ADVERTISER PLATFORMS
Business Wire | April 18, 2023
Rituals, as routine as running errands and doing chores, are also key audio-consumption moments in people’s lives and create positive environments for advertisers, according to new research conducted by MAGNA’s Media Trials unit and leading multi-platform audio content and entertainment company, Audacy. The study found that advertisers who aligned with listeners’ rituals saw a greater lift in brand excitement (+10%) and brand relevance (+8%).
The study, Aligning with Rituals: The Contextual Foundation of Audio, also noted that consumers experience greater “feelings of connection” with brands that synchronize with their audio rituals, by +12%, compared to +3% for non-aligned ads. MAGNA and Audacy tested both genre-based ads—such as a telecom brand advertising during an entertainment broadcast—and ritual-based ads—such as destination advertising during a “me-time” ritual--to examine the spectrum of contextual-alignment opportunities.
“We’ve studied contextual in video before, but this is our first time to study it in audio, so we wanted to explore how consumers reacted to all types of audio advertising, from contextually aligned to non-aligned, across every daypart and layers of the funnel,” said Kara Manatt, EVP, Managing Director, Intelligence Solutions, MAGNA. “We were especially intrigued to note how daily rituals imply moments of calm and continuity in listeners’ lives and that brands that tap into these touchstones benefit tremendously.”
Contextually aligned ads have the propensity to both excite (+10%) and create relevance (+8%) for brands, especially among those who are in-market. Further, contextual alignment boosts brand metrics that matter most, such as brand favorability (+8%), search intent (+12%), and purchase intent (+9%).
Just what are consumers doing as they stream podcasts and listen to music? A ranking of typical listening rituals featured in a previous Audacy study, Audio Rituals was topped by running general errands (85%) and doing home maintenance (84%). Consumer engagement levels, though, were most heightened during me-time moments (73%), putting my child to bed (70%) and exercising outdoors (68%).
Audacy’s Audio Rituals study also determined that 74% of listeners incorporated audio into their daily rituals and 40% planned their day/activities around audio content.
“Audio advertisers can amplify the effectiveness of their buys through ritual moments,” said Idil Cakim, SVP, Head of Research and Insights, Audacy. “Study participants agreed that the stronger the match between advertisement and content, the better the outcome for KPIs like brand favorability and purchase intent.” Seventy-eight percent of participants agreed that strong content/ad matches mattered in brand favorability and 80% for purchase intent.
Other key findings include:
Mood Boosters: Participants who felt “energized or excited” by their audio content also were 24% more likely to state the test ads “caught my attention” (+24% lift) and were more likely to be open to the ads at the time of listening (+16% lift). These engaged and excited listeners also were more likely to search for the brand (+10%).
Contextual Enhancement: Contextually aligning ads amplifies the information shared in audio ads – this is especially true among in-market audiences, who agree that these contextually-aligned ads “taught them something new” (73%).
Dialed-In Dispatches: Regardless of the type of contextual alignment (ritual or genre-based), each approach has the propensity to drive search intent (+15% and +16%, respectively).
Aligning with Rituals: The Contextual Foundation of Audio ran controlled testing among 1,920 weekly audio listeners who listened to 30-minute content blocks, ranging from podcasts to news, sports and music, interspersed with ads from three brands, covering the retail, telecom and travel industries. The participants answered a range of questions to determine advertising effectiveness and establish their mood and receptivity.
The full study can be found here.
About MAGNA
MAGNA is the leading global media investment and intelligence company. Our trusted insights, proprietary trial offerings, industry-leading negotiation and unparalleled consultative solutions deliver an actionable marketplace advantage for our clients and subscribers.
We are a team of experts driven by results, integrity and inquisitiveness. We operate across five key competencies, supporting clients and cross-functional teams through partnership, education, accountability, connectivity and enablement. For more information, please visit our website: https://magnaglobal.com/ and follow us on LinkedIn.
About Audacy
Audacy, Inc. (NYSE: AUD) is a leading multi-platform audio content and entertainment company with the country’s best collection of local music, news and sports brands, a premium podcast creator, major event producer, and digital innovator. Audacy engages 200 million consumers each month, bringing people together around content that matters to them. Learn more at www.audacyinc.com, Facebook (Audacy Corp), Twitter (@AudacyCorp) and LinkedIn (@Audacy-Inc).
