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

Branding with a Purpose. A Leadership Conversation with Unilever’s Aline Santos

Corporations today are facing many challenges and changes in the consumer landscape but those who have been keeping a strategic, inclusive and global perspective are poised for great success. Unilever is one of those prescient companies whose initiatives have not only raised the voices of under-represented people but also sparked global recognition for change.

Jack Myers sat down with Aline Santos, Global Executive Vice President, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, Unilever this week to talk about her company’s ongoing successful efforts to address societal needs while also enriching the company’s position in the marketplace by being in the forefront of cultural change and evolution. 

Be a Good Global Citizen

When it comes to developing and implementing a plan to effect global change, companies need to be activists. Santos, understands that she plays a bigger role in Unilever, as she explained, “I'm not just making the Unilever brands. We are trying to bring a new way of doing business that hopefully is going to be inspiring.” To do that, new frames of references need to be introduced so that we, “break down old stereotypes,” throughout the entire advertising and marketing industry. “How much we can change the shape of culture, how much we can change the way we represent people?” she noted. Activism and using your voice to push for change, as Santos stated, “In places that matter, in places in the industry that can really create a kind of a ripple effect,” is the ultimate goal.

Activism is an important empowering component in society today, going beyond advocacy. “When I think about the work that I am doing at Unilever, I am not just making the Unilever brands grow but we are trying to reach a new way of doing business that is hopefully going to be inspiring to many other people,” she said. “When we think about advertising we are thinking about inspiring people with new references that are breaking the old stereotypes.” Finding the activist voice and taking action in movements such as Black Lives Matter to combating domestic abuse and food insecurity requires a high degree of sincerity and authenticity to, as Santos explained, “to change the shape of culture.”

Represent the Under Served and Under Represented Both Internally and Externally

Santos has been working on gender opportunities within the company for the last ten years, and “it’s not been an easy journey,” even though the CEO has advocated for inclusivity within the company. “Gender representation has been on the top of the agenda. But even with that it is not easy. But we got there and now we have 50/50 (in the management level) in our company that has 155,000 employees.” Unilever has also looking to recruit talent from across the employment spectrum. “Representation has always been important to me, the right representation,” she noted. “It is about all the dimensions. It is about, ethnicities. It is about nationalities. It is about being disabled. It is a big passion for us. We wanted to be the most desirable company to work with if you have a disability.”

From a consumer perspective, she recognized early in her career that there were groups that were terribly under served. As she noted, she started her marketing career in Brazil with skincare products, “and I was noticing that although 54% of the population of Brazil is a population of color, there weren't any range of products that were specially developed for the black community.” To that end, “we developed an amazing product people remember today because that was such an iconic moment… made with love and care for the black community. And it was the first time that we were doing advertising using black talent as well.”

Balancing Technological Rationality with Emotional Connection

Today’s troubled environment with the pandemic, protests, “the rise in food insecurity, the burden on women, the financial insecurity that we are seeing now, depression, it is really a spectacular combination of negative factors,” she explained. It is all impacting human behavior, the way we interact, the way we work and the way we live. “We have been focusing too much on transactional ways of doing business. We have been too clever, too rational, too technological. Everything is tech, tech, tech,” she admonished. It may be a good time, she posited, to pause and reflect to see what more we can do to, “change the paradigm of the business”  to create more empathy, care and kindness.

And yet technology has also hearkened in positive changes in the way we work, from being heard to networking. “The way we have been working using zoom technology or Microsoft Teams … has helped us,” she noted. “Many women are saying that now they feel more represented because the size of the boxes in the screen are the same. When they want to say something they can press that button with the little hand so nobody's talking on top of them.”

When it comes to networking and building relationships, the playing field is suddenly more equal. “You know, men normally are much better than women in terms of networking,” she began, “Although women have been getting better in the last couple of years, men are still better than women in terms of networking. But with the lock down, everybody was locked down, so there was no ‘let's meet on the golf course tomorrow morning or on Saturday’, no beer and watch the game. Women are finding that it’s now much more equal than before.”

Purpose in Advertising

Unilever is the company behind the Dove Real Beauty campaign, which was first launched in 2004, broke body type stereotypes and sparked a body positive movement for women.  Santos is highly attuned to voicing the message so that it is authentic and affirming. “Every time we choose a script, we are choosing how we want to shape culture and it's very important that we have this consciousness,” she explained. “At Unilever, 94% of the ads we tested were free from stereotypes and the 6% that were not free from stereotypes, we didn't launch. We didn't put out there.”

