Author: Jazmin Brooks

Contextual Alignment, From Matching Brands with Programming Genres to Day Part Rituals, Improves Brand Favorability, Search and Purchase Intent

NEW YORK – April 17, 2023 – Rituals, as routine as running errands and doing chores, are also key audio-consumption moments in people’s lives and create positive environments for advertisers, according to new research conducted by MAGNA’s Media Trials unit and leading multi-platform audio content and entertainment company, Audacy. The study found that advertisers who aligned with listeners’ rituals saw a greater lift in brand excitement (+10%) and brand relevance (+8%).

The study, Aligning with Rituals: The Contextual Foundation of Audio, also noted that consumers experience greater “feelings of connection” with brands that synchronize with their audio rituals, by +12%, compared to +3% for non-aligned ads. MAGNA and Audacy tested both genre-based ads—such as a telecom brand advertising during an entertainment broadcast—and ritual-based ads—such as destination advertising during a “me-time” ritual–to examine the spectrum of contextual-alignment opportunities.

“We’ve studied contextual in video before, but this is our first time to study it in audio, so we wanted to explore how consumers reacted to all types of audio advertising, from contextually aligned to non-aligned, across every daypart and layers of the funnel,” said Kara Manatt, EVP, Managing Director, Intelligence Solutions, MAGNA. “We were especially intrigued to note how daily rituals imply moments of calm and continuity in listeners’ lives and that brands that tap into these touchstones benefit tremendously.”

Contextually aligned ads have the propensity to both excite (+10%) and create relevance (+8%) for brands, especially among those who are in-market. Further, contextual alignment boosts brand metrics that matter most, such as brand favorability (+8%), search intent (+12%), and purchase intent (+9%).

Just what are consumers doing as they stream podcasts and listen to music? A ranking of typical listening rituals featured in a previous Audacy study, Audio Rituals was topped by running general errands (85%) and doing home maintenance (84%). Consumer engagement levels, though, were most heightened during me-time moments (73%), putting my child to bed (70%) and exercising outdoors (68%).

Audacy’s Audio Rituals study also determined that 74% of listeners incorporated audio into their daily rituals and 40% planned their day/activities around audio content.

“Audio advertisers can amplify the effectiveness of their buys through ritual moments,” said Idil Cakim, SVP, Head of Research and Insights, Audacy. “Study participants agreed that the stronger the match between advertisement and content, the better the outcome for KPIs like brand favorability and purchase intent.” Seventy-eight percent of participants agreed that strong content/ad matches mattered in brand favorability and 80% for purchase intent.

Other key findings include:

• Mood Boosters: Participants who felt “energized or excited” by their audio content also were 24% more likely to state the test ads “caught my attention” (+24% lift) and were more likely to be open to the ads at the time of listening (+16% lift). These engaged and excited listeners also were more likely to search for the brand (+10%).

• Contextual Enhancement: Contextually aligning ads amplifies the information shared in audio ads – this is especially true among in-market audiences, who agree that these contextually-aligned ads “taught them something new” (73%).

• Dialed-In Dispatches: Regardless of the type of contextual alignment (ritual or genre-based), each approach has the propensity to drive search intent (+15% and +16%, respectively).

Aligning with Rituals: The Contextual Foundation of Audio ran controlled testing among 1,920 weekly audio listeners who listened to 30-minute content blocks, ranging from podcasts to news, sports and music, interspersed with ads from three brands, covering the retail, telecom and travel industries. The participants answered a range of questions to determine advertising effectiveness and establish their mood and receptivity.

The full study can be found here.

About MAGNA
MAGNA is the leading global media investment and intelligence company. Our trusted insights, proprietary trial offerings, industry-leading negotiation and unparalleled consultative solutions deliver an actionable marketplace advantage for our clients and subscribers.
We are a team of experts driven by results, integrity and inquisitiveness. We operate across five key competencies, supporting clients and cross-functional teams through partnership, education, accountability, connectivity and enablement. For more information, please visit our website: https://magnaglobal.com/ and follow us on LinkedIn.

