Page 43 - Adnews Magazine January 2022

Investigation
towards ephemeral content has mildly alleviated this pressure, perfection- ism remains at the core of visual based social media,” Villella says.
“However, there is acceptance that audio-only is live, raw, uncen- sored; it can be ephemeral and private or published more broadly and the purpose is to have a rich discussion on a topic.”
Villella thinks that while audio offerings will be a strong complement to existing visual-based social media apps, they won’t reach the same popularity as visual-based social media in the short-term in Australia.
Villella expects to see significant shake-ups in the audio industry throughout 2022.
“If the past is any indicator, tech giants aren’t shy in acquiring smaller, successful players — Twitter buying Vine and Facebook buying Instagram,” she says.
“The market shake-out will occur in 2022, likely starting with Clubhouse, narrowing the list of audio-only social media players to META, Twitter Spaces and Spotify Greenroom. These big players will captivate their pre-existing audience by creating audio-only features in app, leaving any smaller players’ rise to fame behind.
“A critical element to success, that is already being considered, will be a seamless process for monetisation and payment of creators, like that of Twitter Spaces — which allows users with more than 1000 followers to charge for admission into a live conversation. There is even a possibility for a crypto or NFT creator economy.
“Audio-only cannot stand alone, having strong partnerships between the big players like Facebook and Spotify to make sharing and publishing of content easier for musicians, and listeners will need to be at the core.”
Villella also expects to see greater investment in audio-only social media products by key social media platforms.
“Ascertaining when to jump onboard with the adoption of an audio- only social media strategy depends on the brand’s willingness to be an early adopter or within the early majority,” she says.
“There are several considerations before capitalising on the opportunity: Does your brand wish to invest time and energy into an ongoing audio-only content strategy? Is there high sensitivity towards brand-related controver- sies and stringent brand safety requirements? Are topics within your industry or about your brand of interest to consumers currently across the audio-only suite? Do you have thought leaders or influencer partnerships that could host engaging audio discussion? Will stakeholders be accepting of new per- formance metrics and a potentially smaller user base in the short-term?”
303MullenLowe’s Bart Pawlak says to capitalise on the prolifer- ation of audio content, brands need to acknowledge the power of audio storytelling and brief, allocate budget, and
take risks accordingly.
“It’s astounding that, with the proliferation of ways audio-only can now weave its way into peo- ple’s lives, beyond just the standard radio ads, that we’re not exploiting it in ways that will make con- sumers feel more love for brands, as well as under- stand and like what they’re selling,” he says.
“There are very occasional, delightful exceptions, of course. But generally it feels like we’re often forgetting to adequately entertain as we attempt to enlighten.
“I’m excited about the way our media consumption habits are continuing to evolve and change, and the opportunity this creates for brands to genuinely engage their audiences through audio, more often. Hopefully, in ways that are as rewarding and entertaining as they are informative.
“The fact is, whether it’s music, podcasts, audio books or
news broadcasts, we are listening more than we’ve ever done in
the past. The brands that successfully harness these frequent moments of aural connection will be those that infiltrate them in the least intrusive and most complementary ways. In that sense, the future sounds a lot like the past.”
“Audio-only cannot stand alone; having strong partnerships between the big players like Facebook and Spotify to
make sharing and publishing of content easier for musicians and listeners will need to be at the core.”
Reprise Digital national head of social media Kandiese Villella
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