Page 40 - Adnews Magazine January 2022

Investigation
brand’s appetite and budget must also extend to myriad of banners, when the mandatories are crowd- ing any storytelling off the stage, and when the script was due yesterday.”
Pawlak says the biggest mistake he sees in audio creative is one often found across other channels — creating for an internal audi- ence, rather than the intended audience as indicated on the brief.
“The consequence is a piece of communication that is so replete with ticked boxes that it leaves very little real-estate for the ele- ments that ensure consumers look, engage, fondly remember, and start developing an affinity for the brand through,” he says.
“Creative people are ingenious by nature. But there’s a limit to what you can concoct in the scant seconds left, after every rational consideration has been addressed. The other fatal consequence of course is a sense among consum- ers that you’re bluntly hitting them over the head with your message. Overly spelling it out, rather than treating them like the savvy, perceptive, quick-witted, intelligent individual that they know they are. The classic Leo Burnett quote is as relevant as ever — ‘Too many ads that try not to go over the reader’s head end up beneath his notice.’”
Podcasts have taken up a big spotlight in the audio world, with their growth only accelerating since the start of the pandemic.
Acast has experiences this growth in podcast consumption, with its own team growing by 14 members throughout last year. The company’s Australia and New Zealand managing director Henrik Isaksson says demand hasn’t slowed down since the heights of lockdowns.
“We are seeing more listeners on the platform quarter-on-quarter from last quarter,” Isaksson says.
“So it’s not stopping at all. We tend to say that it is pandem- ic-proof to use that turn of phrase. I think people’s habits are mag- netic. They know what they want to listen to and they come back day in and day out. So we are not see- ing any drop at all, it has been growing like crazy.”
Isaksson says the business has also noticed the demographic of listen- ers expanding as more people are attracted to podcasts.
“Only 18 months ago the podcast audience was skewed slightly older, so the core demographic was somewhere between 30 and 35 years old,” he says. “So it was skewed slightly older than say TikTok or Snapchat. What we are seeing now is a huge influx of listeners in the 18-24 year-old bracket. I think that’s because there is just more content being made that caters
for a younger audience.”
According to the ‘2021 Infinite Dial Australia’ report, about 5.6 million
Australians, or 26%, are weekly podcast listeners, a 53% increase over the 2020 study that was conducted prior to the pandemic lockdown.
“2021 has been a golden year for podcasting,” says Kane Reiken, NOVA Entertainment digital commercial director.
“We saw audiences spending increasing time with our shows across all devices and speakers and advertisers have continued to have confi- dence in the medium with consistent spends throughout the year.
“We are expecting another explosive year in odcasting in 2022 with the market doubling again in total revenue.”
Despite the widespread appeal of podcasts, Reiken says the industry has only “scratched the surface” of possibilities in monetising podcasts. Last year, the big players pushed ahead with experiments to monetise podcasts. For example, Spotify rolled out subscriptions for podcasts in Australia.
“There will be lots of ongoing experimentation in the space with opportunities for creators to extract further value from their audi- ences,” Reiken says.
“This will include the introduction of subscription services, paywall and exclusive content as well as the extension of communities to Telegram and Substack. In addition, new platforms will allow content creators to be paid in Bitcoin, receiving one Satoshi (SAT) for every second streamed.
“We will continue to support content creators by connecting them with brands and providing revenue opportunities which enable them to continue to produce high quality audio content for their audiences.”
Part of the appeal of podcasting has been the diversity it can offer to listeners, something that radio, as a mass media, hasn’t always achieved.