IAB’s Advertising Audio State of the Nation Report Wave 5 released at IAB’s Audio Summit, shows digital audio and podcast advertising continues to rise in Australia.
69% of media agencies now reporting streaming digital audio advertising is a significant or regular part of their activity and 36% report that podcast advertising is a significant or regular part of their activity, while 62% of media agencies have used ads within streaming services this year (up from 51% on last year) while 63% have used ads within live radio streams (up from 48% last year) and usage of most podcast formats has increased amongst media agencies on last year, for example 65% are using recorded radio spots (up from 50% last year) and 53% using brand ads (up from 38% last year).
The report also found the streaming audio sector has benefited from increasingly making its inventory available through programmatic channels, with agencies embracing programmatic during 2020 to secure greater control over their investments.
Greater diversification across environments and genres, as well as better use of creative assets were also found to be supported the rise of streaming audio and podcast advertising. However, the Report noted that campaign integration maybe be hampered by audio advertising continuing to be planned and bought in siloed teams, with only 56% of agencies planning and buying digital audio collaboratively with digital display activity; and 53% planning and buying in combination with digital video activity.
59% of media agencies intend to buy programmatically over the next 12 months with 69% intending to buy traditional radio spots. Cross platform and bundles along with open exchanges, guaranteed and private marketplace deals all increased on last year.
CEO of IAB Australia, Gai Le Roy, says, “When we started the Audio State of the Nation Research five years ago, digital streaming and podcasting advertising didn’t sit in either traditional or digital budgets. Today, we are seeing an increase in the amount of agencies planning and/or buying their broadcast radio and streaming audio in an integrated manner, however with the increase in programmatic investment across all channels, there is still room for audio investment to be baked into cross digital programmatic campaigns.”
For the first time, the Wave 5 Report also reveals the top seven genres identified by agencies for podcast investment, and it’s good news for local content creators with News taking the top spot, closely followed by Society & Culture and then Business.
Building brand awareness continues to be the predominant objective for media agencies using streaming digital audio and podcast advertising (82% and 73% respectively). However, the Report identified a disconnect between campaign objectives and the metrics used to evaluate it, with just 34% of media agencies using brand metrics to assess the performance of brand awareness streaming digital audio and podcast advertising.
The Report found one third of media agencies are still not tailoring creative to suit different audio environments when running campaigns across different broadcast and digital audio advertising options. Encouragingly, agencies reported fewer barriers to creating fresh creative assets including digital voice to allow brand messages shine through, expressing a belief that while 2020 was not a year for experimentation, there are signs of a shift in interest towards these assets for 2021.
The Audio Advertising State of the Nation Report is a collaborative industry project, supported by 18 different media and tech companies, as well as industry body Commercial Radio Australia.
Fieldwork was conducted by independent research company Hoop Group across December 2020 and January 2021 with 222 respondents.
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