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 Increasing Role of Data in Strategy in a Post-COVID World

Who could have imagined several years ago that data would play such a pivotal role in our industry? Today those companies poised to succeed in the media ecosystem must have an understanding of data and how it can best be used to inform decisions. 

At the recent 4As StratFest, a panel moderated by Raig Adolfo, Chief Strategy Officer at 360i discussed the increasing role of data in a post-pandemic world. Panelists included  Jennifer Clark, Brand Experience Practice Lead, Dentsu, E.T Franklin, President, Global Strategy and Cultural Fluency, Spark Foundry and Jonathan  Ricard, Senior Vice President, Resonate.

The Creative and Data Dynamic

One of the biggest trends is that data is making its way into all forms of decision-making elements, including creative. “One thing many people are grappling with is striking the right balance between creative intuition and data intelligence. Sometimes these elements are one and the same and sometimes they contrast and conflict,” began Adolfo who added, “The future is when these two side work symbiotically.”

How can the ephemeral, artistic aspects of media coincide with the structural quantitative aspects of data?  For Franklin, there is no dichotomy. Data is vital and has created a dynamic where, “Intuition is supported and informed by data.” She explained that, “In our industry we know that data is critical. We have to be able to understand how to size. We have to understand where the trends and the information are going and where are the opportunities and challenges are. Data helps clarify those things for us in ways that are precise and allow us to solve for things that are very specific and clear.” But balance is vital in the decision-making process. She warned that there is the risk of having, “an over-reliance on big data. It was all about the data telling us where we needed to go and what we needed to do.” A balance needs to be achieved.

Applications of Data to Inform Creative

When it comes to creativity and data, one can inform the other but each needs to be valued in its own space. “There is a concept of data-driven authenticity,” noted Ricard. “You are looking for facts. You are looking for insights that drive the ability to have an authentic conversation.” He believes that this approach has to drive the creative. “We could say ‘I think this is important’ shaped by our individual lens or perceptions. You have to validate that,” he explained, through data. “There has to be a data-driven approach to it.”

But for Clark, “Creativity should not be stifled by data. Data can be the foundation of a great idea but it typically serves as the foundation.” Sometimes it leads the effort as in Spotify where the data leads the creativity, “but that is rare,” she explained. “Often it is taking a human insight and amplifying it. You have to find that nugget that feels right and build on top of that. That’s when you will not break that creativity.”

Examples of the Value of Data

Clark described an Oreo campaign where one morsel of data revealed and informed the entire campaign narrative. “Data can be very small,” Clark noted, “One of my favorite campaigns was the Oreo Vote. The Oreo campaign started with a tweet which was ‘Who Will Save the Oreos?’ which was a small, tiny piece of data that someone picked up on and sent, ‘Wow this is interesting’  and started to look at the other data that the community was saying and built it out to a campaign.”

Franklin, when looking at data, strives to find what she called, “the sparks. You’ve got all of this information but what is sparking something you didn’t think about or a feeling of curiosity and make you say, ‘hmm’. And the other thing I think about with data is, where is the humanity? ” Make the explanation of data simple and understandable, “as if you are talking to your Grandma.”

Don’t rely on a sample-of-one to forge your insights. “We are all going into this work with our own lens and biases,” stated Clark, “You can get caught up in what you as planners think is the truth without examining what other people outside of the universe of what we do are thinking, saying and doing.” In talking to real people, for example, she was able to learn that consumers confused electronic vehicles with self-driving vehicles. It was by only talking to consumers that this important insight was revealed.

The Difference Between Data and Insights

“In any piece of data, if you can’t answer the ‘so what?’ then you probably don’t have an insight,” explained Ricard. “It’s interesting today to be thinking about persuadable audiences in what we think of as media bubbles.” The question is – how do you find the people within these media bubbles that you can persuade? “We know this population isn’t homogenous but we don’t know necessarily how to reach them. Data might be all those things like demographics, ethnicity, media consumption but that doesn’t necessarily indicate what they care about. That doesn’t give you that human element that is going to spark change.” You have to go from an understanding of facts (the data) to a fuller understanding of motivations and elements of persuasion (the insights). “A powerful, authentic response,” he concluded, “that could be driven by intuition.”

Conclusion

The conclusion through the panel discussion was, don’t be scared of data. “Data can feel and sound intimidating,” Clark admitted, “But think of everything around you is data. All of these inputs. Don’t get caught in needing secret big insights. Use your heart,” she advised.

 

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

 

 

 

The Big Push to Impressions for Local TV is (Finally) Reaching Critical Mass

As an NBC affiliate researcher many years ago, nothing disappointed me more than opening up a local market sweeps book and seeing hashmarks instead of ratings.  That meant that the ratings performance fell below minimum reporting standards. But we all knew that there were some impressions there that could be reported… if we reported on impressions.

