Get More Immersive with Audio. Audacy Reveals the Optimal Frequency to Engage Listeners.

There is almost an art to measuring the optimal ad frequency in a campaign. Audacy has just released a study that examines ad frequency effectiveness for audio that debunks previously held assumptions. 

The company hosted a webinar moderated by Audacy CMO, Paul Suchman that explored the study results. Panelists included Devora Rogers, Chief Innovation Officer, Alter Agents, Adam Weiler, Executive Vice President, Data, Technology, Analytics and Insights, Spark Foundry and Idil Cakim, Senior Vice President, Research and Insights, Audacy.

The study was conducted by Alter Agents in partnership with Odyssey and Spark Foundry and demonstrated that exposing audiences to audio messages consistently and frequently offers benefits to both the listener and the advertiser because it increases immersion. Immersion is defined as attention plus emotional connection, according to Cakim.

Audio advertising, the report concluded, improves brand equity, growth and sales essentially across the funnel. The assessment, according to Suchman is that, “Ad engagement climbs with each audio exposure across industry categories across platforms and across genres. Audio advertising works.” He noted that the report proves that audio seizes attention and encourages retention, offering brands engagement and impact that drives consumers to action.

But how much frequency is too much? What is the right balance for audio exposure? Weiler noted that, “Radio as a platform is fairly established as a traditional channel but the audio landscape itself is growing and transforming.” Advertisers now have to think more holistically around context, creative and channel while still being able to measure on more traditional metrics such as reach and frequency.

The challenge within the study was to ascertain the right amount of frequency without, as Cakim explained, “bombarding the participants with too high frequency.” The decision was to go with up to 15 frequencies within the limits of the study and then measure variations. She expected peaks because she knew that, “audio was highly immersive,” but, even so, the optimal level was surprising. “The big surprise was how participants became increasingly immersed in a variety of audio messages at increasing frequencies. I was expecting a breaking point or drop off, but that didn't happen,” she revealed.

The study was configured using neuro methodology, measured by a smart watch rather than all of the more intrusive traditional tools of neuro measurement such as gel caps and MRIs. In this way a more uninterrupted experience by the listener could be achieved. Rogers explained that the smart watch captured the variable heart rate which is tied to immersion which is a measure of emotional engagement and responsiveness. The study also included stated data where one could match neuro responses to stated responses from the participants thus blending old and new methodologies together.

“We relied on second-by-second immersion data (biometric feedback from the audience) to measure creative resonance. And we coupled that with surveys that measure key brand effect questions on recall, familiarity, intention, etc,” explained Cakim.

The results speak for themselves. It is well known that immersion levels are important because it is highly predictive of a consumer action with an accuracy of greater than 80%. The study demonstrated that small differences in immersion can lead to significant changes in behavior. Audio, noted Cakim, “deeply holds attention.”

The key takeaways included:

Ø  As frequency increases, so does immersion. The more you expose people to audio ads, they become more attentive and the more ingrained in the content. And this occurred across genres and across audiences. “Deeper and deeper immersion occurred with audio frequency,” Cakim asserted, offering advertisers greater opportunities to place ads in audio. “Frequency in and of itself can be an important tool in helping to understand what an audio plan can do,” Weiler added. “We saw increased engagement as frequency grows.”

Ø  As immersion increases with exposure, so do positive brand opinions and brand equity. By fifteen exposures, immersion and brand opinion reach a high point for advertisers. “The scale for immersion measurement is from 1 to 100. The higher the score, the more immersed you are in the content. We are seeing levels of 59, going past 60 while the average for the industry in advertising immersion is 53. This is a significant difference,” Cakim revealed.

Ø  Immersion also drives consumer purchase consideration with immersion scores in the low 60s. “This helps us to understand that radio is very effective at moving people through the funnel and advancing potential targets on their purchase journey,” stated Weiler.

Ø  Creative matters. The most effective ads were those, “that explained what was in it for the customer and held attention to the end,” Cakim noted. Attention is easier to get at the beginning but hard to hold and sustain until the end of the message.

What can advertisers, especially those who may be new to audio, do with all of this information? “A recommendation to an advertiser new to audio is - go big and bold, devise a total audio strategy, leveraging OTA and digital platforms. And don't be afraid to go to higher frequencies across the board to drive your message home and immerse your audiences in your brand,” she concluded.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

Artwork by Charlene Weisler

The New Screen is No Screen. Audio’s Renaissance. An Interview with Audacy’s Melissa Capuano, Michael Biemolt and Idil Cakim of Audacy

When looking at the impact of the pandemic on everyday life, one sector – Retail - was especially transformed. For a media company like Audacy which is in the audio space, this transformation created greater opportunities. Audacy’s Melissa Capuano SVP of National Partnerships, Michael Biemolt, Senior Vice President Sales and Idil Cakim, Senior Vice President, Research and Insights, explained where the future for retail is leading and why “sonic marketing” is a pivotal part of the ecosystem.

