At first glance, this article yesterday on DMNews.com suggests the one area of mobile advertising thus far overlooked – audio – represents an untapped opportunity for marketers to reach their customers in ways other than text messaging, mobile applications, social media or mobile web browsing.
An internet radio network has supposedly created an advertising product allowing marketers to target listeners with audio commercials in line with station content, according to geography, demographics and device. Radio advertising tends to be a mass market medium, so this appears to offer marketers the chance to target different audio messages to various listener segments.
Keep in mind, however, that the opportunity for marketers is limited to whatever content the network provides. The use of mobile devices for audio in general is on the decline and audio messages lack the direct response element of a text message that incorporates a live link to a mobile website or application.
Radio stations have the opportunity to offer a platform for one to one marketing on a completely different scale via text messaging, as outlined in this recent Interactive Mediums paper titled, “Transforming Listeners into Dollars.” Radio stations can use text message interactions as a means of building out profiles of their audience to offer highly segmented ad units which can drive more revenue.
With respect to the mobile channel, radio stations and their advertisers alike need to separate the notions of offering the usual audio commercial on a device from targeting relevant offers and calls to action via text messaging. No matter how targeted audio ads become, they cannot facilitate the capture of audience demographics and lack the direct response component of text messaging.
