Radio is now at the heart of the digital discussion

The radio industry is buoyant in the UK – 90% of all adults listen to their favourite radio stations each week. That equates to over one billion listening hours, making it clear that radio is rewarded with an unfair share of the lives of listeners, connecting with them at important points in their day.

The industry has evolved dramatically over recent years and there are now many ways to consume radio; analogue, DAB digital radio, digital TV and ‘connected’ online listening. It’s important that it is recognised that digital underpins radio’s growth – it is not a threat.

Consumer behaviour is also changing and people are consuming more audio via their mobile devices. In addition, advertisers are seeking to use data to better target audiences and there is demand from clients for transparency around the results and effectiveness of campaigns. This means that digital audio is now a huge opportunity for our business.

Instream+ and [Global radio’s] DAX means radio can be at the heart of the digital discussion – offering personalised and highly relevant creative opportunities to brands.

Trust plays an important role in radio’s fast-paced move to digital, but innovation and discovery, as well as personalisation, are key for the online audience. The content aids the discovery and the technology enables the personalisation.

This loyalty and trust powers our digital audio advertising solution InStream+. The first party data that we have with Instream+ means advertisers can target consumers listening via any connected online device and serve them relevant and engaging creative formats.

Consumers ‘log in and listen’ to enjoy the one-to-many ‘shared’ experience of radio combined with a premium one-to-one targeted storytelling opportunity for brands.

Instream+ began with a trial with the Absolute Radio audience who trusted the brand they loved so much that they were prepared to give personal info about themselves such as name, gender, age and location in exchange for more of what they love; highly valued content and fewer, more personalised ads. This led to over 50% of the connected online listeners logging in to listen.

Our strategy has continued to work and already we have 30% of our online listeners logging in and listening across those new brands.

Brands have recognised the popularity and creativity of audio and the changes in consumer behaviour which now see personal devices central to our lives enable brands to reach a highly engaged and very targeted valuable audience in a creative environment.

Audio’s impressive advertising effectiveness has been proved with campaigns such as Wickes and Three Mobile, working very well as part of a multi-platform campaign alongside other channels and platforms.

Instream+ offers proprietary data which helps us understand more about our audiences and how they move seamlessly between our brands. Recent InStream+ campaigns have enabled clients to deliver targeted audio that has driven their business KPIs and led to repeat bookings.

For example, Random House launched Russell Brand’s Revolution book through Instream+ with excerpts of an interview with Absolute Radio’s Geoff Lloyd served exclusively to logged in listeners.

In the automotive market, Jaguar UK used the platform’s geo-targeting to target specific demographics to book test drives at local dealerships.

Digital audio provides a route to connect with hard to reach audiences. There is huge opportunity within mobile in particular with 35 million smartphone users in the UK.

Looking more closely at that number, that includes a massive 85% of the hard-to-reach 18-24 years’ audience. 41% of online audio consumption is via a smartphone, but amongst that audience group listening to our KISS brand, that rises to 56%.

The technology offers more opportunities than challenges, as it enables us to capture first party data; this makes the audience highly targetable and critical in the current media landscape it cannot be ad-blocked and is not subjected to ad fraud.

As is the case across the advertising industry, we need to ensure that we can prove the effectiveness of digital audio and how it can be used as part of the media mix, but we are working closely with clients on this.

It’s also key that we work with clients to create the most engaging and effective creative for the platform and genuinely serving the listener with value adding advertising and branded content.

We are confident that the number of logged in listeners across our portfolio will grow. This confidence comes from the strength of our content proposition, as well as current consumer demand. We predict we will see audience engagement grow, along with advertising demand for the platform.

We currently have 50% of our listeners logged in and listening to Absolute Radio and 30% across our other brands, including KISS, Kerrang! and Planet Rock.

Increasing this will add scale to the data and add value to both the listener and the advertiser, as we gather even more available first party data to help understand our audiences and therefore develop more targeted opportunities.

The market is going into two distinct areas; programmatic and creative and radio will continue to play in both.

Audio is a very creative medium, with huge opportunities for branded content. We see this when the editorial instinct of our content creators come together with the audience insight and data – which is where InStream+ comes in.

This allows brands such as Absolute Radio to lead the way for audio branded content, its five year long campaign with Wickes is a perfect example of this, with Wickes also signing up to InStream+.

It’s certainly a rapidly growing market – the digital audio audience is expanding, and with even more data available by the day and therefore more creative opportunities for brands, we expect audio revenues to increase.

What listening devices will users be able to login with? Mobile and app obviously, but what happens to IP radio that has no login interface?

You can log in via any IP connected device – laptops, tablets, smart-phones, smart TVs and even some gaming devices like Xbox Live.

Log in listening not only enables us to deliver a more targeted experience for advertisers and listeners, but really enhances our understanding of the behaviour of our broader audience, as well as enabling product development.

There are a variety of ways that you can buy our targeted listening, including combinations with airtime and creative campaigns. The key thing for us is ensuring we are working closely with our clients to deliver on their objectives and Instream+ can often play a key role in this.

The benefits to listeners from InStream+ are clear, with more music and less ads. This means that InStream+ ad breaks can be shorter than normal airtime ad breaks. It also means that the ads can be more effective; a more targeted ad is more valuable and useful to the listener.

The logged in listener will also get more of the highly valued editorial content that we know they want, deepening the connection between brand and consumer.