In the beginning of 2020 many predicted audio to be a major trend of 2020, but from what we have seen so far advertising through smart speakers and podcasts hasn’t yet lived up to the sky-high expectations. However; Podcast consumption is growing fast, radio goes digital, a new generation is growing up with smart speakers and audio continues to have a great impact on our lives. For the next trend in our Future Media Trends series we therefore decided to take a closer look at different forms of sound-media – is 2021 the year when audio advertising will actually boom?

Podcast

Podcast is one of the fastest growing advertising mediums, and one can see why. In Sweden 68% of the population listen to podcasts – 13% on a daily basis and 30% on a weekly basis. Furthermore 20% out of the weekly listeners stream more than six different podcasts.

Benefits of podcasts:

• Trust – Podcast listeners often trust the podcast host and their recommendations.
• Engagement – Podcast is a valuable medium to advertisers because of the active listeners.
• Drives conversion – because of the high user engagement and trust, studies show that compared to other medias podcast advertising drives purchases to a higher degree.

Another great benefit is reaching niche audiences in highly relevant contexts, and there are a great number of niche podcasts to choose from varying from entertainment, self-care and parenting to business, entrepreneurship, trading and even various industry podcasts. For example podcasts can give B2B advertisers the chance to capture the attention of decision makers in a context where they are actually willing to listen. We predict that 2021 will be the year when more B2B companies will find their way to podcasts.

One of the main challenges of podcasts though is that is needs to become easier to measure the impact and return on investments, much like in the early days of influencer marketing.

Radio

Radio is another medium that is starting to transform with digitalization, which allows for niche stations and therefore opportunities for niche advertising. Interestingly, many of the most popular podcasts in Sweden originate from radio stations, such as P3 dokumentär, Sommar och vinter i P1 and Creepypodden i P3, and are distributed both through Sveriges Radio’s app and streaming platforms such as Spotify. This is a sign that the content of radio stations is still highly relevant, just in a different format. In Sweden, about 26% listen to digital radio every week, still less than traditional radio but traditional is decreasing while digital is increasing. Some people believe radio is dying, we think that depends on its ability to adapt to the digital landscape.

Smart speakers

The expectations on smart speakers were high in the beginning, with the tempting idea of customers ordering products using voice command. In reality, it seems like we don’t yet trust the technology enough to allow it to shop for us and we end up using the speakers mainly to stream music or check the weather. 2020 was expected to be the make-it or break-it for smart speakers. We neither see a make or a break but from an advertising point of view it’s a hard platform to penetrate. If the technology improves and smart speakers start to trend, a good start will be to make your products or services available for voice searches and purchases. Also, don’t forget there is a new generation growing up with smart speakers, they might change the user patterns of the future.

Next up?

What is next for audio? Something that wasn’t possible with previous audio outlets such as mass media radio was personalisation and targeting. As audio becomes smarter we see that niched, targeted and programmatic advertising could become an option. Some food for thought to end this blog post with – what would a true native ad look like if it was done through audio? Would the content interrupt the listener if it was highly relevant and integrated with the surrounding content or would it interest the listener?

Contact our Head of Sales at Story media, Ehsan Zahedi to hear about the podcast formats we have available today or our Head of Strategy and Innovation Jessica Follin to discuss potential new audio advertising formats.

 

Sources: Kantar-Sifo, Hubspot, Svenskarna och Internet 2020