advertising

Advertising Shake Up for 2015

January 29, 2015

The Super Bowl is one of – if not the – biggest sporting events watched in America, synonymous with showy half-time celebrity performances and adverts. But not just any adverts – brands pull out all the stops with their big-budgeted celebrity-endorsed ads. This year even features the likes of the Victoria’s Secret Angels and queen of the derrière, Kim Kardashian. And being ostentatiously American, any adverts shown and any songs performed will trickle down through social media and reach – and impact – the rest of the Western world.

The Super Bowl Sound Awards for Excellence in Audio Creativity

Perhaps no other sporting event is so lucrative for televised celebrity performances and brand adverts. But for this year’s Super Bowl, TV adverts are not getting all of the attention. The Super Bowl Sound Awards for Excellence in Audio Creativity – yes, it’s a mouthful – is a chance for advertisers to strategically use audio in order to increase their consumer outreach. And the judges? Radio listeners, of course. Westwood One, the flagship network for radio’s Super Bowl XLIX coverage, stated, ‘Our Super Bowl broadcast is the perfect environment for advertisers to leverage their commercial creative, thanks to our incredible reach and sheer volume of audience across platforms.’

It’s not just Super Bowl-related ads that are getting a shake-up this year

Fullscreen capture 29012015 123032 — Picture Credit: Inside Radio

The latest figures by Borrell Associates indicate where the biggest growth for advertising lies for 2015. Video ads are
still top players, with an estimated growth rate of 39% to $7.7 billion. Targeted display ad spending will nearly
double to a monumental $28.2 billion, a humongous growth rate of 92.4% from 2014. Audio ad growth for radio is a much smaller estimation figure of 8.3% to $300 million. Overall, Borrell state that audio ads will capture just 1% of all digital money spent by advertisers. But these figures for audio ads may be bolstered by two factors. The first is the influence of the Super Bowl. If their new radio ads scheme works, more brands may feel more confident in investing their time and money in audio ads. The second, is that of the ‘mobile effect’. Within five years, Borrell estimates, nearly 70% of online advertising will be done via a mobile device. Listener-targeted audio adverts in mobile radio apps, despite being quite a mouthful, could be the key to a more increased audio ad growth rate.

Native advertising is set to get a boost too

BIA/Kelsey has forecast that native ad spend in the US will reach $18 billion by 2019. Facebook’s shift to in-feed advertising and their transition to mobile puts them at the heart of native advertising. In fact, a vast majority of Facebook’s $7.9 billion in advertising revenues for the first 9 months of 2014 came from none other than native formats; in-feed on desktop and in-stream on mobile. And this year, Facebook are pushing ahead for native video advertising. Just how they will gain revenue from these ads has not yet been announced, but it is possible that whilst the videos will appear on a user’s newsfeed, they won’t play automatically – suggesting cost-per-click. But one thing is for certain; native advertising will bring in big revenue for Facebook, and in return for native video advertising overall. That leaves native audio advertising as an area that has been vastly untapped.

In with the old and in with the new

The traditional platform of advertising, via the much-beloved television set, is and probably always will be a highly effective way for brands to reach out to existing and new consumers. But with digital platforms being an ever-increasingly important aspect of our lives, it is time for advertisers to embrace these new shake-ups if they really want to realise their potential and expand their outreach – and essentially make more money! After all, with over 90% of adults listening to radio, it is surprising that technology changes have not been embraced as much as they should be.

If you are interested in becoming a broadcasting partner, or would like to know what our integrating technology can do for you, contact our Partnership Account Manager Matthew Layton – matthew.layton@exaget.com or +447533517396

If you are interested in advertising opportunities, please contact the CEO of Exaget, Shankar Meembat –shankar.meembat@exaget.com or +447411130680

Why you should look out for smart glasses in 2015

January 7, 2015

We all know and love our smartphones, laptops, tablets, kindles, and iPods. We can’t imagine a world without them. We know such a world once existed, but how on earth did they manage to survive? But now imagine this:

It’s the morning commute. First Monday back after the New Year festivities. Oh how you wish you could run away from reality. But hold on, you can! All you have to do is pop on your smart glasses and the next thing you know you’re surrounded by little curly-haired people with hairy feet, amidst clear blue skies and luscious green rolling hills, while Gandalf offers you his pipe as you share some weed. (Pipe weed, for those of you who aren’t familiar with Middle Earth).

