During the Dubai Lynx in 2018, we shared the story of Audio, the power it has as a new form of content that is scaling globally and regionally.
In 2016, Audio ads attracted $1 billion from the US ad market alone. With the rise of Music Streaming services and an estimated active user base of over 250 million users worldwide, reaching users through Audio is surly a must think about.
What is special about Audio? For starters Audio is memorable, one can recognize the whatsapp tone, the Netflix sonic, the McDonald’s jingle, or listen to a song for the first time and identify the origin of it so easily. One’s favorite music can be recognized from its initial second, take Despacito as an example, Saad Lamjarred’s Lmaallem, or even Queen’s we will rock you, such classics are so memorable. When was the last time you got to listen to a song you have not heard in a long time and just automatically started singing along? Audio is memorable, and hard to forget.
Audio is emotional, without any stimulus or visual aid Audio can change one’s mood, elevate happiness, embrace sadness, bring in fear, change moods from sadness to happiness, or trigger a memory that get you teary. Furthermore, consider the power of audio in movies or film. Imagine your favorite movies without their soundtracks, think of movies like GodFather, Rocky, or even Greece, or STAR WARS!
Audio is everywhere, it is in the car, at home, in the gym, in the plane, when in a park, when running. In the music world, music has shifted from shelf to pocket as music lovers started shifting from owning the music be it in CD/Vinyl/Tape to now on demand through streaming services. The new generation knows little about owning a physical or going through the hassle of organizing music in files and folders and syncing devices, it is all, and thanks to mobile technology and internet connectivity, now available on demand, requires less memory, has higher sound quality, and most importantly personalized through algorithms that surface the songs one loves from a pool of 30,000,00 songs. Hooray AI!
Anghami, founded in 2012, is the Middle East’s leading on demand music streaming platform with over 30 million songs from 1 million artists, 60 million registered users streaming over 10 billion songs every year and spending up to 81 minutes a day with an average of 52 minutes 4 times a week.
The Anghami library covers Arabic, English, and international music from all over the world, curated into thousands of playlists by genre, moods and activities, allowing Anghami to create data based on time of day when a user is playing music, what genre are they playing, and what mood or activity are they in. This has resulted in an opportunity to create an Audio advertising offering that is scalable, native, and combines the uniqueness of video and the targeting quality of display.
They say Audio is the new screen, in global research done by Neuroscience with Pandora, findings show that 47% of the new generation consume content with their earbuds on for over 4 hours a day. Doing Homework, texting, eating, emailing, playing video games, and swiping up and down the social feed. So how can brands benefit from this opportunity to connect with their audience in a highly passionate environment, and communicate with audience at the right time of day, in the right tone, within the appropriate moment or activity.
Various brands have done so since 2017, Audio on Anghami is the fastest growing format today covering over 30% of advertising revenue. As a new medium, various studies have been done to measure memorability, captivity, effectiveness on brand KPIs and acceptance from the marketing community.
Here is a quick rundown, Audio ads are 49% more memorable than broadcast radio ads, 36% more memorable than TV ads and 29% more memorable than mobile video. 59% of correspondents are more likely to remember the slogan of a campaign with 10% higher recall of advertising and brand awareness.
Audio ads have delivered an average of 2X in a controlled group on purchase intent, brand favorability, and brand awareness and up to 6.1x with brands planning audio ad creatives for digital audio.
Digital Audio today is an opportunity, memorable, emotional, captive, connecting, highly targeted and native by nature not by placement. If you enjoyed this read, you can also check out Anghami’s presentation from Dubai Lynx’s main stage in 2018 on the link below and experience the audio examples shared and the Audio ad best practices both from global markets and regional.
