a niche sector, except for massive YouTube use.
39% of agency employees claim mobile ad spend comes from new budgets
The research shows that the amount of people that feel they now have an above average understanding of mobile has increased by 28%, now at an all-time high of 64%. Nearly 40% of media agency employees claimed that mobile is now a regular part of client proposals and encouragingly nearly 20% said that it’s now a regular part of their business.
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Exaget Team
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December 8, 2014
It’s been a hell of a day at work. Best not to mention the tube. And it looks like someone gave the kids too much sugar. Slouched on the sofa, G&T in hand, there’s just one thing you want to do. Chillax with your favourite artist, Nicki Minaj. You love the song, but you haven’t yet seen her ‘Anaconda’. You wonder what it looks like. YouTube is about to show you.
But oh….the bitter disappointment. It’s the dreaded YouTube pre-roll.
Frankly, you couldn’t care less about some new dragon warfare game. You start to search frantically for those two holy words – ‘Skip Ad’. Panic sets in. You can’t find them. You may not be particularly religious, but you’re praying now. You must endure 30 excruciating, agonising seconds of what feels like medieval torture. Never has time gone by so slowly.
The YouTube pre-roll is a negative experience for the viewer. If the viewer – essentially, to an advertiser, a potential customer – feels like they are being harassed or forced to endure a piece of advertising content, then someone in the advertising and marketing world is not doing their job properly. The net result is that the potential customer is left with a negative association with the advertising brand.
Our association with the YouTube pre-roll is a negative one. However, the opposite is true with a well-produced, well-deployed audio pre-roll. Here at Exaget, we entwine broadcaster and advertiser brands into a product that really works. We leverage the emotional connection the listener has with the radio station. By downloading the radio station’s app on to their mobile, they have invited the radio station onto a device as personal as a toothbrush.
We’re currently running a brilliant example of the sensitively branded pre-roll with one of our premium broadcasters, French Radio London. When a listener opens the French Radio London app on their mobile phone or device they are greeted by the following pre-roll, which interweaves the radio station’s brand with that of their luxury advertising partner, Relais & Châteaux.
This turns the audio pre-roll into an incredibly valuable piece of advertising real estate. At this point the listener is most probably still looking at their mobile device. Not only will they engage with the accompanying visuals – in this case the understated sophistication of Relais & Châteaux’s gourmet gift boxes – they are also presented with an opportunity to interact with the brand with just a simple tap of the map icon.
The benefits are obvious to the advertiser, the broadcaster and the listener. The advertiser gets to leverage the emotional connection that the listener has with the broadcaster’s brand and output – resulting in a deeper engagement with their own brand and product. This in turn helps to establish a relationship with the consumer, increasing the likelihood of consumer-to-brand interaction, and ultimately improving the advertiser’s chances of increased sales. In this case the exclusive and opulent nature of the advertiser’s brand adds value to the broadcaster’s already premium brand. The listener is presented with a seamless, consistent, and relevant listening experience.
Your relationship with your phone is personal. Emotional. As is your relationship with the radio station you chose to listen to. Mobile in hand, radio on, headphones plugged in, you cocoon yourself in your own little world. It’s personal. Intimate even.
The new possibilities offered by interactive radio advertising allow advertisers to turn these personal, intimate moments into opportunities for engagement.
But woe betide the advertiser who abuses them.
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