What she found was that handling the messaging this way is, “not only good for society, it's also good for business. We have 37% more branded impact every time we have advertising that is free from stereotypes. We have 20% more purchasing intention. All the KPIs go through the roof.” Companies who don’t focus on the consumer this way are, she added, “still in inertia from the past.”

The secret of success is clear to Santos. “The brands that are winning today, almost without exception, are brands that have their finger into the pulse of culture and changing at the same pace as culture. This is something that is really challenging and difficult - not simple to do. In the past, brands were dictating culture. Then consumers started to dictate. The (brands) that are winning are doing this with consumers at the same time.”

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com 

Three Views About the Global Advertising Market. An ARF Virtual Town Hall

For those of us in the media industry, these days of coronavirus uncertainties in personal health and finances also include concerns about the future of the media business, specifically the impact of the pandemic on advertising revenue. The ARF has been offering Virtual Town Halls on the subject with the most recent one on Global Advertising held on March 26. What are the long term impacts and best practices that we can adopt to plan for the future? 

Hosted by ARF President and CEO, Scott McDonald this Town Hall polled three industry experts on the subject – Laura Martin, Entertainment and Media Analyst, Needham & Co, Brian Wieser, Global President Business Intelligence, GroupM and Christian Polman, Chief Strategy Officer, Ebiquity.

A Look at the Market by Laura Martin

Challenges in Predicting - For Laura Martin, past predictions of the market were not prescient. Back in December 2019, both Zenith and WPP were predicting global ad spend increases of over 4% year to year. But by April, she anticipates that huge losses will result in the GDP cratering as unemployment claims skyrocket. “Economies are shutting down,” she stated and noted that it is not easy for professional forecasters look ahead with any certainty regarding GDP. Challenges abound. First they must be able to predict when the infection rate will peak in every country. Then, after peaking, they need to see how long it will take for consumer demand to return. Following that, they would need to know what percentage of small businesses will fail before consumer demand returns. “Because small businesses are a large part of overall advertising,” she explained.

But the U.S. is in Better Shape than Other Countries - Martin uses the stock market as a predictive indicator and currently, with its huge declines and high volatility, “the market is telling you (to expect) a negative $6 trillion forecast. But how much of that decline is (consumer) sentiment and how much of it is actual fundamental deterioration?” But there is cause for some optimism, even if only relative to other countries. The U.S. stock market represents 44% of the market capitalization of the world, 20% of all listed companies and has more highly valued companies on average. This means that the U.S. is better prepared to become more dominant over time compared to the rest of the world, “because the rest of world businesses are all a third the size.” So while we may be worried about small businesses in the U.S., “the rest of the world is actually in worse shape.” Another factor in our favor is that the U.S. is more productive than most other economies. But now may not be the time to buy, she warned. We don’t know how long it will take for the virus to dissipate and consumer sentiment is currently “anti-exuberance,” meaning depressed and cautious.

Uneven Impact on Global Advertising – Martin used the Travel category as an example of how the global advertising market could be negatively impacted. Travel and Hospitality, which has effectively shut down, was projected to edge out CPG in 2020 as the fifth largest digital advertising category representing 8.6% of ad spend. Because half of all Travel spending is on digital media, Martin posited that the impact from Travel advertising shutting down is three times worse on digital than it is on offline media. Further, Google Search represents 70% of Travel digital ad spend. The takeaway is that,” when travel silos turn off, different media is affected in different ways.” In addition, she noted that because 50-70% of TV inventory is bought in the prior May and is contractually obligated, TV is in better shape than digital (which is bought in scatter and by auction and can be cancelled immediately) to withstand market volatility.

A Cause for Optimism by Brian Wieser

Optimism with a Caveat - Brian Wieser is seeing some hope for optimism in the virus trends. He has been monitoring China where the latest reports show a slowing of the spread. “China has turned a corner,” he explained, it is, “a baseline to think about how this plays out in different countries.” But, he noted, there are three different kinds of countries and each type needs to be taken into account when projecting the impact on global ad spending. For Wieser, countries divide into, “those who were hit with the crisis and immediately took appropriate aggressive steps to address the matter, among those Japan, Singapore and South Korea. There are those countries that messed up for a month and then took aggressive steps and China is probably the best example. And then there are countries that messed up for a month. Messed up for another month and are hopefully taking the right steps. Italy is pretty clearly in that category. It remains to be seen how exactly different countries will follow.”

