Let me start by saying something extremely controversial for someone living in Los Angeles: I miss my commute. Do I love being stuck in traffic for an hour each morning and night? No. Getting honked at for not going 15 mph over the speed limit? Absolutely not. But that doesn’t change the simple truth that commuting provides me time free from the expectation of multitasking.
It’s the perfect slot to get caught up on local news via radio, listen to an album release on Spotify or check out a new podcast episode. Globally, people aren’t commuting as much right now, and therefore the assumption is that they aren’t consuming as much audio. But the truth is much more interesting: Audio listening hasn’t declined, it’s evolved. I’ll explain.
An audio consumption shift, not decline
Now that I’m spending more (see: all) my time at home, I find my audio consumption hasn’t actually decreased at all, it’s just shifted. Instead of listening to traditional AM/FM radio in the car, now I listen digitally as I play with my dog, go for walks, make dinner, clean the house and garden.
And I’m not alone - according to Comscore, U.S. households increased their average daily audio streaming consumption by almost a full hour between Jan and June 2020. In total, nearly 1.5 billion global consumers are projected to listen to digital audio formats like podcasts and streaming music at least once a month in 2021.
You can also see eMarketer’s projection for time spent with digital audio below. While they expect time with audio to decrease, the change year-over-year from 2021–2022 is actually quite small, averaging only 3 seconds.
How is Innovid adapting? Our new audio ad server feature
We are excited to announce that Innovid has expanded our omni-channel advertising and analytics offering to include the delivery and measurement of digital audio. This expansion allows marketers to connect with their audiences across the entire advertising ecosystem through a single integrated platform.
“The world's largest advertisers are actively seeking streamlined, independent solutions to consolidate their advertising technology to reach audiences efficiently and at scale,” said Zvika Netter, CEO and co-founder of Innovid. “As a truly independent, trusted platform, Innovid is continuously innovating, expanding our omni-channel offerings to enable brands to personalize, deliver and measure ads across the entire advertising ecosystem. Audio is the latest addition to our growing omni-channel capabilities.”
Final thoughts on the new audio ad server
wAs the programmatic buying of digital audio increases — eMarketer projects 1 in 5 of all audio ads to be transacted programmatically by 2022 — Innovid enables brands to lean in even more confidently, knowing they have a trusted, media-independent source of truth within Innovid’s reporting of this fast-growing channel.
