Page 34 - Adnews Magazine January 2022

Investigation
“Audio social allowed the intimacy of a Zoom call with friends, without worrying what you looked like, how tidy your house might be, or what your partner or roommates might be doing.”
Carat Melbourne head of strategy Bethanie Blanchard
“It’s rare enough to be a medium in growth right now, then add the fact that — respectfully, unlike many of the new screens-based apps we’re all addicted to — our digital channels can actually accommodate the depth of creative brand integration needed to make an impact.”
Despite the shift in ad dollars, Charlton argues advertisers should be adopting new mediums at a faster rate.
“For some reason, when it comes to audio, revenue does seem to be slower to follow audiences than some other channels,” he says.
“We know more than 25% of media consumption is done with audio, and yet it accounts for less than 10% of all advertising revenue.
“While many brands have recognised and capitalised on this, audio still represents a wealth of untapped opportunity. Clients need to stop chasing the declining ratings on many other traditional media chan- nels and make some audio creative instead. The audience is waiting.”
The technological changes across audio means the sector has had to rebrand itself to reflect the different platforms it now covers, such as smartphones, smart speakers and laptops. Anthony Ellis, managing direc- tor of Publicis Media Exchange in Australia, says this rebrand really came to the fore in 2021 through the emergence of “converged audio”.
“The biggest trend for me was the converged audio narrative in the radio industry and all the sales houses,” Ellis says.
“Prior to 2021, in my view, they had been looking at radio in its own silos and really being about broadcast. But there’s been a really concerted effort in terms of how they joined those up and selling a converged story.
“Typically, they’ve been coming and selling podcasting separately, broadcast, and then digital audio and those sorts of things as well.
“When I talk about converged audio, it’s about anything that is audio. Anything that is audio should be considered as part of the strategy, depending on what you’re trying to achieve. Just because it’s on a device like a radio, doesn’t mean that’s the only thing you should be looking at.”
The ‘2021 State of the Nation’ report, released by IAB, found evidence of media agencies adapting to a converged audio mindset, with 79% of media agencies planning across all audio activities within the same team. The report also found that 51% are both planning and buying all audio activities within the same team, which is up from 41% the year prior.
Brooke Aniseko, commercial director of performance at Publicis Media Exchange, says the industry has been working to reduce incon-
sistencies in sales approaches.
“The working groups that are in place
are really strong and we are really seeing a lot of benefit from the CRA in how they’re approaching their go to market
with those vendors,” Aniseko says.
“The IAB is also really assisting in how buyers should be approaching this converged audio channel without some of the key pieces which are missing at this stage around measure- ment. However, the framework is there for every- one to be able to achieve that and work through it together. So there’s definitely been some improvements in the past six to 12 months in
how we approach that collectively.”
The emergence of converged audio means new challenges for the industry. This includes presenting advertisers with cross-audio plat-
form measurement.
“Audio’s challenge isn’t in finding an audience,
it’s helping our customers capitalise on the sizeable one we’ve already got,” says Peter Charlton.
“To do that, we need to get cross-audio platform measurement right as an industry. The onus is on us to eliminate any complexity or ambiguity when it comes
to proving the performance of audio.