Online music players eye bigger slice of ad market
Spotify, YouTube, MySpace and a host of radio station brands are among the inaugural members of the IAB’s Audio Council as they each aim to enhance the value of the digital audio ad market.
The IAB Audio Council will explore ways to educate advertisers over the role audio can play in the digital marketing mix such as potential future business models to charge for online ad campaigns.
The new group has yet to meet formally but it’s understood plans for its first year of activity include devising ways to measure the effectiveness of online audio campaigns.
However, more immediately, it will produce a whitepaper to agree what actually constitutes a digital audio campaign, according to Simon Pearce, council member and client insight director at RadioWorks.
“We want to look at different things but the first point of call is to clarify what audio actually is. A lot of advertisers and agencies are still a bit unsure exactly what you’re talking about when you speak to them,” he says.
Also among the initial activities of the new group will be a research study to gauge the scale of the UK’s online audio audience, conducted with Audiencenet, as well as consumer attitudes to ads within the medium.
A recent report by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) showed that music streaming services are not proactive enough in forming partnerships with brands to prove the power of music to connect with consumers and further boost their advertising revenues
The new group ranks as the 16th IAB industry council with its full list of members including: Spotify, YouTube, Myspace, Last.fm, BlinkBox and Mixcloud. Traditional radio broadcasters are also on board, including: Absolute Radio, Bauer and Global Radio.
The remaining companies on the body are: Audio Red Apple Creative, AudienceNet, RadioWorks and Maple Street Studios.
