800.275.2840 MORE NEWS» insideradio.com THE MOST TRUSTED NEWS IN RADIO THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2015 Marketers See Podcasts As Next Big Ad Thing. With podcasting a mainstream media habit for a growing number of Americans, advertisers are, of course, eager to follow the audience. A new survey shows growing discussion, consideration and purchase intent among marketers and agencies for the 10-year-old medium. The online survey of 120 marketers and 164 agencies, conducted by Advertiser Perceptions from September 11-17, found that four in ten have discussed podcast advertising, 18% said they would definitely consider advertising in a podcast in the next six months and another 54% indicated they might consider it. Most notably, one in ten said they definitely would advertise in a podcast in the coming six months and another 50% said they might. The results, presented Wednesday during a “State of American Podcasting” webinar from Westwood One, are the latest indicator of a medium coming of age. “These are big numbers for a platform that up until a year ago few had become aware of,” said Westwood One/ Cumulus Media CMO Pierre Bouvard, who moderated the webinar. “This is podcasting’s time to stand in the light of the American advertiser.” The webinar’s panel of podcasters said they see growing advertiser interest. Jenna Weiss-Berman, director of audio at Buzzfeed, said podcast advertising has found a “sweet spot” between the dry tone of public radio sponsorships and in-your-face broadcast radio ads. They are most effective as organic live reads delivered by the host, she said. Podcast Ad Best Practices—Get the most successful ingredients at InsideRadio.com. Survey: For True Podcast Ad Value, More Info Needed. Before podcasting can move up the advertising purchase funnel from consideration to buy, the medium has some hurdles to overcome. Among them are better measurement and proof of ROI, improved ad technology and easier access to the content for listeners, according to a survey of media buyers. Verbatim responses from marketers and agencies surveyed by Advertiser Perceptions in September shed a light on some of the issues. Asked what recommendations and advice they have for the podcast industry, survey participants didn’t hold back. “Third-party metrics and dynamic ad insertion via offline methods. Make sure you have solid measurement and reporting in place,” said one marketer CEO. “Need to be able to quantify the ROI of the investment,” said a marketer VP. And one agency planer suggested the need for “easier access to the content. Not too many hurdles for the listener to get to the relevant content.” Another agency planner said the podcast industry needs more exposure. “Show how it’s a good fit for brands with case studies or added value incentives to test.” As with all advertising, demonstrating ROI was a recurring theme among survey takers. “Track it, measure it and prove the value,” said one agency director. “The industry would jump all over that.” An agency president cited the need for better measurement of “actual listening time rather than just downloads or subscribers.” Advertising effectiveness was top of mind for one marketer manager. “Give information on viewer attention level to these ads,” the manager suggested. “Do they skip; are they annoyed by these ads?” Citing Rising Costs, AMA Looks For Drug Ad Ban. The American Medical Association is calling for a ban on all consumer advertising for prescription drugs and medical devices, saying the rapid growth of ads fuels demand for drugs and treatments and drives up prices. Pharmaceutical advertisers spent $4.5 billion on advertising last year, and spending has increased 30% in the last two years, according to Kantar Media. On broadcast radio, in 2014, advertisers spent $1.2 million for spots for prescription medications, $25.4 million for pharmaceutical companies and $4.3 million in ads for medical appliances [email protected] | 800.275.2840 PG 1 NEWS insideradio.com THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2015 and equipment, according to Kantar. Ads for pharmaceutical companies increased compared to 2013, but commercials for prescription drugs and medical equipment declined in 2014. Television received significantly more ad dollars, with $2.8 billion on prescription drug ads, $171 million on pharmaceutical company ads and $61.5 million on medical equipment. For the first half of 2015, prescription drug advertising is up substantially with broadcast radio booking nearly $2 billion for drug ads from January to June 2015, according to Kantar Media data. For its part, the AMA’s push to end drug ads, “reflects concerns among physicians about the negative impact of commercially driven promotions, and the role that marketing costs play in fueling escalating drug prices,” incoming AMA board chair Dr. Patrice Harris said in a statement. “Direct-to-consumer advertising also inflates demand for