Mobile Ready Radio Ads
Dial Global this week announced a partnership with SoundHound that will offer advertisers more interactivity with broadcast radio listeners. SoundHound is a music app that listeners can download to their mobile devices and use to identify songs. Now, advertisers can offer listeners access to exclusive offers and branded audio, video, and Web content delivered on their mobile device through SoundHound.
With this new technology, advertisers will have the ability to provide additional information to consumers via a “second screen” portable device – enhancing the interactivity of their radio campaigns. Reportedly, the consumer does not have to interact with a commercial immediately in order to tap into the “second screen” offering because the information will remain available for a period of time.
As lifestyle shifts toward mobile continue, technology that enables radio campaigns to benefit are essential. eMarketer forecasts the number of mobile shoppers in the US will increase by 24% in 2013 to 118 million consumers and represent 62% of digital shoppers. Over the next four years, the overlap between mobile and digital shoppers will steadily increase as the number of mobile shoppers grows to 174 million in 2016, 80% of all online shoppers.
Mobile interactivity both increases the impact of a campaign as well as the ability to quantify effectiveness. “Until now, radio has struggled to keep pace with the kind of measurable engagement offered by newer digital marketing platforms. Together with SoundHound, we have created a marketing solution that delivers trackable engagement between listeners and brands.” said Ken Williams, President of Dial Global.
Streaming Music On Smartphones Is Popular
Smartphone users like to use the devices to listen to music, and that’s a trend that is on the upswing, according to new information from NPD Group. 56% of smartphone users listen to music on their devices, with 39% of them doing that daily. Of those, they mostly listen to Internet radio (65%), but also stream on demand services like Spotify or Rhapsody (30%) and listen to their own music (it’s not clear whether it’s on the device or streamed from a cloud service) as well.
Music listening on mobile devices extends to tablets as well, with 40% of tablet users listening to music on those devices.
Ovi Music – on the go (Photo credit: Nokia RSA)
The Audio Consumption study done by NPD Group also observes that hardware of products that enhance wireless local playback of streaming services on mobile devices, like wireless speakers and headphones, are growing as a result of this trend. “With both local music storage and the ability to connect to any number of online music services, tablets and smartphones are actually contributing to a net increase in their owner’s use of internet radio and personal music collections,” said Ben Arnold, director of industry analysis at NPD. “As a result, we are seeing sales growth in products that compliment playback on mobile devices, particularly those that feature wireless local streaming.” Wireless streaming speaker sales more than tripled in 2012, and wireless headphones grew by 34 percent.
NPD Group’s Russ Crupnick is a featured speaker at the upcoming RAIN Summit West on Sunday April 7th at the Las Vegas Hotel. For more information and to register, click here.
Streaming Music On Smartphones Is Popular
Smartphone users like to use the devices to listen to music, and that’s a trend that is on the upswing, according to new information from NPD Group. 56% of smartphone users listen to music on their devices, with 39% of them doing that daily. Of those, they mostly listen to Internet radio (65%), but also stream on demand services like Spotify or Rhapsody (30%) and listen to their own music (it’s not clear whether it’s on the device or streamed from a cloud service) as well.
Music listening on mobile devices extends to tablets as well, with 40% of tablet users listening to music on those devices.
Ovi Music – on the go (Photo credit: Nokia RSA)
The Audio Consumption study done by NPD Group also observes that hardware of products that enhance wireless local playback of streaming services on mobile devices, like wireless speakers and headphones, are growing as a result of this trend. “With both local music storage and the ability to connect to any number of online music services, tablets and smartphones are actually contributing to a net increase in their owner’s use of internet radio and personal music collections,” said Ben Arnold, director of industry analysis at NPD. “As a result, we are seeing sales growth in products that compliment playback on mobile devices, particularly those that feature wireless local streaming.” Wireless streaming speaker sales more than tripled in 2012, and wireless headphones grew by 34 percent.
NPD Group’s Russ Crupnick is a featured speaker at the upcoming RAIN Summit West on Sunday April 7th at the Las Vegas Hotel. For more information and to register, click here.
Ford Puts Focus On Voice Activated Apps and Names JacAPPs as its Partner
It’s CES week, something that you probably aren’t aware of only if you live in a cave, because digital and devices news coming out of Vegas is fast and furious. There are always interesting announcements about the streaming audio space from CES. The first one to grab my attention came from a press release from JacAPPS, a radio focused app builder that will be the recommended mobile app development house for their new Ford Developer Program.
