What is the future of audio advertising?
That’s what I set out to learn from a true expert: Kirsten Wolf, VP Media Director of Starcom Worldwide. While Kirsten doesn’t speak for the entire advertising industry, Starcom is unquestionably at the forefront of the audio advertising space.
What are advertisers and buyers looking for from audio brands? How do advertisers see radio, podcasting, online radio, and more? And where are the trends headed?
Here are some of the central questions Kirsten answered in this interview from hivio 2015 – the audio future festival:
How does Starcom see the audio space today?
What are the differences in how you buy – or would like to buy – different flavors of audio – radio, online radio, podcasting, etc?
How do audio sellers “get it wrong” when they pitch you? How do they get it “right”?
What do you want from sellers in the audio space?
How do you compare the pros and cons of audio to other media?
What does the audio space need in terms of metrics? How do you feel about the existing metrics?
Is it important that all metrics be unified, or simply that they be of good quality?
Is unified measurement important? Or simply comfortable?
I think you’ll be surprised by some of Kirsten’s answers.
“It’s a lot more about collaboration now, not price,” says Kirsten.
“We take a platform agnostic approach – the channel doesn’t lead the conversation. We look at the audio space holistically.”
“Today it’s a lot more about answering a business challenge and creating experiences,” says Kirsten.
The challenges of clients, not the challenges of broadcasters. And experiences, not cost-per-point.
In particular, note her comments on the value of unified measurement. It may be a comfortable notion, but it’s not essential to the buying process, and it may not even be possible.
Watch this video:
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