If this sounds too far-fetched to you, start getting used to it. The market for wearables is already opening up with the advent of the smartwatch; Android have already released their models and Apple is to bring out their Apple Watch sometime this year.

Smart glasses won’t be far behind. In fact, they’ve already been around, just not commercially. Osterhout Design Group products initially started out as devices for military applications, and are now broadening out into other industrial areas. They have been investing into their range of smart glasses for the past six years. So why smart glasses now if they’ve already been around for a while?

If you’re a keen gamer you’ll be familiar with those Oculus style headsets that completely immerse you in virtual reality. If you’re part of the rest of the world, you won’t have a clue what that is. Quite simply, picture a black rectangular box strapped to the top half of your face. The new smart glasses, however, are augmented reality glasses, such as Google Glass, which means that digital graphics and information are overlaid on top of the real world. Hence with one eye you can be admiring Gandalf’s majestic beard and with the other keeping track of your stop.

And what’s more these smart glasses are more fashion savvy. Last year Vuzix partnered with Lenovo and launched their M100 device, which looks a bit like an extended Bluetooth earpiece. This year Intel will be partnering up with Vuzix following a $24.8 million investment. Intel’s investment highlights their faith in the wearable tech market, which they claim is the next big growth area.

Jaunt, another wearables company, are tapping into the entertainment industry. Following their amassment of $28 million in funding from backers that included British Sky Broadcasting, they have released apps that range from an on-stage view of a Paul McCartney concert to that stroll with Gandalf through the Shire.

So if smart glasses will be able to transport you to Middle-Earth, what is there that they won’t be able to do? Jay Wright, vice president of product management at Qualcomm, stated that smart glasses had the potential to ‘disrupt the smartphone‘. Will smart glasses kill the smartphone star? Or anything that has a screen, for that matter. Are we likely to see a future of people watching television, listening to the radio, maybe even virtual shopping, all from a little piece of plastic curved around the side of their head? And how would advertisers feel about this prospect of their industry being turned upside down? If programmatic is challenging for them to grasp, embracing - and more importantly understanding - the technology of smart glasses may have them reaching out for some aspirins.

But perhaps we’re jumping the gun a little; after all, in order for wearables to be truly trending, they need to be just that – wearable. Teaming up with the fashion industry is imperative if wearable tech companies such as Vuzix and Jaunt want to see their products fly off the shelves. In an age where ‘sleek’ is the golden word of aesthetic descriptions, if the smart glasses don’t look good, consumers won’t bite, it’s as simple as that.

So whilst you may be getting used to your smartwatch, or eagerly anticipating it, watch this space; and if at some point this year or in the next you sit down next to someone wearing glasses on the tube and hear them say ‘You’re right, he was an absolute fool of a Took’, you’ll know who they’re talking to.

If you are interested in advertising opportunities, please contact the CEO of Exaget, Shankar Meembat –shankar.meembat@exaget.com or +447411130680

Programmatic Advertising - The ‘It’ Word of 2015

December 30, 2014

Programmatic. It’s a word that’s been thrown around on the internet a lot recently, with headlines that it’s the next big thing in 2015 – it’s already taken Sweden by storm – and the Association of National Advertisers titling it their 2014 Word of The Year. But nobody really seems to know what it is. So here at Exaget we’re going to de-mystify ‘programmatic’ and its relative ‘RTB’ (a.k.a Real Time Bidding) with our ‘Dummies Guide’.

In one sentence, programmatic advertising is a technology that allows advertisers to automatically target consumers based on certain qualifiers, such as location, age, and gender, referred to as ‘smart impressions’. (We’ve got a little handy glossary at the end of the article).