This is a big deal. Ford announced yesterday that they will “launch an open developer program that enables software developers to directly interface with the vehicle and create apps that will enhance the driving experience.” They become the first car manufacturer to offer an open api platform and invite anyone to create apps for it.
In particular, Ford is putting the focus on voice activated apps. “Offering voice control so drivers can keep their hands on the wheel and eyes on the road has proven to be popular with our customers. Now, with an even faster adoption rate of smartphones, there is a need for a renewed focus on voice control for the unique capabilities of these devices, especially for the use of apps.” said Hau Thai-Tang, vice president of Engineering, Ford Global Product Development.
Developers who have a great idea for an app but need some help building it can turn to jacAPPS who will be the recommended mobile app development house for the Ford Developer Program. The company has been chosen to provide development and technical support to third-party developers wanting to create voice-activated smartphone apps for Ford SYNC AppLink.
jacAPPS will provide support for all developers interested in integrating their apps with the SYNC© AppLink™ system for voice commands and other functionality. “We have been training and testing apps on the system for several months and we’re available to help the radio industry and all mobile app developers become major players on the connected car dashboard,” says president Fred Jacobs, while at the same time announcing that Greater Media stations will be the first fully integrated in the new platform.
Related articles
- Ford Launches App Developer Program Marking New Course for Customer-Driven Innovation and Value Creation (sys-con.com)
- jacAPPS Chosen To Support Ford Developer Program; Debuts Mobile Apps For Greater Media Stations (allaccess.com)
- Ford introduces 9 new apps for the car at CES 2013 – @CNET (ces.cnet.com)
Getting Hip to Hispanics
Internet radio stations that neglect to offer programming for hispanics are missing out, since of the leading demographics in terms of mobile usage, smartphone penetration and web radio listening. One in four Hispanics reported listening to Internet radio in the last 7 days, compared to about 18% for the general population (in a US based study by The Media Audit).
One streaming service that has been catering to that market for a long time is Batanga, which launched in 1999. I spoke with the guys who started it a few times about joining the Net Radio Sales network, but they always assured me that they were doing just fine on their own. In 2005 they merged with a 
company called Planeta out of Miami Florida. They recently announced upgrades to their platform that enhance interactivity - allowing users to build digital radio stations by adding the songs and artists they love, offering similar sounding songs, and excluding the music that they don’t want to hear. Other new features include lyrics and more songs.
Meanwhile Pandora has been paying close attention to the Hispanic portion of their audience, which accounts for 20% of their overall audience, according to AdWeek. Reporting on a discussion hosted during Advertising week recently, AdWeek quotes Pandora sales vp Priscilla Valls, who said that 80% of Pandora’s Hispanic users are on mobile devices. Pandora plays 7,000 latino artists in its offerings. While Pandora does not ask for race or ethnic background in its listener profile, but does conduct a yearly survey among listeners for supplemental information for advertisers. This info enables them to target Hispanics on behalf of advertisers.
“We have a variety of marketers who advertise to that audience in Spanish, Spanglish and in English,” Priscilla Valls, a vp of ad sales for Pandora…. ”What we are finding is that brands are using their general budgets to also reach a Hispanic audience.”
With 20% of their audience speaking Spanish, Pandora is hip to hispanics…
Pandora Leads In Mobile Ad Share
Ad supported models will be the key driver for mobile music, according to research released recently by eMarketer. In fact, by 2016, ad supported revenues will make up 86% of that marketplace. In fact, that figure is already at 69%, with the remaining revenue share coming from subscriptions or download fees.
In fact, Pandora leads the way in mobile display ad revenue share, eMarketer predicts that their share of the mobile display marketplace will be 20.5% in 2012, besting the likes of Google, Twitter and Facebook. 
Mobile ad revenues remain a small portion of the advertising pie with a 1% share overall, but eMarketer predicts that marketplace will grow 102% over the next year. As companies like Twitter and Facebook shift their attention to better monetization of mobile impressions that number will continue to grow.