Local TV has traditionally relied on ratings for transactions, understanding that the reliance on ratings obscured some of the valuable yet smaller audiences delivered in certain markets. This is why I am happy to report that, finally, there is a cogent industry movement afoot to change the transactional measurement from ratings to impressions in Local TV. The TVB recently announced their commitment to the cause along with support and advocacy from Nielsen. 

For Catherine Herkovic, Executive Vice President, Managing Director Local TV, Nielsen, a movement to impressions based transactions is not only common sense but also part of Nielsen’s value as a measurement company. “Nielsen has always done impressions based measurement. Impressions are the foundation of all of the calculations of everything we do. The raw materials we send out is impressions and always has been,” she explained.

Why Then Ratings? Why Now Impressions?

“National has always transacted on impressions and some ask, so why hasn’t Local?” Herkovic queried. “That’s because ratings percentages provide a relative understanding of performance across different size markets. And that will still be used for planning purposes. Ratings won’t disappear but impressions will be used for transactions,” she stated.

A move to impressions will facilitate the easy inclusion of Local TV into multiplatform buys and offer proof of performance. Currently most media, such as National TV and Digital, transact on impressions. Local TV is one of the few still using ratings. Local Radio is another. In addition, “Given the fragmentation of audiences, when you round ratings you are losing audience and so impressions allow us to capture the total audience,” Herkovic concluded.

While a move to impressions makes sense, Nielsen must remain measurement agnostic. “Advertisers and agencies want to buy engagement with people, not households, not devices,” noted Dave Hohman, Executive Vice President, Demand Side Media, Nielsen, who added, “Even though the measurement exists, it is up to the buyers and sellers to agree what the transaction currency is going to be. Nielsen can develop it and make it available but the industry has to adopt it.” 

The Agencies’ Position

So where is the industry at this point in time regarding Local TV impressions-based transactions? Many agencies are already using impressions. Kathy Doyle, Executive Vice President Investment and her team at Magna Global, “buy all of our local television and radio off impressions. We’ve been doing it for a few years.” She noted that Magna has been ahead of other agencies in this effort. “Yes,” she affirmed, “This has been our baby.”

Other early movers include, Jenifer Weldon, Owner and President, whose company Fat Free Media, “has utilized impressions in planning and buying for our client, Morgan & Morgan, for 15 years,” and Jennifer Hungerbuhler, Executive Vice President Managing Director, Local Video and Audio Investment, Dentsu Aegis Network who changed over in January 2017. “We primarily use it for buying and research,” she noted.

For Kevin Gallagher, Executive Vice President Managing Director, Spark Foundry, the move to impressions for Local TV has not yet occurred in his agency. “I would say that we are in the preparation stage. We are not currently using impressions specifically to spot TV but we use it in other media channels. National TV, Digital. It is the common currency in every channel except Local TV and Radio right now,” he noted. His team is working on capturing impressions data for all four quarters of 2020 in all of their systems and tools before they make the switch. 

Advantages and Disadvantages in Local TV Impressions

When asked about the pros and cons of moving to impressions, the general response was that it was advantageous to do so. “I really do not see any disadvantages at all (in moving to impressions),” noted Doyle. “There are areas (of the country) that don’t deliver ratings. Now there are impressions that we can buy that help with reach and pricing.” And she added, entre nous, “if nobody else is buying on impressions, we can buy it and nobody else can.” But the main reason why Doyle pushed for impressions was because she saw the need early on to adapt to a cross platform media world. She wanted her buyers to, “get used to the vernacular of buying off of impressions rather than ratings. Getting to a world where we are buying video, audio, cross device and screen,” she explained

An advantage for Gallagher is that, “It puts spot TV and radio on a common currency with all of the other media channels. It will be easier from a planning standpoint and in aggregating all audiences across channels.” But, “the downside is the conversion process moving from traditional pricing benchmarks for our planning teams and clients. Right now those (benchmarks) are on a cost per point basis.”

For Weldon, “The main advantage is the ability to compare costs across all media forms based on the cost-per-thousand, or CPM.  All media is brought to a level playing field for cost analysis.” But she also sees that, “GRP-based planning and buying (needs) to adapt and adjust to impression-level buying” is a challenge. “Broadcast television impressions are not the same as digital impressions,” she explained. “Nor should agencies be lulled into thinking they are - either from complacency, urgency or lack of understanding.  There could be a disservice to clients if agency acceptance of impression-based buying leads to a lack of understanding of what type of impressions are being purchased, where those impressions will run and the guarantees against those impressions,” she warned.

“I certainly see far more advantages than I see disadvantages,” stated Hungerbuhler. “Impressions give us a common currency that allows us to take a more holistic approach to tracking audiences within a market across screens, allowing for easier cross platform executions. Impressions also give better insight into the actual number of people viewing, instead of a percentage of people viewing, and in this day and age of fragmentation, every eyeball counts.” For her, “Capturing more viewers will ultimately increase inventory, also increasing the potential for rates to decline. Lastly, impressions make it easier for local buyers to combine multiple markets into one buy, such as an unwired regional buy, or to report metrics across multiple markets. Impressions are added up with simple addition, as opposed to ratings which are weighted by audience populations and are not easily comparable to each other.”