Programmatic is ad buying that is processed by a machine, cutting out the need of a human middleman – the sales rep – and his juicy commission. With the smart impressions programmed in its mind, the machine is able to find inventory spaces that are suited to the advertiser’s targeted audience. The next step is for the advertiser to then decide whether or not they want to buy this inventory from the publisher. Now, if you’ve come across RTB – Real Time Bidding – then this is where it comes in.

With programmatic being a method to determine if an advertiser wants to purchase their inventory space, RTB is a way of purchasing it, through real-time auctions. The old-fashioned – that is to say, pre-2009 – way of advertising was based primarily on assumptions; assuming where the target audience is likely to be and what they’d be likely to be doing, and sending their ads there en masse, with the hope that the advertiser’s audience will match the publisher’s.

In contrast, real time bidding is about high volume and precision targeting, by seeing what the target audience is doing now and where. This allows advertisers to buy impressions that directly target individuals.

Programmatic is taking off in a big way. In Sweden nearly 90% of publishers will make their inventory available for programmatic buying. Meanwhile, the UK is to retain its status as Europe’s biggest market for programmatic ad spending; a study by the International Data Corporation forecast earlier this year that the UK’s programmatic ad spend would reach up to $320 million. And American Express, one of the largest online display advertisers in the US, are planning on becoming as programmatic as possible.

There is one little glitch that’s holding programmatic back, and that is quite simply that many either haven’t heard of it, don’t understand what it is, or don’t know how to use it or what exactly it does. But with its growing popularity there are bound to be more articles, webinars and studies to clear away any confusion.

The team at Exaget are excited to keep an eye on programmatic and its impact in the New Year – and ‘dummify’ anything you might not understand for you!

If you are interested in advertising opportunities, please contact the CEO of Exaget, Shankar Meembat –shankar.meembat@exaget.com or +447411130680

Glossary of Terms:

Smart impressions : Ads placed in a targeted audience segment. E.g. for audio smart impressions, that means ads placed in the ears of listeners who have been qualified as the targeted audience. The most common qualifiers are location, age, and gender.

Programmatic : A big and scary word that’s too easily misunderstood. Ad buying that is processed by a machine, using automated programmed smart impressions. A method that allows advertisers to target consumers, with the machine finding suitable inventory spaces.

RTB : acronym for Real Time Bidding. An auction-house style of buying and selling consumer-targeted inventory spaces. Looks at what the targeted audience is doing now – in real time.

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December 8, 2014

It’s been a hell of a day at work. Best not to mention the tube. And it looks like someone gave the kids too much sugar. Slouched on the sofa, G&T in hand, there’s just one thing you want to do. Chillax with your favourite artist, Nicki Minaj. You love the song, but you haven’t yet seen her ‘Anaconda’. You wonder what it looks like. YouTube is about to show you.

But oh….the bitter disappointment. It’s the dreaded YouTube pre-roll.

Frankly, you couldn’t care less about some new dragon warfare game. You start to search frantically for those two holy words – ‘Skip Ad’. Panic sets in. You can’t find them. You may not be particularly religious, but you’re praying now. You must endure 30 excruciating, agonising seconds of what feels like medieval torture. Never has time gone by so slowly.

The YouTube pre-roll is a negative experience for the viewer. If the viewer – essentially, to an advertiser, a potential customer – feels like they are being harassed or forced to endure a piece of advertising content, then someone in the advertising and marketing world is not doing their job properly. The net result is that the potential customer is left with a negative association with the advertising brand.

Our association with the YouTube pre-roll is a negative one. However, the opposite is true with a well-produced, well-deployed audio pre-roll. Here at Exaget, we entwine broadcaster and advertiser brands into a product that really works. We leverage the emotional connection the listener has with the radio station. By downloading the radio station’s app on to their mobile, they have invited the radio station onto a device as personal as a toothbrush.