About Audacy
Audacy, Inc. (NYSE: AUD) is a leading multi-platform audio content and entertainment company with the country’s best collection of local music, news and sports brands, a premium podcast creator, major event producer, and digital innovator. Audacy engages 200 million consumers each month, bringing people together around content that matters to them. Learn more at www.audacyinc.com, Facebook (Audacy Corp), Twitter (@AudacyCorp) and LinkedIn (@Audacy-Inc).

Media Contacts:
Meredith Tiger
Audacy
Senior Director, Corporate Communications and PR
516-551-8511
[email protected]

Elaine Underwood
Mediabrands
Content Director, Global Corp. Communications
201-306-6062
[email protected]

This Largely Untapped Audience Feels Three Times Happier Listening Together and Reports Stronger Advertiser Associations across Favorability, Search and Purchase Intent

NEW YORK – March 30th, 2023 – To uncover what marketers need to know about co-listening (the act of sharing digital audio experiences with one or more people), MAGNA’s Media Trails unit partnered with Spotify Advertising on new research: “The Togetherness Effect: Why Brands Should Be Paying Attention to Co-Listening.”

The Togetherness Effect found co-listening is a natural behavior for most people, with the majority of respondents (74%) saying they co-listen once a week or more often. Of those listeners: 86% are Gen Z, proving co-listening presents a real opportunity for brands looking to connect with hard-to-reach audiences.

The study also found co-listeners reported feeling happier (indexing at 307 above an average range of all emotions), more relaxed (285) and excited (173). Co-listeners also applied positive associations to the advertising they heard, with +12% pts. in search intent, +11% pts. in favorability and +8% pts. in purchase intent.

“Our research finds that advertisers who reach co-listeners are sharing a moment with an audience that is more likely to be feeling good, having fun and dialed into the content, ads included,” said Kara Manatt, EVP, Intelligence Solutions, MAGNA, the investment and intelligence arm of IPG Mediabrands. “Co-listeners represent an untapped segment for advertisers to explore and an opportunity to maximize impact and build closer relationships with key audiences.”

How brands can engage co-listeners: 

• Focus on Storytelling:  Storytelling ads performed better than product-focused ads, with respondents agreeing the test spot “caught my attention” (at 114/100), “was something I was open to” (108/100) and “improved perception of the brand” (107/100).
• Device Matters: The study defined which connected devices are most favored by co-listeners. 79% of people on gaming consoles co-listen. For TV watchers, it’s 73%, smart speaker (62%), in-car speaker (58%), smartphone (52%) and laptop/desktop (50%).
• Pick your Time Wisely: Co-listening has its prime dayparts, too. More people are co listening during lunch, their commute, and at night time, compared to solo listening.
  • • The Top 5 Co-Listening Moments: Respondents shared what else they were doing while co-listening, topped by relaxing, and followed by hanging out with friends and cooking, entertaining kids and doing yoga.
• Mood Matters: 19% of study participants listening to podcast content reported feeling excited, 13% said they were focused and 9% felt curious, surpassing music listeners for each of these mood descriptors. Podcast listeners also reported a 17% increase in search intent and were 10% more willing to learn more about the brand.
  • • Good Vibrations: Study participants shared their feelings, stating co-listening: provided a “special bonding moment,” “puts us in a good mood to have fun” and was a “mood elevator.”

 

“From Wrapped and Blend to sharing an Instagram story with a Spotify song soundtracking the photo, it is clear that listening is a social experience,” said Jon Gibs,  global director and principal data scientist, Spotify Advertising. “Co-listening is the pinnacle of social listening but what does this mean for advertisers? Our data found that brands that looked beyond product-focused advertisements and leaned into creative storytelling in a co-listening environment saw a more powerful response from listeners.  It’s actionable insights like these that help us arm advertisers to create more impactful creative that better reaches their target audiences.”

The Togetherness Effect: Why Brands Should Be Paying Attention to Co-Listening enlisted 1,357 digital audio listeners, divided into co-listener and solo listener profiles, who listened to 30 minutes of digital audio content, via smartphone, speaker or desktop/laptop. Participants heard advertising from two brands, T-Mobile and CVS Minute Clinic, featuring both product-based and story-focused executions, and answered a range of questions concerning their demographics, media-consumption habits and opinions on advertising.