What can Nielsen Do to Facilitate the Conversion?

All agreed that Nielsen should play a major role in navigating the industry towards impressions based transactions. “I think what Nielsen can do to help in this conversion is to advocate,” suggested Gallagher, “to anyone in this ecosystem who uses Nielsen ratings to make the move into impressions.”

Nielsen must get involved, explained Weldon, and “work closely with agencies to provide education and support in the process of transitioning from GRP to impression universes via in-house training or online webinars.” In addition, she continued, Nielsen should also, “Engage leading software providers to ensure they are providing training tools or quick step guides on defining the new universe specific to their software and encourage stations to lead the charge in education of sales teams.”  This sentiment was echoed by Hungerbuhler, who added, “NSI can send out thought leadership, educating clients, planners and buyers (by) explaining the difference between ratings and impressions and showcase the benefits of cross platform and what more precise measurement can mean to advertisers.”

The overall feeling was that the move to impressions could reach critical mass at the agencies sooner than later, perhaps by 2021. But the most important thing is to, “Keep the conversation going among clients,” advised Doyle to Nielsen, “And I think there is some work that can be done to show the benefit and stability,” of using impressions.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

Lotame Ignite Americas Conference Focuses on the Power of Data

Data has (finally) become the force for change in our industry. Not only have many media companies devoted much of their upfronts about it, but Lotame's inaugural Ignite Americas forum last week expanded the discussion of how data can be used to improve ROI, upend legacy measurements, tell a story and totally restructure a company. It is finally revenge of the nerds. 

Data Attributes Have Evolved

There is so much data available from first, second and third party data that the parameters of what constitutes a valuable dataset have evolved. Previously, data size was one of the paramount requests. Do we have a large enough sample approaching census that will get us stable results? Now, with the complexity and sophistication of data availability, the wants have shifted from size to data quality. The components of data quality are Transparency (Do we understand the data attributes and origins?) Accuracy (Are we getting actionable successful results?) and Performance (Do the results deliver on the KPIs and/or ROI?).

Data expert Joyce Lee, Director Global Data Sales Strategy, Oath, has seen her role evolve from accumulating third party data to finding ways to "sync all first party data in the Oath family." Data stitching is like cooking, she noted, from having the right ingredients, to blending them together to serving a final, perfect result. Michelle Mirshak, Vice President Data Architecture and Platforms, Spark Foundry, noted that "Some of our more sophisticated clients are asking us to normalize data across channels to better track performance," as the data is analyzed in a more holistic way. The importance of data quality cannot be understated. According to Mirshak, whether it is third, second or first party data, "it all comes down to performance," because quality is not just a first party data attribute.

Data From Collection to Insights

Alejandro Matos, Digital Marketing Director, Omnicom Media Group, Dominican Republic and The Caribbean, explained the challenge he faced in generating insights for a local retailer who had limited data on its online consumers. “We needed to come up with a way to capture data,” he said. His work in capturing data that explained the consumer journey focused on a variety of sources - from placing beacons in various locations in the store, launching a DMP, CRM on social media and on apps, placing pixels in banner ads, gathering data on mobile, emails, websites, from multiple sources and then matched with third party data before modeling.

The result was the ability to more clearly understand the consumer journey, but it was putting the collection structure into place that made all the difference. Is every data project unique and custom? Not necessarily, according to Matos. The collection methods may be similar across clients but the insights and stories that can be crafted from the data, even from similar data sets, will differ.

A Move From Legacy Metrics to Segmentation and Attribution

With the availability of sophisticated datasets, it is time for the industry to move away from legacy age and gender demographics. According to Chris Frazier, Vice President Business Intelligence, Cadent Network, his company uses data to, “build what that audience will be” by building out a target consumer beyond age and gender, to “reach the intended target at the right time.” He added that linking to linear TV using traditional Nielsen to digital platform performance is a challenge, impeding the ability to measure and guarantee standardize-able sales deliveries across platforms. “We would like to see uniformity in how we measure impressions. Is it two seconds? Is it a minute? We want to see industry standards,” he stated. When it comes to addressable, attribution is key. “Attribution allows you to connect your exposures to where the sales are. It’s a measure of ROI to media spend.”  

The TV industry is beginning to embrace the use of consumer data in measurement in conjunction with demographic data enabling cross platform measurement. The need for a holistic, unified view of audiences and campaigns has never been greater and is essential for the evolution of the advertising industry. As data advocate, Andy Monfried, Founder and CEO, Lotame, concluded in his opening keynote, the requirements of a DMP is to unify disparate datasets to target the right audiences, extend a brand’s position to find and reach new customers and to better understand a consumer journey through greater personalization. This requires internal buy-in, retaining talent and aligning the strategic corporate vision to better understand and execute on the data insights. We are at the beginning stages. For the industry and for a company like Lotame, it should be an exciting and ground-breaking time going forward.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com