We’re currently running a brilliant example of the sensitively branded pre-roll with one of our premium broadcasters, French Radio London. When a listener opens the French Radio London app on their mobile phone or device they are greeted by the following pre-roll, which interweaves the radio station’s brand with that of their luxury advertising partner, Relais & Châteaux.

For a sneak peak of how our pre-roll works, download the French Radio London App here

This turns the audio pre-roll into an incredibly valuable piece of advertising real estate. At this point the listener is most probably still looking at their mobile device. Not only will they engage with the accompanying visuals – in this case the understated sophistication of Relais & Châteaux’s gourmet gift boxes – they are also presented with an opportunity to interact with the brand with just a simple tap of the map icon.

The benefits are obvious to the advertiser, the broadcaster and the listener. The advertiser gets to leverage the emotional connection that the listener has with the broadcaster’s brand and output – resulting in a deeper engagement with their own brand and product. This in turn helps to establish a relationship with the consumer, increasing the likelihood of consumer-to-brand interaction, and ultimately improving the advertiser’s chances of increased sales. In this case the exclusive and opulent nature of the advertiser’s brand adds value to the broadcaster’s already premium brand. The listener is presented with a seamless, consistent, and relevant listening experience.

Your relationship with your phone is personal. Emotional. As is your relationship with the radio station you chose to listen to. Mobile in hand, radio on, headphones plugged in, you cocoon yourself in your own little world. It’s personal. Intimate even.

The new possibilities offered by interactive radio advertising allow advertisers to turn these personal, intimate moments into opportunities for engagement.

But woe betide the advertiser who abuses them.

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Exaget Week in Review: RAIN Summit, IAB Audit & More

October 1, 2014

Welcome back to Exaget’s Week in Review. We’ve taken a short break over the past couple of weeks but we’re now back in swing of things and looking forward to keeping you up-to-date.

In the Exaget Week in Review we look at interesting, informative and educational content from our industries. If you ever have any suggestions about Exaget, the article or anything else, don’t hesitate to get in contact with us.

Here is this week’s round up:

RAIN Summit Europe
The Radio and Internet News (RAIN) will be hosting the RAIN Summit Europe on Tuesday 4^th November 2014 featuring RAIN News Founder Kurt Hanson and CEO Jennifer Lane. Also speaking will be Exaget CEO Shankar Meembat. Focused around the digital audio industry, this event is the largest meetup of internet radio and online audio professionals.

76% of top tech & telco brands have mobile optimised site
Research released by the IAB UK reveals that 76% of the top 50 UK technology and telecoms brands have a mobile optimised site, however 6% have no mobile presence whatsoever.

Powerhouse growth of streaming revenue in 2014; music sales in double-digit slide (RIAA)
America’s RIAA reports great news about the growth of streaming media in the US. At the top line, a decrease of 4.9% in overall revenue. Income for the first six months of the year totalled $3.2 billion, compared with $3.4 billion in the same period of 2013.

Interesting Article on the role Commercial Radio Stations play in their local Community
“Without the benefit of the licence fee or public subsidy, commercial stations broadcast on average 10 hours 21 minutes of public service content each week, that’s 3,000 hours a week. The return on investment for advertisers is £7.70 for every £1 invested. The sector raises over £18m a year for charity. Commercial radio stations are at the heart of their communities, in every format imaginable. These facts alone should persuade anyone that some perceptions about commercial radio lag a little behind the reality.”

Grooveshark Guilt of Massive Copyright Infringement
The US District Court in Manhattan has found Grooveshark of massive copyright infringement. Grooveshark CEO & CTO will face the heaviest charges which have yet to be determined. Employees who didn’t cooperate were often faced by penalties.

If you found this week’s update interesting feel free to join our mailing list or donate a share, like or tweet. Subscribe to our newsletter to get our update into your mailbox. If you are a broadcaster, or advertiser and are interested in learning how targeted audio advertising can work for you get in touch.

Exaget Team
Twitter - @Exaget
Facebook - Exaget

Will Pandora Kill the Radio Star?