Pandora’s role as the lead driver in development of the mobile display ad and mobile music marketplace is good news for the industry overall. As they say, “all boats rise” and as Pandora raises awareness and brings ad investment into the mobile music space they will be creating opportunities for other streaming mobile music services to share in that revenue…
Dashboard Developments For Streaming Innovators
Both Livio and TuneIn are announcing deals related to connected dashboards this week. For the first time, TuneIn announces a dashboard deal that
makes the service available without using a smartphone to connect. TuneIn is providing more than 70,000 stations from the popular service directly to Tesla Model S, the world’s first premium electric sedan.
Livio meanwhile sent over an interesting notice that they are working with a group called Genivi, a non-profit industry alliance committed to driving the broad adoption of an In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) open-source development platform. Automobile manufacturers and their suppliers are beginning to use the GENIVI platform as a common framework for their products and services. Their aim, they say, is to accelerate in-dash innovation by creating standards that everyone can conform to.
“Joining GENIVI was an easy decision. GENIVI’s goals are complementary to our current strategy for connecting apps to cars and what we believe is the right way for the industry to move forward,” said Livio founder and CEO Jake Sigal.
It’s Not Audio, It’s Not Radio, It’s Mobile
Tablet and smartphone usage is on the rise, and some good news is that ad response rates are strong on those devices as well. A new survey out from the Interactive Advertising Bureau, “Mobile’s Role in the Consumer’s Media Day,” is an in-depth research report that reveals how receptiveness to advertising and media consumption varies by device, time of day, and location.
It turns out that folks like to use their tablet to listen to music while reading the paper – 74% of tablet users said they listen to music while reading printed material. Given the large portion of audio streaming that is taking place on mobile devices, understanding how and when consumers react to mobile ads is critical. According to the report:
- There is a strong degree of ad interaction among tablet users, with nearly half (47%) saying that they engage with ads on that device more than once a week
- One in four (25%) smartphone users also said that they interact with ads at that same frequency
- Once these mobile device users engage with an ad, they are extremely likely to take action (80% smartphone users, 89% tablet users)
Ad interaction is higher on tablets than on smartphones – 77% of users interact with ads whilst using a tablet compared to only 53% on smartphones.
Audio content is big and getting bigger on mobile devices. This new study from IAB is dense with information that should help audio content platforms understand best ways to monetize that content.
Mobile Listening Just Keeps On Growing
The mobile market is expanding fast – new comScore data reported last week that 234 million use mobile phones in the US (13+), and 110 million of those use smartphones. Samsung sells the most devices and Android has the lions share of smartphone operating systems. Apple meanwhile, continues to grow market share as well.
Listening to music on a mobile device continues to increase in popularity among mobile subscribers. 27% of them said they listened during the 3 month survey period and that’s up 2.2% from 3 months earlier. In fact, listening to music is an increasingly popular activity among mobile subscribers, it grew faster than playing games, accessing a browser or social networking site, or texting, the latter of which grew not at all.
This is all in keeping with other reports of increasing mobile listening and emphasizes the importance of offering listeners appealing mobile options.
Spotify Offers Free Mobile Streaming
Spotify has moved to offer its mobile streaming options, previously locked down under a monthly subscription, free to listeners. In an obvious response to the exponential growth that Pandora has experienced in mobile listening, Spotify will now feature “free mobile radio – Spotify style”.
The offerings feature the ability to create a station from a song, artist or genre and unlimited listening. Calling it the only free radio that you can save, Spotify mobile offers interactive options to like or dislike a song to influence your station or save the song to a playlist. Until now, it cost ten bucks to get all that on your mobile devices.
It sounds like a good offering, one I’ll bet Spotify wishes they had jumped on a little earlier. Pandora, with 150 million registered users and direct connections on lots of dashboards and tuner devices, has had a handy headstart. This move by Spotify is recognition of the impact that a popular free app in the iPhone and iPad app stores can make.
Free users in the US will hear advertisements from the following launch partners: Chevrolet, Durex, Heineken, Red Stag by Jim Beam, Lipton Iced Tea, Macy’s, McDonalds, Progressive, Red Bull, Taco Bell, Verizon Wireless, and Warner Bros – all of which are current Spotify advertisers.
As for Pandora, I suspect they knew it was only a matter of time before Spotify moved to pick up a piece of all that mobile listening to Pandora for free. They may even welcome the fact that Spotify will now join in their efforts to monetize mobile streaming ads…
