See the original article by Richard Williams, Commercial Director at A Million Ads, in Performance Marketing World here.
With digital audio growing faster than any other form of advertising, are you spending enough time in other people’s houses?
Smart speakers continue to dominate the audio market, with the number of households worldwide using smart home products forecast to reach more than 400 million by 2025. As voice-activated technology continues to advance, it’s time for advertisers to wake up to the fact that their biggest audio opportunity has access to a captive audience at all times of the day.
Interact with your audience
With digital audio now the fastest-growing form of advertising, advertisers need to take a look at how they can use it to reach their audiences most effectively. Dynamic audio, for example, is a technique that allows brands to tap into contextual data points such as time of day, the weather or the listener’s location. For instance, brands could use the upcoming summer holidays to promote fun activities for children. And by using context, advertisers can develop engagement further, increasing metrics such as brand awareness to unlock higher conversion rates.
A huge catalyst fueling the popularity of digital audio is smart speakers, with over 50% of UK households owning a smart speaker device. These devices can be used to deliver dynamic audio ads to consumers in the personal setting of their own homes, and, now, listeners can even interact with them. During an ad, people can ask their smart speaker questions or make a purchase straight from the advert. Simultaneously, advertisers can use various calls to action to encourage listeners to purchase, interact or to find out more information about a product or service. For example, an advertiser could tap into a data point such as the listener’s personal preferences: if a listener has been asking Alexa for recipes, a brand could advertise kitchen equipment, a new cooking TV show or a food product; or if someone has been searching cars, a brand could encourage listeners to book a test drive and try out the latest model.
A win-win for advertisers and consumers
The quick and seamless nature of these ads is simultaneously strengthening and shortening the purchase process, benefiting both advertisers and consumers. For example, the NSPCC created an interactive audio ad to combat a drop in charitable donations during the pandemic. Listeners were drawn in by the familiar voice-over of actor Martin Freeman, as well as the content, which explained that not all children are living in a safe environment. The advert played on the fact that listeners were in the comfort of their own, safe homes, triggering an emotive reaction, which made listeners more likely to donate to the charity. This is a great demonstration of how smart speakers can become an invaluable tool when combined with interactive and dynamic advertising.
Dynamic audio can also be used to create a series or sequence of ads so a consumer doesn’t hear the same messaging twice. This allows a brand to tell a story in a way that reduces ad fatigue. Rotating lines depending on the number of ad exposures can be a powerful tool when transmitting ads through smart speakers, as listeners stay engaged and able to follow a story. A retailer like Tesco could use this technique to rotate through various products to highlight different consumer food stories. During a hot weather period, a retailer could promote ice creams for kids in the park, or the best BBQ deals for an upcoming party.
Enhance ads with creativity
With audio advertising increasingly becoming more interactive, advertisers have an opportunity to draw consumers in with an experience inside an ad. Talisker Whisky developed a whisky-tasting experience that purchasers could access from the comfort of their own homes after buying the product. This innovative ad experience is another demonstration of how brands can utilise the opportunity that smart speakers provide to really connect with their audiences, creating a lasting impression.
Additionally, in its new ad to promote Berocca Boost tablets, Berocca used data points such as the weather, to tap into their audiences whilst allowing them to order directly from Amazon during the ad. On an overcast or rainy day, for example, the script of the advert talked about having low energy on a grey day. The frictionless action resulted in 24% of listeners buying the product, with 42% asking for more information. Overall the ad resulted in an incredible 1.5% e-commerce conversion.
Ultimately, smart speakers are everywhere, and are becoming increasingly relied upon in homes globally. As the population gets more and more familiar interacting with smart speakers, brands need to get involved to offer seamless and dynamic experiences to their target audiences. Through ad rotation and dynamic advertising, brands can use smart devices to drive better consumer experiences and more conversions, and improve brand metrics.