August 4, 2014

As traditional radio listening hits its lowest point ever and more and more young people
are using services like Pandora to discover new music, do digital music services mean the end
for radio?

“Video Killed The Radio Star.”

So sang The Buggles on their 1979 worldwide hit record which reached number 1 in 16 countries.
Two years later it was the first song to be played on air on MTV when it launched on 1st August
1981. 35 years on however, radio is still very much alive and kicking – even though MTV is now
available in 85% of homes in the US.

But radio faces a new threat. A threat, it could be argued, that is in the process of killing off radio’s elder
sibling print. In its quarterly report last week, the UK radio industry’s audience measurement provider
RAJAR revealed that the share of UK radio listening via traditional analogue radio hit its lowest point ever.
Only 56.5% of radio listening was registered via the traditional AM and FM bands - down 1.9%
year-on-year

The threat is, of course, digital. Recent years have seen the emergence of platforms such as Spotify, Rdio,
last.fm and Pandora. A survey by Niche reported that 77% of graduating high school students in the US
claim to source new music from Pandora, while Clear Channel’s tradition radio brands came in third place at 31%

In a recent interview with Kurt Hanson - the globe-trotting founding editor of RAIN News – Pandora SVP
Heidi Browning made much of the discussion focused on the company’s new “Promoted Stations” product, which
“leverages a combination of media creativity and data knowledge.”

The most publicly visible example of this kind of campaign so far has been US television network WGN’s three
Promoted Stations for their new drama serial MANH(A)TTAN

BRIEF: WGN/MANH(A)TTAN PROMOTED STATIONS

Ahead of the launch of their new drama series Manhattan, WGN augmented their campaign on Pandora with
three “promoted stations” - curated playlists of music from the show itself from artists including Sigur Rós, Jake
Bugg and Zero7.

The WGN/MANH(A)TTAN Promoted Stations campaign, while at first glance simple, is a very exciting
development. It’s the first time we’ve heard of an advertiser perceiving added value in curated, targeted,
interactive audio content in this way - paying for more than the usual spot buys. The MANH(A)TTAN
campaign was developed and implemented by Pandora’s new in-house creative advertising team. The
team “works with agencies and advertisers to build customized messages, programs, and productions to
connect brands with targeted groups of listeners”.

Browning went on to say, “We co-create; we don’t replace the agency.It’s a collaboration. We come to the
table with what we know is best for the listener. They come to the table with what they know is best for the
brand. Together we create a custom experience.”

Hold on. That sounds awfully familiar. So their creative team works with clients and agencies using the
knowledge they have acquired of their audience…

Sounds like a radio station!

Perhaps digital does not mean the end of radio as we know it. The world of digital audio can learn
many things from the established medium of radio. Knowing and understanding your audience has a value
and developing engaging and creative campaigns will help an advertiser communicate with that audience.

But traditional radio can also benefit from the advantages that the digital world has to offer when broadcasting over
the internet and to people listening on mobile devices, particularly when it comes to targeting, interaction and
measurement.

Targeting - Ads in live streams can now be as targeted as the ads we’re all used to seeing on Google or Facebook.

Interaction - Mobile devices offer a whole new raft of ways for broadcasters and advertisers to interact with listeners,
whether it’s tapping through to a website or sending a text message. Who knows, the “press call” function could
mean an end to telephone numbers in radio ads.

Measurement - Mobile audio campaigns can now be as fully accountable as any other digital campaign with reports on
when and where people are listening as well as measuring audio ad impressions and interactions.

So will Pandora kill the radio star? Hopefully not.

If radio learns from print and embraces digital rather running away from it - adding the targeting, interactivity
and measurement that digital offers to the powerful intimate medium of radio, the future of the original “new media”
is looking rather bright.

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Advertising Shake Up for 2015

Why you should look out for smart glasses in 2015

Programmatic Advertising - The ‘It’ Word of 2015

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Exaget Week in Review: RAIN Summit, IAB Audit & More

Will Pandora Kill the Radio Star?

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