Advertiser Platforms
Acast | July 27, 2023
Veritonic, the industry’s comprehensive audio analytics and research platform, partnered with Acast, the world’s largest independent podcast company, to bring new data to market around the commonalities - and divergence - of audio creative on podcast ads served programmatically. In addition to identifying these global overlaps and points of difference, the goal of the research was also to help media buyers identify strong tactics and best practices in programmatic podcast advertising across three key media markets: the US, Australia and New Zealand, and EMEA.
Together, the companies sourced and analyzed podcast ads transacted programmatically with Acast and spanning various industry verticals including: automotive, tourism, retail, healthcare, entertainment, and more. They then identified the common threads and differences in the creative executions by region by examining themes like ad length, number of voiceovers, gender of voiceover, use of sound effects, call to action placements, and more.
“As an industry there is still a lot of myth-busting to do around programmatic ad buying. At Acast, we firmly believe that programmatic advertising should not be a rigid experience for the media buyer, podcast host, and certainly not the listener,” said Elli Dimitroulakos, Global Head of Ad Innovation at Acast. “Podcast advertising is effective because it’s a seamless part of the listening experience and that shouldn’t change based on how a transaction occurs. Programmatic ads can – and should – have creative elements that enhance the listener experience and brand relationship.”
According to the research, across all markets the majority of ads were a minimum of 30 seconds in length. This was most predominant in the US and EMEA regions which resulted in 80% and 73% of the examined ads, respectively. The Australia and New Zealand market trailed slightly behind with 56% of programmatic ads running at least 30 seconds long. The remaining 44% in the market were 15 seconds in length.
All three markets also reflected similarities in the use of single voices for the voiceover content. The US led the way with 86% of programmatic ads in the study using a single voice for the voiceover. EMEA and Australia and New Zealand were most similar with 66% and 68% of programmatic ads using a single voice for the voiceover, respectively.
However, when it came to gender detection in voiceover content, dissimilarities across the markets presented themselves. In the US, half of ads analyzed featured a female voiceover, 47% of ads featured a male voiceover, and the remaining 3% featuring both male and female voiceovers. Looking at ads that ran in Australia and New Zealand, 53% of the creatives featured a female voice over, but just 27% a male voice, and 20% contained both a female and a male voiceover.
In near equal numbers, the three regions all used sound effects in slightly less than the majority of programmatic ads, indicating that this may be a newly emerging trend in the space. According to the study, sound effects including birds chirping, phones ringing, engines revving, and more were used in 40% of programmatic ads from the US, 38% from Australia and New Zealand, and 33% in EMEA.
“Hope is not a strategy; it’s no longer enough for a brand to create an audio asset and simply hope it’ll move the needle,” said Scott Simonelli, CEO of Veritonic. “Having confidence that your marketing efforts and investments will pay off is crucial, especially in today’s economy. With audio reaching more than 214M adults in the U.S. monthly and having a 36% higher impact on memory than video, marketers need to be leveraging creative testing solutions like the Veritonic platform to ensure they are putting their best audio creative forward, regardless of how the ad itself is purchased or served.”
For more information on how you can make decisions in audio by leveraging the industry’s most comprehensive research and analytics solutions, contact marketing@veritonic.com. For more information on buying podcast ads programmatically, please contact automated@acast.com.
About Veritonic
World-renowned brands, agencies, publishers, and platforms rely on Veritonic’s comprehensive audio research and analytics platform to research, test, and measure the ROI of their audio assets and campaigns pre-market, in-market, and post-campaign. The resulting insight enables clients to gain confidence in their audio investment, mitigate risk through optimization, and increase their return as they engage consumers with compelling audio experiences. For more information, visit https://www.veritonic.com.
About Acast
Since 2014, Acast has been creating the world’s most valuable podcast marketplace, building the technology which connects podcast creators, advertisers and listeners. Its marketplace spans 92,000 podcasts, 2,300 advertisers and 430 million monthly listens. Crucially, those listens are monetized wherever they happen — across any podcasting app or other listening platform. The company operates worldwide and is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. Acast is listed on Nasdaq First North Premier Growth Market (ACAST.ST).
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Ad Networks, Ad Tech and Martech
Integral Ad Science | July 13, 2023
Anzu, the most advanced intrinsic in-game advertising solution, and Integral Ad Science (IAS), a leading global media measurement and optimisation platform, have announced the launch of the industry’s first solution that measures viewability and invalid traffic (IVT) across 2D and 3D gaming environments and tracks them within the IAS signal platform.