The full study can be found here.

About MAGNA:

MAGNA is the leading global media investment and intelligence company. Our trusted insights, proprietary trials offerings, industry-leading negotiation and unparalleled consultative solutions deliver an actionable marketplace advantage for our clients and subscribers.

We are a team of experts driven by results, integrity and inquisitiveness. We operate across five key competencies, supporting clients and cross-functional teams through partnership, education, accountability, connectivity and enablement. For more information, please visit our website: https://magnaglobal.com/ and follow us on LinkedIn.

About Spotify:

Spotify transformed music listening forever when it launched in 2008. Discover, manage and share over 100 million tracks and 5 million podcasts titles, for free, or upgrade to Spotify Premium to access exclusive features for music including improved sound quality and an on-demand, offline, and ad-free music listening experience. Today, Spotify is the world’s most popular audio streaming subscription service with more than 500 million users, including 205 million subscribers in more than 180 markets.

Media Contact:

Zinnia Gill
Mediabrands
VP, Global Corporate Communications
(646) 965-4271
[email protected]

The Same Ad Yields Twice the Attention on Low-Clutter vs. High-Clutter Pages; Carbon Emissions Improve When Advertisers and Consumers Meet on Ad-Filtered Pages

NEW YORK and COLOGNE, Germany – March 20, 2023 – If two assumptions can be made about advertising, consumers are attempting to filter out intrusive ads, while advertisers are striving to capture their attention. These opposing behaviors actually create a better environment for advertisers and media agencies, with notable improvements in recall and positive brand associations, according to new research by MAGNA’s Media Trials unit and the ad-filtering technology company, eyeo, titled, Reaching & Influencing Ad-Filtering Users.

The reality is that advertisers cannot ignore ad-filtering users. The overwhelming majority of ad-blocking software users – 250 million strong (who are actually ad-filtering users) – consent to see non intrusive online ads that adhere to the Acceptable Ads Standard, defined and approved by the independent Acceptable Ads Committee; they are a vast and highly desirable audience who do not block all ads. The MAGNA study determined that ad-filtering users are more likely to influence purchase decisions, across tech (81% ad-filtering users vs 74% non-filtering users); grocery (78% vs. 75%); financial services (74% vs. 64%) and auto (69% vs 64%). Further, according to AdBlock, desktop downloads have ballooned from 44 million users in 2012 users to 290 million in 2022, while mobile vaulted from 167 million users to 530 million users between 2015 and 2022.

“There is a growing audience of young consumers who advertisers should be paying close attention to – consumers who are opting for an ad filtered-online experience,” said Kara Manatt, EVP, Managing Director, Intelligence Solutions, MAGNA. “Interestingly, they don’t flat out reject ads but rather want to avoid intrusive formats and ad clutter on the web pages they visit. GenZ and Millennial audiences are not only a critical customer base for many industry verticals, but the reduced number of ads on webpages creates a premium environment for any advertiser, with better awareness, favorability, impact and sustainability metrics.”

In addition to exploring who ad-filtering users are and how they influence purchase decisions, the study also defined what role clutter plays in advertising effectiveness.

Among critical audiences, ads are more memorable on low cluttered pages. Ads on a low-clutter page received +82% lift in aided ad recall and +62% lift in unaided ad recall when looking at the percent difference between low clutter and high clutter pages.

Top-funnel metrics were also improved depending on the amount of advertising on the page. Study participants scored +9% in brand trust for an advertiser on a low-clutter page compared to zero change when encountering the same ad in a busier ad environment.

MAGNA and eyeo also examined the carbon impact of an ad-filtered page to that of a cluttered page, using Scope3 data, which indicated the benefits of ad-filtering go well beyond the consumer’s and advertiser’s initial objectives. Average carbon emissions (gCO2e) per webpage ranged significantly between high-cluttered (10) vs. low-cluttered (0.8).
“After a flurry of excitement when iOS 9 dropped in 2015, the media industry has collectively lost interest in ad blocking and ad filtering but consumers and publishers did not,” said Joshua Lowcock, Global Chief Media Officer at UM, the global media agency that is part of IPG Mediabrands. “This study shows that leaning into the ad-filtering audience provides an acceptable way to be respectful of users, recognize quality publishers, and drive better, more sustainable results without the need to be intrusive.”

