RAIN Summit: “Audio is at the forefront of digital change”

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That quote came from Neal Schore, CEO of Triton Digital, at RAIN Summit Europe in London yesterday. The event was held at The Royal Institution, where about 250 industry professionals gathered for a full day of special presentations by 30 experts in online audio.

“Audio is at the forefront of digital change.” –Neal Schore, CEO, Triton Digital.

A special focus on audio advertising helped shape the agenda, which also covered new research, podcasting, the digital transformation of radio, the challenges and opportunities of mobile listening, and keynotes from Rhys Hughes, Ben Chapman, and Kurt Hanson.

Within the scope of audio advertising, programmatic received a fair share of attention, and mixed reviews in a roundtable of agency buyers. Noting the programmatic mantra of reaching the right person in thee right place with the right marketing message, Jen Smith of Maxus asked, “Isn’t that what we’ve been doing?” she lamented a lack of creativity in programmatic transactions, and counseled the industry generally to “lift our heads out of it.”

All the same, there was a consensus that programmatic has a place, particularly articulated by Nick Emmel of creative agency Mr President. He also asserted that music can add 15% effectiveness to a spot ad, and said it was a “huge miss” that audio is often the final element in the creative process, an afterthought rather than a forethought.

In a panel called Transforming Supply and Demand, Simon Gooch of Bauer Media took a high-altitude view. He noted that the programmatic journey for audio is taking a long time, and that he looks at video (which is farther along the programmatic adoption path) with envy. “Programmatic puts audio on the digital buying map,” he said.

Watch this space for more content from RAIN Summit Europe, including audio recordings of all sessions.

 

Brad Hill