Read More
BRAND MARKETING
Business Wire | March 29, 2023
CitrusAd and sponsorcart.io partner to deliver on-site shoppable video ad technology to retail media networks in the U.S. and abroad. The CitrusAd and Sponsorcart partnership simplifies video campaign activation, and retail monetization, making it easier than ever for brand advertisers across the globe to activate shoppable video campaigns on retail media networks. Brands can implement, manage and scale video ad creative alongside, add-to-cart functionality for corresponding SKUs that enables closed-loop, transparent measurement of return-on-ad-spend (ROAS). The new, innovative video ad formats will drive high-impact engagement for brands and fetch greater CPM in the retailer’s revenue stream.
“CitrusAd is excited to scale these dynamic and innovative video ad formats. Brands will be able to easily align commercial video assets with SKUs directly within the path-to-purchase in a shopper-relevant manner. These enhanced shopper experiences deliver tremendous storytelling power and an attractive way for retailers to expand their media offering,” said Adam Skinner, Managing Director, Retail Media Networks, CitrusAd.
“Our goal was to make it easy for video to play a larger role in retail media. We are delighted to tie our video ad platform to CitrusAd to make shoppable video ad campaigns dynamically populate in a native and personalized manner with lightning-fast load times,” said Stephen Caffrey, CEO and co-founder of Sponsorcart.
Advertisers spend $50BN per year in video ad spend as 66% of customers prefer video when learning about a new product. Retailers can improve customer experiences while earning up to five times CPM when adding video to advertising campaigns.
Both companies will be at ShopTalk in LasVegas this week to provide further insight on the benefits of shoppable video.
About Sponsorcart.io
Sponsorcart.io is an onsite, end-to-end, shoppable video platform built for Retail Media Networks (RMNs). The platform makes it simple to launch and manage high-impact, unique video ad formats. Add-to-cart functionality provides closed-loop analytics for transparent and measurable ROI. Sponsorcart’s shopper centric, video solution appears natively along the path-to-purchase with dynamic SKU optimization led by privacy protected, first-party retailer data for personalized relevancy at scale.
About CitrusAd
CitrusAd is a leading retail media company and part of Epsilon, a global advertising and marketing technology company. The CitrusAd, powered by Epsilon platform, sits at the center of Publicis Groupe’s comprehensive, scalable retail media network offering. By harnessing the power of first-party data and industry-leading identity resolution, the unified, self-serve platform delivers shopper-relevant advertising experiences on commerce websites and across the open web resulting in higher conversions. Leading retailers across the globe rely on CitrusAd to help grow retail media as a core function for incremental media revenue and sales volume that delivers great ROI for brands. For more information, visit citrusad.com.
Read More
BRAND MARKETING
Augeo | February 20, 2023
Augeo, an enterprise engagement platform technology, has recently acquired Brand Networks, a social media marketing pioneer, for increasing engagement over social media platforms. In addition, its data collection and engagement solution, Valor Siren Ventures, participated with Augeo in this transaction.
Brand Networks offers AI-powered tools to enhance advertising investments, media buying, and authentic employee advocacy through software solutions and clean room collaboration technology to turn audiences and first-party data over social media platforms into monetization. These services will help marketers, advertising companies like Augeo and creator communities with the creation, publication, and measurement of organic content in real-time on behalf of the organization. It leverages AI and machine learning algorithms for building brand relationships with customers through social media platforms like Pinterest, Snapchat, TikTok, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Meta. Garros Group, an investment bank in the advertising sector, served as a financial and strategic advisor for Brand Networks.
Founder and CEO of Augeo, David Kristal, said, "We are eager to cultivate Brand Network's innovative paid social solutions that optimize cross-platform advertising budgets with data-driven strategies. Moreover, there is not a more authentic and inspired strategy to advance brand experiences than through the passion and advocacy of that brand's employees, customers, and partners. We recognize the power of synthesizing brand advocates across social media to deepen the connection to stakeholders and local communities." He added, "Augeo's acquisition of Brand Networks extends opportunities for our clients to leverage genuine employee advocacy—creating a unique and inevitable intersection of marketing and HR. Every day, thousands of employees are activated on behalf of major brands through Brand Networks, and we are excited to scale their efforts and accelerate the power of their solutions for our respective clients."
(Source – Cision PR Newswire)
About Augeo
Headquartered in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Augeo, an advertising solutions provider, has been offering services for enterprise-level loyalty and engagement platforms and experience design since 1999. In addition, it serves solutions for loyalty programs, channel loyalty, employee recognition, sales incentives, web3 experiences, strategic gifting, event production, customer loyalty, experiential marketing, workplace engagement, digital agency services, employee engagement, card-linking experiences, B2B loyalty, membership benefits, employee recognition and rewards, insurance and voluntary benefits, custom solutions, and affinity partner networks.
Read More