new and more expensive drugs, even when these drugs may not be appropriate.” At the same time, prices on generic and brand-name prescription drugs have climbed steadily in recent years, the group says, increasing 4.7% in 2015, according to the Altarum Institute Center for Sustainable Health Spending. Strong Response From Drug Companies—a coalition representing the companies calls the AMA plan a “policy mistake.” Get the full story at InsideRadio.com. SBS Breathes Hugely Successful ‘Aire’ In Q3. In the two years since Spanish Broadcasting System planted its flag in the Hispanic network radio space, the company has posted enviable financial results for the venture. Revenue from its Aire Radio Network shot up 20% during the third quarter as the net added new listeners, advertisers and partners. Aire now reaches 13.1 million weekly listeners on an affiliate group of 100+ stations in 54 markets, including all of the top 10 Hispanic metros and 24 of the top 25. The network now accounts for 9%- 10% of SBS radio revenue. “A couple years down the road it could be a lot higher than 10%,” chief operating officer Albert Rodriguez told investors Wednesday during the company’s quarterly results call. SBS hasn’t released guidance for Q4 although Rodriguez said it is “putting pressure on the sales team to have double-digit growth.” National revenues were another bright spot for SBS, up 40% during the quarter. Overall, the company is upbeat about its core radio business, which grew 2% to $33.476 million during the quarter—up 9% if event revenue and barter sales are subtracted. Event revenue was down during that period, due to fewer events taking place. A strong presence in the nation’s two largest markets helped drive core radio growth. With over 2.3 million average weekly listeners, tropical “Mega 97.9” WSKQ, New York is the nation’s most-listened-to Spanish-language radio station. “La Raza” KLAX-FM (97.9), L.A.’s top-rated regional Mexican station, introduced a new morning show, “Ratón y su Vacilón,” and launched a big marketing campaign earlier this year. Telecom Leads Them All—To see which categories had the most growth in the quarter, go to InsideRadio.com. Digital Revenue Soars 27% At SBS. A focused digital strategy paid off for Spanish Broadcasting system in the third quarter in the form of a 27% increase in digital revenue. The Hispanic broadcaster experienced a staggering 250% increase in monthly unique users for its digital platforms during the quarter, hitting 6.9 million. Chief operating officer Albert Rodriguez attributed the growth to a strategy that implemented “clear workflows” on how the company’s stations and personalities share content across social networks, a domain architecture that puts all of its individual station websites under the LaMusica.com domain, and adopting search engine optimization best practices across its sites. SBS uses live events from 13 of its radio stations to fuel original content for the [email protected] | 800.275.2840 PG 2 NEWS insideradio.com THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2015 La Musica mobile app, which aggregates the online streams of the company’s 20 stations along with digital-only content. The app was downloaded 34,000 times during Q3 to reach 684,000 total app downloads. That helped SBS deliver 6.6 million audio sessions during the quarter, Rodriguez said. The company’s total digital footprint generated some 70 million average impressions per month during the quarter, while the social media following for all of its brands grew to 4.4 million. “We are extremely excited about the ongoing progress of growing our digital revenues, our audience and our capabilities,” Rodriguez said. “Digital remains a key component of our overall growth strategy and we look to grow and build our audience share across all media platforms and further expand our advertising base.” Rampant Pre-Holiday Optimism At Ad Agencies. More than half of the nation’s advertising agencies are seeing increases in client spending over last year’s pre-holiday season boom. Media buying and software firm Strata says that 53% of agencies note an uptick, “offering optimistic signs for the ad economy as the holiday season approaches.” Overall, its outlook for the end of 2015 looks rosy, with 45% of the surveyed agencies projecting higher growth in the second half of 2015 over the first half. Strata finds that client budgets this year are expected to increase at 17% of the agencies, while 57% believe budgets will remain flat. Another positive sign—40% of the ad agencies plan on hiring additional staff in the second half of this year, marking the highest percentage recorded in the Strata Survey in five years. The increasing popularity of programmatic buying was also noted. The survey finds that 40% of agencies are making at least 20% of their buys programmatically, including a range of ad types—mobile (29% of agencies), streaming video (22%) and streaming audio (24%).