Other key findings include:

● Future-Customer Base: 53% of Millennials report they use an ad-filtering software compared to 6% of Boomers. While only 19% of Gen Z are using filters, MAGNA Media Trials attributes this to ad-filtering users being the future customer base.
● Non Ad-Blocking Users Agree: People who have not installed ad blockers feel online ads are disruptive, frustrating and/or incessant at 73%, and they want to control the types of ads they see (63%) and number of ads (62%).
● Avert Your Eyes: Those without filters, at 95%, claim they avoid interacting with online ads to one extent or another.
● Less is More for the Environment: Less ad clutter has a big green side effect with lower carbon emissions, according to Scope3 data, as low-clutter webpages represent an 11.5 times reduction in carbon emissions (gCO2e).

Reaching & Influencing Ad-Filtering Users ran controlled testing among 1,289 consumers who saw display ads on high-clutter, with as many as 4 or 5 ads running on the page, and low-clutter webpages with an average of just one spot appearing, on desktops and laptops. Participants viewed advertising from three global brands—Sony, T-Mobile and Twitch—appearing in 12 different advertising environments, from pristine to cluttered.

The full study can be found here.

About MAGNA
MAGNA is the leading global media investment and intelligence company. Our trusted insights, proprietary trials offerings, industry-leading negotiation and unparalleled consultative solutions deliver an actionable marketplace advantage for our clients and subscribers.
We are a team of experts driven by results, integrity and inquisitiveness. We operate across five key competencies, supporting clients and cross-functional teams through partnership, education, accountability, connectivity and enablement. For more information, please visit our website: https://magnaglobal.com/ and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

About eyeo
eyeo is dedicated to empowering a balanced and sustainable online value exchange for users, browsers, advertisers and publishers. By building, monetizing, and distributing ad-filtering technologies, we create solutions that allow all members of the online ecosystem to prosper. Our ad-filtering technology powers some of the largest ad blockers on the market, like Adblock Plus and AdBlock, and is distributed through partnerships to millions of devices. We currently have 250 million global ad-filtering users who consent to Acceptable Ads, an independently derived ad standard that determines whether an ad is acceptable and nonintrusive. To learn more, go to www.eyeo.com

Media Contacts:

Zinnia Gill
Mediabrands
VP, Global Corporate Communications
(646) 965-4271
[email protected]

Kathrin Jennewein
eyeo
PR Manager
[email protected]

Laura Goldberg
LBG Public Relations for eyeo
+1-347-683-1859
[email protected]

Industry-Leading initiative continues to provide opportunities for clients and agencies to engage with diversely-owned media partners

NEW YORK — MAGNA, the investment and intelligence company of IPG Mediabrands, today announced its third annual Equity Upfront™ will be taking place February 7 –9, 2023. The theme of this year’s event is Maximizing for Optimal Outcomes, with a deepened focus on spotlighting opportunities for clients and agencies that support diversely-owned and targeted media partners.

The 2023 Equity Upfront™ will be a hybrid event, with days one and two taking place in-person at New World Stages in New York City, and day 3 being virtual-only. MAGNA is proud to be the first player in the media industry to put action behind the desire to raise visibility for diversely-owned and targeted media businesses. The first of kind, the Equity Upfront™ was born in 2021 to identify gaps in how our industry engages and collaborates with Black-owned and targeted media and has since expanded to include presentations from Asian American Pacific Islander, Hispanic and LGBTQIA+ media companies. Participating partners in this year’s event include Urban One, Cxmmunity, Group Black, Culture Brands, REVOLT, Canela Media and more, with talent including the actress Sherri Shepherd, rapper Ice Cube, basketball player Nancy Lieberman, Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz & Entrepreneur Darlingtina Tucker slated to take the stage.