Gamers play two or more hours of video games every single day, so the need to monitor media quality has never been more important. This next step in intrinsic in-game ad measurement provides advertisers with additional trust and confidence when investing in-game. Last July, Anzu and IAS launched an in-game measurement solution for mobile environments. This new solution builds on its previous offering, working across programmatic and direct buys for display and video ads, and spans mobile, PC, and console gaming platforms.
Last year marked a considerable step forward in establishing intrinsic in-game advertising as a recognised ad format with the release of the updated intrinsic in-game advertising guidelines from the IAB and MRC. IAS and Anzu’s new offering was created with these guidelines/standards in mind.
“When founding Anzu, we knew that for in-game to succeed, advertisers would need a robust and transparent way to measure their success and be able to compare it to other mediums, which is why this area has been a core focus for us as a business from day one,” said Ben Fenster, co-founder and CPO, at Anzu. “It’s been great to work together with IAS on this first-to-market solution which marks a significant step forward in how measurement is done within the in-game advertising space.”
“We know that gaming is one of the most compelling environments for advertisers because consumers bring passion, focus, and dedication when they are playing,” said Yannis Dosios, chief commercial officer at IAS. “Our expanded partnership with Anzu brings IAS’s powerful viewability and invalid traffic measurement products to in-game 3D settings for the first time, demonstrating our leadership in the gaming space while providing marketers with even greater levels of transparency and actionable data to deliver results for their campaigns.”
In addition to this launch, earlier this year, Anzu was granted a patent by the United States Patent and Trademark Office for its innovative ad-tracking technology, compliant with new in-game advertising standards and third-party brand safety solutions. Anzu was also recently awarded Best Use Of Emerging Media at the Digiday Media Buying and Planning Awards for an in-game campaign with the iconic fashion brand Levi’s.
About Integral Ad Science
Integral Ad Science (IAS) is a global leader in digital media quality. IAS makes every impression count, ensuring that ads are viewable by real people, in safe and suitable environments, activating contextual targeting, and driving supply path optimization. Our mission is to be the global benchmark for trust and transparency in digital media quality for the world’s leading brands, publishers, and platforms. We do this through data-driven technologies with actionable real-time signals and insight. Founded in 2009 and headquartered in New York, IAS works with thousands of top advertisers and premium publishers worldwide. For more information, visit integralads.com.
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Advertiser Campaign Management
prnewswire | August 16, 2023
Global media agency Assembly announces the launch of its European Retail Media Division to meet booming retail media demand in the region.
The launch comes with expanded products and capabilities to deliver end-to-end connected commerce solutions that help retail and direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands scale, automate and improve margins at all stages of the consumer journey. The retail media division, led by Ada Wachowska, will start with a team of 25 dedicated practitioners and clients across fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), luxury, retail, and consumer electronics verticals – brought into Assembly from fellow Stagwell Brand X Performance Network and e-commerce specialist agency Brand New Galaxy. The new division will further scale Assembly's award-winning global retail media expertise, operated in region across partners like Amazon, Bol.com, Sephora and Douglas.
"Retail Media is the fastest-growing channel for media spend, and client demand for innovation within the retail landscape is at an all-time high," says Matt Adams, Assembly Europe CEO. "Being able to offer clients an integrated team of specialists who are experts across the European retail media landscape is perfect for clients who want to be able to look across channels, through advanced measurement, and use retail media as a connected part of a consumer journey."
With a robust retail portfolio and proven track record across the globe, Assembly's global business works to improve and scale digital performance for retail and DTC brands – boasting return-on-investment (ROI) increases upwards of 30% on same media spend when clients transition from another agency or in-house team to Assembly.
ABOUT ASSEMBLY
Assembly is the modern global omnichannel media agency, bringing data, talent, and technology together to find the change that fuels growth for the best brands on the planet. Our approach connects big, bold brand stories with integrated, global media capabilities that deliver performance and drive large-scale business growth. Our work is powered by our proprietary, in-house technology solution, STAGE, and led by our global talent base of over 1,600 people around the world. We're purpose-driven at our core and pioneers in social and environmental impact in the agency world. Assembly is a proud member of Stagwell, the challenger network built to transform marketing.
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