Sympa- what? If you haven’t heard of “sympaphonic ads” yet, our article on audio marketing will enlighten you.

Audio advertising is booming. Since the beginning of the Corona pandemic, the topic has been celebrating a comeback or experiencing a steady increase – above all due to the increased user numbers of streaming services and podcast listeners. In the fourth quarter of 2022, Spotify recorded a total of 489 million monthly active users. According to official data from the streaming service, 83% of internet users (Generation Z and Millennials) reported streaming audio online in 2020.

In recent years, the target groups’ expectations of advertising – whether visual or audio – have changed significantly. Younger target groups in particular now expect high-quality, information-packed content or personalized, authentic or entertaining advertising. Classic, highly polished personas do no longer blow anyone away. Marketers need to address the interests of their target groups and communicate in their own way. In addition to video campaigns with expressive images (link blog post Kathi), audio advertising is also playing an increasingly important role. Below we present a form of advertising that combines exactly these needs: sympaphonic ads.

What is sympaphonic advertising? 

With sympaphonic ads, the audio message is automatically modified in real time in the background to match the music genres and different songs that a listener streams via audio streaming platforms such as Spotify or Apple Music. In this way, the AI selects the “ideal” song, which is precisely tailored to personal taste. The ads, when they are aired, are adapted for the listeners to exactly what they are listening to at that moment. With sympahonic ads, an immersive experience is created that seamlessly blends with the content listeners are currently engaged with without taking them out of the experience.

This type of personalized listening experience was developed back in 2019 by UK startup AI Music, which has since been acquired by Apple. The company’s proprietary “shapeshifting” technology allowed users to create remixes of songs using artificial intelligence. The technology automatically adjusted the background music of digital ads to what users were listening to. AI Music’s AI engine is now being used by other vendors, enabling Spark Foundry, for example, to create dynamic and personalized audio ads in less than ten minutes. Today, AdsWizz has become the main provider of sympaphonic ads for digital audio marketers through its ad buying system.

In symphonic advertising campaigns, companies must of course work with music distributors such as Amazon, Spotify, Pandora, iTunes, and so on. The online music platforms are then responsible for ensuring that royalties for the music purchased, downloaded and played are returned to the original musicians and artists.

Several brands have now implemented sympaphonic ads to improve engagement with their customer base.

Examples: Dunkin’ Donuts and Cox Communications

Dunkin’ Donuts was already one of the first brands in 2021 to test a new audio ad that linked the advertising message to what the consumer was listening to at that moment. According to Dunkin’ Donuts, the sympaphonic ad increased engagement by 238% compared to non-personalized ads in other campaigns.

Telecommunications company Cox Communications also achieved strong results using Sympaphonic Ads and artificial intelligence for personalized advertising experiences. The production time for creating marketing campaigns was reduced by 95% and the production costs for in-house audio marketing dropped by 20%.

Why should you rely on (programmatic) audio marketing or sympaphonic advertising? 

Some of the advantages of sympaphonic ads have already been discussed. Besides the fact that they can increase engagement and sales, they improve customer loyalty and address target groups in a personalized and effective way. Furthermore, production costs are reduced and production times are shortened.

Those who don’t want to get started with sympaphonic ads right away should still consider adding audio advertising to their marketing mix:

3 Advantages of (programmatic) audio marketing

1. Audio marketing is target group specific and relevant

With programmatic audio ads, you can target users based on location, behavior, and demographics. Programmatic advertising uses automated workflows and machine learning algorithms. Based on a variety of signals, such as purchase behavior, ads are delivered to audiences most likely to succeed. Thus, relevant ads can be served based on listeners’ interests or location.

2. Audio marketing strengthens the multi-channel effect and brand recall

Audio advertising helps increase brand awareness. For example, 60% of podcast listeners are more likely to make a purchase after hearing a brand message in a podcast. Audio ads also have a higher recall rate compared to display ads.

3. Audio marketing enables data tracking

Programmatic audio ads allow companies to collect important KPIs, such as completion rate, which indicates whether a user listens to an ad to the end or skips it. This also allows behavior to be tracked after the ad has been consumed.