Email marketing: what it is and how to implement it

 

Audio Marketing

Audio marketing has long been viewed as outdated and ineffective. After decades of intensive, one-dimensional use on the radio, display and video ads dominate the market. The comeback of audio marketing in recent years is all the more surprising.

According to official Spotify figures, 83% of 16-34-year-olds stream online content. Platforms like Spotify are not only benefiting from the music streaming and podcast boom, but also from the rapid growth in audio advertising.

By definition, audio marketing is the delivery of content in an auditory format, such as speech, sound, and music. This opens up opportunities to reach customers in an immersive and sustainable way.

Audio Marketing Benefits

• Audio messages are emotional and can be placed directly in the appropriate mood content. As a result, the message reaches users at the optimal time and can have the greatest possible effect.

• Audio messages have a lasting and memorable effect. The result is a higher recall rate.

• Audio marketing appeals to an educated and profitable audience. The mostly young users (often Millennials and Gen Z ) are very valuable as they are often difficult to reach. Also valuable are the podcast listeners, who often earn well as working university graduates and are therefore an attractive target group.

• It offers the opportunity to reach the user in the right mood. In this way, vacation ads can be played out when users are listening to a vacation playlist.

• In general, a 15% higher ad recall can be assumed for audio marketing (cf. Spotify ).

Spotify shines as a beneficiary of the audio trend

One company looking to capitalize on this marketing trend is Spotify. The Spotify brand has already established itself as the most popular global audio streaming service, followed by Apple and Amazon Prime Music. More than 422 million active users, 240 million of them advertising-supported in the free model, represent an attractive advertising market (cf. Statista ).

In particular, the average young age of customers increases the attractiveness of Spotify to advertisers. With a market share of 31%, Spotify is well ahead of its competitor Apple Music with 15%. They are followed by Amazon Music and Tencent Music, each with a 13% market share (cf. online marketing ).

The reasons for Spotify's defining role in audio marketing are multifaceted. On the one hand, this is due to high-quality data acquisition. Millions of users stream music based on their moods and musical taste or listen to podcasts on their favorite topics. As a result, Spotify gains contextually relevant first-party data on customer sentiment, habits, and preferences.

This data applies to the target group analysis. Spotify impresses with an above-average understanding of the target groups through deep insights into the behavior and preferences of the users. For example, campaigns designed around first-party audience segments result in a 530% increase in customer intent to purchase.

With Spotify's advertising platform Ad Studio, a distinction is made between the following audio ad formats:

• Audio Ads: Ads that play before songs, ranging in length from 15 to 30 seconds. They are presented in combination with a display ad.

• Video Ads: The industry-leading viewability of this ad format increases effectiveness. Users who actively use Spotify will see the video ad for 15 to 30 seconds during the music stream.

• Host-read ads: The podcast reader integrates the advertising message into the podcast episode themselves - this means that ads in this format are classified as particularly trustworthy.

• Podcast ads: The advertising message is transmitted by external speakers, adapted to the brand and style. You can create and provide the ads or have them produced by Spotify if you wish.

• Sponsored Sessions: By playing the ad in full before a music streaming session, users have the opportunity to use the app for the following 30 minutes without any commercial breaks.

• Sponsored Playlist: Companies can increase their awareness through a one-week, exclusive sponsorship of the most popular Spotify playlists. This will reach loyal listeners.

Steady improvements from Spotify as a recipe for success

At the same time, Spotify is constantly working to improve Spotify Ad Studio and its performance. Earlier this year, Spotify announced the acquisition of Podsight. The podcast advertising business provides detailed tracking of user interactions.

This makes the data for audio ads even more precise and targeted advertising more effective. The acquisition of Charitable is also a win for advertisers, who can prepare their data in a more structured way with the analytics platform.

In addition, Spotify is making a special effort to expand podcasts. More than every third of Spotify users stream podcasts (see RMS study ). The peculiarity of advertising in podcasts is that listeners usually. Are you 100% you are concentrated and focused? This way the ad will be better absorbed than between songs or in playlists. This increases the attractiveness of the advertising market around the podcast business.

Podcast ads as a special opportunity

Therefore, podcast ads should not be underestimated in the context of audio advertising. Anyone who thinks that these are just annoying interruptions to the listening experience is wrong. 70% of listeners rate the insertion of advertising as appropriate, as long as they can enjoy free podcasts in return (cf. RMS study ). The greatest advertising acceptance comes from all those ads that fit the topic of the respective podcast in terms of content.