The Retail Market Today

We are in a growth period post-pandemic as brands respond to the new normal. “The retail market is absolutely rebounding,” stated Biemolt, “We work with brands that have reimagined their overall operation within the pandemic and are starting to thrive.” This has resulted in increased demand, “specifically for reaching audiences in digital audio.”

Business as usual isn’t cutting it. “The impact of the pandemic was seen early on,” he explained, “Those retailers that, through the pandemic, added Ecommerce, really changed their consumer journey.” They improved convenience and safety as consumers could shop digitally at brick and mortar stores and then pick up their merchandise with curbside pickup at the store itself. “It was forced evolution in a significant way,” he concluded.

Brick and Mortar stores are adapting to a new shopping experience. “The convenience of shopping online or curbside pickup is nice,” Capuano began, “but there is still a future for brick and mortar. For sure, a lot of habits have changed, but for retailers, they are looking at the experiences for shopping in their brick and mortar location. Some retailers have really focused in on experience. Walmart even coined the term retailtainment where there's a reason for going to the store. Some stores have a bar or restaurant or a giant fish tank or bands playing and entertainment, so your retail shopping experience has changed a little bit.”

Audio’s Capabilities and Value

 “People are ready to get back out and shop,” Capuano noted. “And for advertisers, their spending is now starting to pick up as demand gets back.” Radio plays an important role to drive in-store traffic, according to Capuano. “You will see retailers that use radio, in particular, around sales events - Memorial Day, weekend sales, or even up into holidays - and now it's even a little bit more year round.” She added that advertising in addition to radio, additional platforms as digital audio streaming podcast integrations help brands get a little bit deeper. “Data is extremely important in targeting and in attribution as well, so that's that plays really nicely into what digital audio can provide,” she noted.

Audio adds reach and engagement. Much of that, according to Biemolt, “is being driven by podcasting and steaming audio.” With all of the teleconferencing in the past year, “Audio is an engagement experience and in many cases, is the new screen. As my client said, the new screen is no screen. Audio’s ability to reach the consumer not only from an engagement standpoint but to truly drive mid funnel and lower funnel activity, is what many brands have seen with the use of audio holistically in the last 14 months of the pandemic.”

Audio’s Pivot to Address Marketplace Changes

Data reigns supreme in the Audio’s world. “Not only are we providing research illustrating the engagement that audio provides, but, as people are running their audio campaigns with us, we're establishing set KPIs, whether it is brand awareness or sales activity or wherever in the funnel you want the outcome to be,” Biemolt stated. Measurement of these KPIs is part of the partnerships Audacy has with key measurement companies who data and metrics can be applied to clients’ campaign management. “Did they go to the store? Did they go to the client site? Did they make a purchase? That kind of lean forward is where we've helped these brands … and illustrate in so many categories how audio can be effective use in their marketing plans.”

Cakim showcased a study that Audacy is doing on return on audio spend. “Specifically in the Retail category looking at all these national advertisers’ media mix plans from the past three years, we can see that the retail industry is currently 22% under investing in audio,” she explained. “There is much room for growth, not only from a growth perspective, but also in efficiency and effectiveness. We know that coupling over the air and digital in these plans is critical. There is tremendous opportunity in the marketplace for retailers looking to attract more audiences into more customers into stores - physical stores, online stores, curb side pickup - whichever channel works best for them. Audio can be a great way to bring the customer lead the customer and convert the shopper from a looker to a buyer.”

The Future of Audio and Retail

When customers go into a brick and mortar store, audio can provide, “a theater of the mind,” noted Biemolt. “You don't have to always see the product, but be able to describe the experience you may get by going into the store.”

Cakim added that Nielsen just released a consumer insight survey in June, “where we saw, perhaps counter-intuitively, that all forms of shopping increased in-store, online, curbside picking. What that means is that shopping is the new entertainment as people are getting ready to go back to normal. Also, 90%+ of audiences across the board and 91% of Radio audience said they're ready to go back to normal. With this enthusiasm and optimism comes this quest to shop and that's a tremendous opportunity.  We are not seeing a drop in curb side pickup. We're not seeing a drop in online shopping. We're seeing an increase across the board in all forms of shopping. That's what the Nielsen data showed.”

For Audacy specifically, Cakim shared that, “We also look into how valuable these shoppers are from an audio perspective. Streamers, for instance, are really valuable shoppers across every single category. They spend more than average according to MRI Simmons.”

The future is bright for audio. “I'm really excited about where audio is right now in terms of many conversations that we're having with brands directly retailers and their advertising agencies,” Capuano said. “There's a lot of interest in audio because of all the innovations. Expansion into the digital audio space will only continue to grow.”