Small Businesses Have Severe Risks - However, Wieser believes that small businesses are the most immediately impacted and often “have the fewest resources to see them through a crisis such as this one with a limited ability to tap into the financial systems” for help. Unfortunately, “a lot of the support we’ve seen to date has not been focused on those companies and this is where the most severe risks are. Small businesses are being hit first and fast.” Lessons from the past financial crisis are not always the same lessons for today. Countries with a solid safety net provide some relief for small businesses but this not ubiquitous worldwide.

Supply Chain Considerations – Because China is getting back to business, Wieser is less concerned about and lost output that could disrupt the supply  chain, which at the time of the initial outbreak, seemed inevitable. But, “the bigger threat is that other countries around the world don’t take the right actions and then become the risk for China if demand doesn’t reemerge. The bigger point is that we can actually make this worse.” Specific public policies and actions by citizens and by individual countries will drive much of the outcome which at this point is an unknown.

What Should Brands Do? – In this time of uncertainty, brands should focus on ways to stay relevant and be helpful to consumers. Some companies are pivoting in ways that change their business in socially positive ways. Take, for example, “companies with alcohol products are finding ways to convert their production lines to hand sanitizer manufacturing. Anyone with a capacity to produce heavy metal based hardware can produce ventilators,” he explained. “But even brands that have nothing to do with the physical needs of emergency professionals  are finding ways to be helpful,” by altering their creative messaging such as C  O  C  A  C  O   L   A to encourage social distancing.

A Pragmatic View By Christian Polman

No Surprise - Any pandemic outbreak shouldn’t come as a surprise because, Polman asserted, if you go into the archives, policy health experts have been talking about this for a long time. A perfect storm has been created, he suggested, by Poor Planetary Health which risks the spread of infection, an Interconnected Global Supply Chain that is unsustainable, particularly the food supply chain, the rise of Nationalism and Unilateralism, “coming into mainstream politics which divides populations at a time when we need cooperation” and the Low Levels of Trust in Institutions, “which is getting worse and worse, at a time when trusted information is critical to inform the public and to guide policy making.”  

Long Term and Short Term – Polman believes that a long term need is finding a sustainable food chain, “and one that needs to be affordable.” In the short term, pressing needs include, “having a vaccine, a preventative treatment as well as long term testing.” He noted that, “consumer confidence is key here.” But this will be problematic as the latest studies show that confidence is in free fall. Yet the long term trend for GDP growth and ad expenditures, “is yo yo’d over a long period of time and quite consistently over the economic cycles. The rule of thumb is to expect a downturn every ten years. We were due one but I don’t think anyone foresaw how this one would be happening.”  But, he added, we always bounce back so those who can afford it should start to plan for the recovery.

Success Factors – The reasons for this economic downturn are different from previous ones. Brand Relevance has never mattered as much as now. Take for example hand sanitizers which are, according to Polman, counter-cyclical. But, “Media is a more normal example,” he stated. “Media consumption has been going up dramatically as it typically does in a down cycle as a function of more people who are unemployed. In this case, people unemployed and people stuck at home.” Agility is another success factor where making decisions fast is a big differentiator. Risk Taking is another; “It’s not just making decisions quickly but being able to take risks to take advantage of any opportunities,” he added. Long Term Orientation, “matters a lot. The companies that are long term oriented are the ones that are going to win.” And, “Consumer Trust has never mattered more. It will be critical,” he added.  He advised that brands, depending on the category, should maintain their market share of voice, “which you can do even with a lower budget…  It could take three years for brands to see the full impact of their investment. That’s why it’s such a key long term game.”

In a parting word of advice, Polman offered the following, “Every one of us has a role to play when it comes to leading and driving corporations. A lasting message from all of this is in any crisis, the rate of change will accelerate.” I wonder, can we handle any greater rate of change?

 This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

Branding is More Important than Ever Today. An Interview with Publicis Media’s Frank Harrison

My first question to Frank Harrison, Global Research Lead, Data Sciences Practice, Publicis Media, was “What is your definition of branding?” There was a long pause before he replied, “Oh… How long do you want me to talk?”   

The subject of branding looms large in the media world today and the results of the recent Myers Brand Equity Study sparked great conversation and some thoughtful consideration among networks, advertisers and agencies. Harrison was moved to comment on the study and we delved deeply into the subject of branding from the past, as Harrison explained, “since people started writing on cave walls,” to the present to the (spoiler alert!) impossible to predict future. 