“The Equity Upfront™ is an initiative we are extremely proud of at MAGNA. Not only does it bring a wealth of opportunity to our clients, it’s also a huge step in the right direction as we seek to address the equity gap across the media landscape,” said Dani Benowitz, U.S. President, MAGNA.

“I am thrilled that MAGNA is supporting this critical mission to create a more equitable media landscape and give diverse media partners direct access to clients and agency leads,” said Cavel Khan, Chief Commerce Officer at Group Black. “I am confident this event will allow us all to be more tactically aligned moving into 2023.”

“At IPG Mediabrands we are focused on instituting practices that drive equity and move the industry forward,” said Eileen Kiernan, Global Chief Executive Officer, IPG Mediabrands. “To accomplish this, we must ensure we are creating spaces that both enable equal access for our media partners and help our clients reach more diverse audiences. We take immense pride in owning this major industry moment each year.”

About MAGNA

MAGNA is the leading global media investment and intelligence company. Our trusted insights, proprietary trials offerings, industry-leading negotiation and unparalleled consultative solutions deliver an actionable marketplace advantage for our clients and subscribers.

We are a team of experts driven by results, integrity and inquisitiveness. We operate across five key competencies, supporting clients and cross-functional teams through partnership, education, accountability, connectivity and enablement. For more information, please visit our website: https://magnaglobal.com/ and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

About IPG MEDIABRANDS

IPG Mediabrands is the media and marketing solutions division of Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG). IPG Mediabrands manages over $47 billion in marketing investment globally on behalf of its clients across its full-service agency networks UM, Initiative and Mediahub and through its award-winning specialty business units Healix, Kinesso, MAGNA, Matterkind, Mediabrands Content Studio, Orion Holdings, Rapport, Reprise, and the IPG Media Lab. IPG Mediabrands clients include many of the world’s most recognizable and iconic brands from a broad portfolio of industry sectors including automotive, personal finance, consumer product goods (CPG), pharma, health and wellness, entertainment, financial services, energy, toys and gaming, direct to consumer and e-commerce, retail, hospitality, food and beverage, fashion and beauty. The company employs more than 18,000 diverse marketing communication professionals in more than 130 countries. Learn more at www.ipgmediabrands.com.

Contacts
Press:
Isabelle Brenton
SVP, Global Corporate Communications
[email protected]

Study delves beyond misaligned content to understanding what and how content areas impact brands

New York, NY – January 23, 2023 – Misaligned content – the idea that advertising your brand against content that is not in line with your brand’s values or ethos can be harmful – has long been a challenge in digital advertising. We know that misaligned content erodes the impact of ads, leading to decreased impact on metrics like purchase intent, for example. But, what about the content in the grey area? This area, also known as “questionable content”, remains largely unexplored within the digital landscape. As a response, MAGNA Media Trials, MAGNA’s industry-leading proprietary research offering, in partnership with Channel Factory, delved into this topic in a research study released today, The Art of Alignment: The Relationship Between Brand Personality and Content Appropriateness. The study explored the nuances in video types, and how they relate to consumers’ perceptions of the brand that is advertising against this content. Notably, the study pointed out that brands are held accountable for the content they appear next to, which was clear in all three markets studied.

The Art of Alignment: The Relationship Between Brand Personality and Content Appropriateness also found that blocking entire categories is not the answer, as perceptions of content differ by consumer. The study explored content that may or may not be aligned with individual brand values as it pertained to brands across a variety of verticals and markets.

The study recruited about 5,800 participants across three markets: Australia, U.S. and U.K. Participants were regular users of a popular social media video app, and they were driven to a controlled mobile version of the app to watch content, with a 15-second pre-roll test or control ad delivered based on randomization. A post-exposure survey was delivered to participants to measure impact on brand KPIs, and also included a POV section to understand content perceptions. The types of content served spanned auto, entertainment, gaming, learning and sports. The research studied brand ads and control ads across the following industry verticals: apparel, beverages, financial services, quick-service, technology and toys.