For Biemolt, voice and smart speakers are contributing to, “The audio Renaissance that's happening right now. Brands are rediscovering audio. For consumers, audio provides an escape and it’s also an engaging medium.  Over the next two years, I think that's we're just going to continue to see many, many more brands use it to a higher level.”

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

 

 

The Power of Audio in Adding Impact and Speed to a Media Plan. Audacy’s Idil Cakim Reveals Results of a New Study.

The true value of one specific media platform is often in synergy with other media platforms. Audio is one media form that not only has strength on its own but also super-charges lift as part of a full media mix. That is what Audacy found in their recent Audio Amplification study, a meta-analysis of audio performance that was conducted over a three year period 2019 through 2021.

Idil Cakim, Senior Vice President, Research and Insights, Audacy, explained, “We partnered with Neustar for this analysis and they were able to look at more than forty media mix models across industries – auto, financial services, telecom, retail and large national clients – to give us a perspective on how audio was placed in these plans and what the scenario would look like if audio received more investment and how it would optimize these plans.” She added that, “We were always curious about what the impact of audio on returns and this gave us an opportunity to look at it from a high level perspective and a broad way and also understand how audio functioned in a media mix which is a lot of our clients’ reality.”

Audio Amplification Study Key Findings

Audio Adds Impact - One of the major findings of the study was that even a slight shift in media spending into audio can have profound positive impact on the campaign. “Audio is currently under-invested,” Cakim noted, “and that under-investment might be 15%. In some industries, it could be more than 50%. But it is currently under-invested and that spells out a missed opportunity for a lot of marketers and advertisers.”

The study found that it doesn’t take much added audio weight to make a big impact. “We found that an average of a 1.2% shift from other media to audio, yields a lift in audio ROAS (return on ad spend) of 23%,” she revealed. The study also found that both Over-The-Air and digital, advanced this finding. “There is tremendous value in combining,” she added.  

Audio Worked Fast and Lasted – Cakim noted that when audio is added to a plan, its lift impact was felt immediately. “It peaked within two weeks across industries, some even faster. So you get results fairly quickly but it was also eye opening to see that the results lasted a long time, up to twenty-one weeks. So imagine investing in dollars that are giving you a return in one to two weeks and that you are seeing the impact of those dollars on your brand image, on your intention, on walk into stores and eventually on sales.”

Examining and Defining Lift and Success

The study centered on increasing lift. Lift, she explained, is defined as, “Propelling a difference, causing an impact, creating an increase,” of any sort. Success, “was defined as sales for the purposes of this study. But sales can mean different things to different organizations. Sometimes they count units, sometimes they count dollar amounts. The data scientists at Neustar normalized the data to make sure that we could just look at it as a revenue driver.”

The results of success confirmed Audacy’s hypotheses that, “What we saw day in and day out, was seeing the scale of the impact – that was eye opening,” she stated. “We could tell you that audio deserved more dollars and that audio created impact but seeing that scale was really affirming.”

Benefits of Audio, Regardless of the Pandemic

I asked if the study results were impacted by the pandemic but Cakim explained that the study looked at media plans from 2019 through the current time with the pandemic months excluded from the analysis. This careful study craft reinforces the positive and lasting impact of the results.

“The beauty of audio is how nimble it is and how it seeps into every moment in a day, especially now as people change schedules and habits, we are in a bit of a different time now. Rush hour has changed, work habits changed but audio is consistent in all that change. It’s with you when you wake up, it’s with you when you are on the go and it’s with you when you are seeking that alone time and want to focus on a topic of interest,” she noted, proving that audio deserves investment.  Advertisers take note - certain advertising categories are especially under-invested in audio, according to Cakim. “Auto was the most under-invested category,” she noted, “So they benefit the most from moving dollars to audio.”

Looking Forward

While the pandemic did not factor in the study’s measurements or results, it has impacted human behavior and this shift can positively impact the future of audio consumer usage. “I think we are at an incredible juncture point because, during Covid, we saw changes in behavior, adoption of technology, media consumption that, perhaps we would have waited years to take place. Smart speaker listening surged (as had) the increases in at-home listening. The podcast surge is something incredible that has sped up. So I think we are only going upward and forward,” she shared.  

For Cakim, smart advertisers must understand, “what really moves the needle. Audio is more than just digital pure plays. That is part of the ecosystem, for sure. Media is more than just binge watching.” She revealed that in a separate study, Audacy found that consumers tend to tap into seven different media sources in an average week. “It is beautiful, chaotic and challenging. It’s great that there are so many touch points but it’s also hard to break through. You have to be mindful going into it. The future of audio is that we see it earning its fair and proper share in the media mix and being leveraged more effectively and efficiently by marketers because it is only growing with all of these digital channels,” she concluded.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com