What is Branding?

For Harrison, “Branding is basically an established presence in the mind of a consumer of a brand through a multitude of attributes associated with that brand such as fame –which is very important. Trust - a very big attribute of a sense of a brand. Saliency - when a brand comes into mind when a consumer is in market for a product or a service. And then all of the elements that you would call Brand Equity which are relating to the feelings and thoughts that people have about brands based on their multitude of their experiences with that brand through various different contact points.”

The Importance of Branding

Branding has always been important, “since the beginning of time,” he began, “to establish a product or service.” But it is even more important today, “because of all of the clutter and the general level of noise which is growing steadily and rapidly.” There are a myriad of brands currently on the market and the need to offer consumers a sense of distinctiveness is critically important, he noted.

The need to create and maintain a brand position is even more important in digital because of even greater level of clutter and noise that exists there. “So much of digital media is consumed through a small phone screen,” he explained and there is much more competition considering all of the messaging that comes across these screens including social media feeds.  Branding becomes that much more important in this environment because, “you have a real danger of having your brand exposed in that channel but be completely missed or misattributed.” In addition, “attention levels are lower than ever and so branding is more important than ever,” he concluded.

Are Consumers Changing and Changing Brand Driving Attributes?

A core element of the Myers Study is to test out those attributes that most impact overall Brand Equity such as Brand Love, Cultural Relevance, Distinctiveness, Emotional Connection, Social Responsibility, Ability to Thrive in the Future and Interest in Content. For Harrison, the level of importance of each of those attributes has to be considered according to the different consumer categories. “You have to think about which categories are most influenced and effective to buy changes in consumer behavior. The really big changes are, of course, the many different ways that you can connect, engage and pay attention to brands through the internet.” But, “some categories are very much more affected in terms of their business success than others.”

To Harrison, Travel, Retail and Finance are categories where you have much more involvement by consumers online. “There has been a really big shift in behaviors for those categories than in other less involved categories such as Packaged Goods. So has that affected consumers?  Yes enormously. Has it affected consumers? Yes,“ he replied emphatically, “And in that environment it is so much more important for brands to be established in the minds of the consumer.”

A Warning for Media Companies

While Harrison had had a chance to review the summary of the Myers Study and not yet the full report, he believes that, “traditional TV brands have not focused much on brand and on branding as they might have and this is probably not in their best interests.” There is little difference, in his opinion, between media brands and all other brands. And as with all brands, the trade-off between the top and bottom of the funnel can come at the expense of branding.

The outreach to the consumer has become more transactional and short term rather than long term and this shift is a concern to Harrison. “The observation that TV networks discount the equity of their master brand in favor of promoting their series and programs is, in the ever more competitive landscape (Netflix!), worth re-considering,” he warned. “Content needs promotion but branded ‘platform’ is also a vital memory cue for viewers in the ever more cluttered environment – Netflix does this well. Famousness continues to be vital for growth.” The risk is the slippery slope towards commoditization for media brands. “There is a new way of thinking today that is very much around short term promotional sales activation focus which is moving away from long term brand building towards promotional short-termist advertising and for brands that could lead to commoditization where pricing becomes  everything and the sense of brand becomes less and less important,” he warned. “Branding is more important than ever today,” he added, especially for traditional media brands.

The Future is … Pending

In looking forward three years, will all of this media consolidation impact branding and the attributes associated with success? “It depends on what the consolidations result in,” he averred. “Do the consolidations result in fewer brands? Or do the consolidations result in an ever growing proliferation of more and more brands?”

Consolidations are happening, according to Harrison, in order to reduce costs. “Consumers are stripping brands, margins and businesses of their margins to the point where the only position is to consolidate and then probably that would result in fewer brands. So you would return to an age where there were fewer brands. That makes it easier from a consumer and advertiser perspective to understand what is available in the market,” he explained. 

But on the other hand, he added, “the trend is to have more and more brands and more and more choice and from a consumer perspective, more and more difficulty in choosing because there is so much choice.” The risk there is that the consumer is apt to choose the lowest cost, which is, “obviously not good for business.” He concluded by saying, “It is really hard to look out three years. That is one of the great issues and that is why it is such a short-termist situation going on at the moment. One thing is certain – it will not be easy to predict.”

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com