Do You Want Your Podcast Ads Talking Back To You?

 Interactive ads have been the Holy Grail for TV networks for several decades, with periodic and hollow promises about how the technology is right around the corner on your SMART TV. 

Somehow, TV interactive ads have become the rocket packs and flying cars of advertising technology -- so close in our imagination but so far in implementation.

Recently, writer Alyssa Myers wrote in Marketing Brew about how
audio ads are getting more interactive, asking listeners not only to pay attention during ad breaks from their music or podcasts, but also to engage with ads by clicking their screens—or even talking back.

Pandora, she cites, tested interactive audio ads for brands such as Doritos and Wendy’s in 2019. The next year, Pandora expanded the format into wider public testing after internal data showed almost three-quarters of about 500 listeners reported that “voice ads were easy to engage with.” These ads are currently in open beta, the company told Marketing Brew.

Now, Spotify has announced an interactive audio ad format as well: call-to-action cards that appear on the app when a podcast ad starts playing and reoccur while the user has the app open, prompting listeners to click through to the website of the brand they’re hearing about (as opposed to having to remember a promo code or vanity URL). The company started testing interactive podcast ads a few years earlier, and in 2020, it debuted a feature that enabled sponsors to embed links to their sites on a podcast’s episode page.

"As advertisers funnel more dollars into podcasting and other audio platforms, the demand for more innovative formats has increased," Myers says.

Chris Record, SVP of ad product, technology, and operations at SXM Media—which includes SiriusXM, Pandora, and Stitcher—told Marketing Brew interactive audio ads drive results and engagement. “With voice, you get a real-time signal around whether the creative is resonating.”

Tell an ad you love it…or hate it -- that's what Myers reports is the value proposition offered by Instreamatic, a voice-advertising company that uses AI to facilitate conversations between listeners and audio ads. The company works primarily with music streaming apps such as Pandora, to which it licensed its tech.

For example, luxury car brand Infiniti ran a campaign with Instreamatic a few years ago asking listeners if they were interested in a test drive. Those who said no heard an immediate reply, then another ad a week later, asking if they’d like to visit Infiniti’s website instead.

The ads can also respond to silence. Ikea was the first brand to leverage this option with Instreamatic, Tushinskiy said. While promoting its mattresses, it injected levity into a campaign by creating a response along the lines of, “Bet you’re already sleeping on one of our mattresses,” for those who didn’t engage with its ad.

Smart speakers offer another opportunity for voice interactivity in advertising.

Smart-speaker makers, including Amazon and Google, don’t typically run ads directly on their devices, but brands have another workaround in the form of voice apps, known as Skills on Alexa.

Say It Now, a London–based company that creates what CEO and co-founder Charlie Cadbury calls “actionable audio ads” targeted toward smart speaker listeners for brands including Diageo and Unilever, is betting that interactivity will help provide insights advertisers need to increase their spending on audio.

Interacting with an audio ad is the equivalent of clicking one online, according to Cadbury, essentially offering real-time information about not only what creative is most effective, but also when it’s most effective. If audiences are engaging most on a Thursday, for instance, a brand might want to increase its media spend that day.

“The way that the industry works right now is that you run a campaign for weeks, then get post-campaign analysis,” Cadbury said. “Then, you optimize your campaign and you run it again, so it’s a slow and relatively analog process.”

That doesn’t cut it for many marketers, who often expect campaign insights within days, even hours. As a result, companies seem to be seeking innovation around interactivity to bring measurement options more in line with other digital mediums.

 

Like any advertising innovation where technology can threaten privacy, podcast listeners can balance the convenience aspects of audio interactive ads and the privacy intrusions. 

After all, do I really want Spotify to know that my favorite movie is Dumb And Dumber when I tell people it's Richard III with Ian McKellen?