“Ad environments that fall into grey areas require careful judgment calls be made by brands and their agencies,” said Joshua Lowcock, Global Chief Media Officer at UM. “There isn’t always a one-size fits all solution as misaligned content for one brand could be a smart, under-leveraged opportunity for another. Put differently, what’s right for one brand isn’t always right for another.”

Key findings from the study that may be of interest include:

• Brands have the most to lose with Gen Z Adults and Millennials: Purchase intent decreased by 6% for Gen Z and 8% for Millennials when the brand ran ads against questionable content vs. standard content.
• Brands are held accountable for content they are adjacent to: Across all three markets, consumers agreed a brand was supporting the content their ad was adjacent to (41% U.S., 49% UK and 36% Australia). Consumers have become savvier about the advertising ecosystem as well and shared that they felt an ad being shown before the video had some sort of direct correlation with the brand.
• When content is questionable it prevents the message from sticking and persuasion metrics also take a hit: Consumers from all three markets had stronger message association adjacent to standard content (+12 pts) versus ads adjacent to questionable content (+3 pts). Persuasion metrics like purchase intent and search intent had major decreases (+4 pts and +6 pts, respectively).
• What’s OK for one brand may not be for another: Perceptions of appropriateness vary by brand; while questionable content feels most inappropriate for the toy (26 over index) and financial services (11 over index) brands, it’s less likely to be perceived as misaligned for the beverage (indexed at 86) and quick service brands (indexed at 78).
• In a professional environment, brands should be even more cautious about suitability: When targeting a B2B audience with a B2B ad, questionable content is deemed even less appropriate, with 45% disagreeing with the appropriateness of the content when it comes to B2B financial services brands, and 38% for B2C financial services brands.

“Exploring the grey areas of content in online advertising was an interesting foray into the power of brand perception and how consumers are becoming savvier within the industry landscape,” said Kara Manatt, EVP, Managing Director, Intelligence Solutions, MAGNA. “Brands need to lean into the challenges that the grey area of questionable content provides.”

“Similar to how brands have always made decisions about where to buy print ads or place their billboards, we believe brands buying media placements in online video should have the same rigor, and this study proves out how important alignment is,” said Lauren Douglass, SVP Marketing, Channel Factory. “Especially with younger audiences, consumers are sensitive to what content a brand is running alongside, as they believe the brand is proactively supporting that video. Advertisers who are thoughtful about the content they support will be more successful from a perception and purchase intent perspective.”

The full study can be found here.

This research comes on the heels of another study conducted by MAGNA and Channel Factory in 2021, “The Proximity Effect: Quantifying the Impact of Misaligned Content in the Wild West of Video,” which examined the layers of content suitability and how it can affect brands’ advertising efforts (read more about it here).

About Channel Factory:

Channel Factory is a global technology and data platform that maximizes both performance efficiency and contextual suitability and alignment, turning YouTube’s 5 billion videos and 500 hours per minute of new content into brand-suitable, efficient advertising opportunities. Channel Factory’s mission is to create a suitable video ecosystem that connects creators, brands, and consumers – by enabling advertisers access to the most relevant videos, channels, and creators.

Through their proprietary platform that harnesses the power of the deepest YouTube dataset in the industry, Channel Factory has enabled advanced brand suitability, customized content alignment targeting, and maximum performance for the world’s biggest brands. Channel Factory’s algorithm ensures not only that advertisers run against content that aligns with their brand but also delivers outcomes by optimizing campaigns using active and historical campaign performance data.

Channel Factory has offices across the USA and is present in over 30 countries worldwide including the United Kingdom, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Spain, Ukraine, Australia, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

About MAGNA:

MAGNA is the leading global media investment and intelligence company. Our trusted insights, proprietary trials offerings, industry-leading negotiation and unparalleled consultative solutions deliver an actionable marketplace advantage for our clients and subscribers.

We are a team of experts driven by results, integrity and inquisitiveness. We operate across five key competencies, supporting clients and cross-functional teams through partnership, education, accountability, connectivity and enablement. For more information, please visit our website: https://magnaglobal.com/ and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

 

 

Media Contact:

Zinnia Gill

Mediabrands

VP, Global Corporate Communications

(646) 965-4271

[email protected]