But which target group does advertisers actually reach via podcasts? The OMR posters found in their latest study from 2022 that listeners between the ages of 21 and 35 show the greatest interest. More than 50% of all listeners have an academic degree (cf. Podcast.de ).

As a result, companies that choose this ad format can reach an audience that is both young and educated. A distinction must be made between the three user types heavy, medium, and light users.

The smaller group is formed by the heavy users - often young men who are considered urban and mobile. They turn to podcasts as a means of entertainment daily. The medium and light users, on the other hand, have a comparatively slightly higher average age and also live more often in rural areas (cf. RMS study ).

To finally answer the question of when and where podcasts are consumed, one thing can be said: basically everywhere. This can be at home to fall asleep, on the road in the car or train, during sports, or even going for a walk - the only thing that seems important is that the listener can concentrate fully on it at the moment.

The comeback of radio advertising

As part of the digitization of the radio infrastructure, various alliances have formed – similar to what happened before in the print sector. The largest association in Germany is the Radio Marketing Service RMS.

This provider takes advantage of the 53 million radio users (cf. RMS ) in Germany and, as a full-service marketer, books in the digital radio environment via programmatic radio spots at the user level. Through targeted and individual audio ads and the general radio streaming trend, radio advertising is once again an effective advertising opportunity.

RMS makes the following arguments about the advantages of online audio and online radio:

• No ad blocking: Due to the server-side integration into the stream, each spot is usually played out, bypassing systems that are designed for ad blocking.

• No Ad Fraud: The campaigns are neither managed by bots nor played out to them. Every user who hears the ad is stored in the measurement tools of the web radio stations.

• Hearability is the focus: With a listen-through rate of more than 90% (cf. RMS ), audio ads are actually consumed and not just noticed.

• Brand safety: Due to the direct contractual relationship between the publisher and RMS, the ad server ensures that online audio campaigns are only broadcast in the marketer's portfolio.

Smart Speaker Ads - the next trend in audio marketing?

Even if hesitantly, the format of interactive audio advertising continues to find its way into advertising. Smart speaker ads enable companies to specifically address target groups and get in touch with them. People who have a smart speaker like Amazon Alexa or Apple Siri can be actively addressed during the streaming experience.

The principle behind it works as follows:

• 1. Listeners consume audio content via a smart speaker

• 2. The provider (e.g. a radio station or music streaming service) interrupts the stream with a smart speaker ad. This is characterized by an interactive call-to-action (also known as a skill), for example,, a question.

• 3. The listener reacts to the skill and interacts with the display via voice control.

• 4. The interaction process begins with just a few voice commands (often one or two) and the smart speaker reacts to the user's request - this can be, for example, an order or an appointment.

Popular brands such as Bahlsen, Ax,, and Bacardi have already made use of this innovative advertising option, and interested listeners can order product samples in just a few steps via an ad.

Another example of the successful implementation of smart speaker ads is provided by the used car platform "Heydar". There, the car-loving focus group had the opportunity to win a used car by taking part in the “Auto Sound Quiz” (cf. International Voice Technology Institute ).

Another positive sign for advertisers is the perception of intelligent speaker ads compared to other channels. According to this, the US National Public Radio (NPR) was able to state in its Smart Audio Report from 2022 that 48% of users associate a positive advertising effect with interactive ads, while 47% of those surveyed said there was no difference compared to others who perceive advertising measures.

It should be noted that in the context of smart speaker advertising, the majority of users - in contrast to Spotify - are made up of a group that tends to be older. According to this, people between the ages of 45 and 54 most frequently consume audio content via intelligent devices (cf. NPR ).

In conclusion, audio marketing has enormous potential. Relevant first-party data enables effective and individual marketing. In addition, the high-revenue and young target groups increase the attractiveness of audio marketing. Spotify has also realized this for several years and is now one of the big players in audio marketing.

The advertising market will also continue to grow due to the continued growth in streaming, especially podcasts and music. Spotify is ideally positioned for this and will probably become an attractive alternative to the established marketing tools for more and more advertisers in the future.

Programmatic marketers go one step further, establishing the smart speaker as a new advertising channel and thus making audio advertising even more interactive and personal. In addition, other alliances are formed, such as the RSM, which redefines the digital radio environment through new technical possibilities.