Challenger brands: time to take another look at audio

Opinion

Digital audio can be turned on very quickly and brands without ad agencies can benefit from audio vendors producing creative in-house.

If you are running a small brand you will eventually get into the position where you have hit the social media ceiling and need to look to grow your audience and business through advertising on additional channels.

One of the many ways you can do that is audio. Audio has long been a forgotten channel or been one that got branded as a broadcast channel only accessible for the big brands where you need to put a lot of media dollars on the table.

But the digitisation and the pandemic has revived this channel. It has become very accessible for smaller brands. The return of audio is thanks to music streaming, podcasts and web radio very diverse. All of these audio subchannels allow for better targeting and measurement which should open doors for marketers who have a digital background but are or need to look beyond digital channels for their brand.

Audio does not only drive awareness and consideration. Pushing promotions through web radio with the relevant targeting will help increase your ROI.

The context in which an ad gets delivered plays a huge role in its effectiveness. Audio does not see zapping [switching to another channel during the ad break, like one might do in TV], enjoys trust as a channel and some audio channels offer formats and placements that offer single placements meaning you won’t be sharing with other advertisers, fostering attention.

Targeting has become a thing for audio too

When it comes to targeting you can pick an audience based on the usual demographics, you can pick a region, interests or even choose contextual targeting to reach your audience in the most relevant setting.

Major streaming platforms like Spotify enable brands to target interests, genres and be around key playlists and podcasts to reach your audience when they lean back to relax or lean in to learn for example.

Octave Radio, for example, has no minimum budget for campaigns and Spotify also starts with a budget threshold of £250. Through Spotify’s self-serve platform Ad Studio you can access plenty of targeting options, something digital marketers know from social or other digital channels and might not expect from a broadcast channel.

Digital audio can be turned on very quickly and for brands who do not have a creative agency and rely heavily on inhouse solutions these audio vendors also offer producing radio ads for them. Depending on the role audio has to play in your media mix, from awareness to consideration and sales, the creative needs to be built for each objective. Keep this in mind when briefing and creating your audio ads.

And to take the targeting options even a step further, tech partners like A Million Ads even make audio dynamic. By adding individual elements to the ad that are relevant to your target listener such as city, borough, weather in your area or the nearest store you will grab your audience’s attention in a subtle and non-invasive way. Uplifts in brand awareness and brand consideration have been proven.

And what about measurement, you ask?

Like with any other channel audio needs to be measured in order to ensure it works towards the defined goal and to allow for optimisation.

Measurement has become easy and accessible with a dashboard for example on Spotify that allows you to track (depending on the format) impressions, reach, frequency, completion rates, clicks, CTRs and quartile completion rates as well as who have you reached in terms of age, gender, genre and platform. Other vendors, webradio or podcast vendors without self-serve platforms will offer regular reports and check ins.
As you can see, it is pretty granular for a perceived traditional broadcast channel and probably comes as a surprise to many who have not considered audio yet.

Nina Franck

The level of depth depends on the format and vendor but you will get reporting on a regular basis and it is not a black box as some might assume.

CPMs rely heavily on the targeting and area you want to advertise in. There is no one size fits all approach. However, based on Radiocentre’s research, the average across varies sectors revenue return on investment is £7.70 and is also in line with findings from WARC that radio is highly effective.

I have worked on numerous audio campaigns that have proven to drive ROI for my clients. Campaigns such as podcast sponsoring including host reads have worked very well as the contextual relevancy has increased awareness for the brand.

Audio deserves its place in the channel mix and definitely deserves a test from brands that have not gone into the field of audio yet but are looking to grow.

Nina Franck is an independent comms and media planner. Read her other columns for The Media Leader here. 

For more audio insight and expertise, you can register for The Future of Audio Europe, taking place on Tuesday 28 June at 30 Euston Square, London.