Cannes 2019: Let’s Get Personal

It’s that time of year again where everyone’s dreaming of frosé on the beach, madly RSVPing for the hottest villa parties and of course jumping on those Sunday flights to Cannes (see you there). For many Cannes regulars, you’re probably sick of hearing the phrase “what’s the key topic this year” – but here’s a few you’re going to want to pay attention to…

Media is evolving

The way we consume media is changing. We watch TV on catch up rather than in real time, we WhatsApp one another rather than speaking face to face, and we can even order household items using our smart speakers instead of going online, or heaven forbid, visiting a shop. 

What’s the reason behind this? The truth is our schedules are getting busier and therefore our media consumption must fit into our routines – be that on our commutes, during our workouts, or whilst we’re running errands at home. 

As our media consumption habits evolve, so should the adverts we are being served. 

The power of personalisation 

You may be familiar with the voice activated ads that are starting to pop up mid-playlist on your smart phones or smart speakers, but how familiar are you with ads that are totally personalised to you? Your habits, interests, location, schedule, and even the weather where you are this Friday….

Probably not very familiar. 

We all love personalised stuff (no, I’m not talking about your love island water bottles), so much so that 80% of consumers are more likely to do business with a company if it offers a personalised experience (Epsilon, 2018). 

Where can brands tap into personalisation? 

Personalisation is already widely adopted in a lot of marketing strategies – email marketing being one of the most obvious, but somewhere that personalisation isn’t so obviously utilised is across digital audio. And why not? Let me set the scene: 

2019 has been dubbed ‘The Year of Audio’, and for good reason. Streaming services now account for 75% of all music consumption. There’s no denying that digital audio has seen phenomenal levels of growth in recent years, tipping $2bn in ad revenues last year. Recent research from the IAB UK (Listening Britain, 2019) found that 66% of the UK population now tune into digital radio each week, and these listeners spend on average 12.9 hours a week consuming digital audio (or if you’re aged between 15 and 34, that increases to 15 hours a week). 

Supporting this growth in digital audio consumption is the new era of podcast content. There’s a podcast for everyone – mums, dads, crime junkies, politics enthusiasts, comedy lovers, fitness fanatics, you name it, it’s out there. They’ve become so popular in recent times that 61% of people now spend more time listening to podcasts than they do watching TV. Oh, and did I mention that podcast ad revenue grew by 53% to top $470bn in 2018 (IAB, 2019). 

Let’s get personal 

Ads have become much more prevalent across digital audio in recent years and we’re excited to be working with several leading brands including Deliveroo, Ebay and British Airways on their dynamic audio strategy (well done you guys!). However, many brands still haven’t fully tapped into the opportunity to reach their audiences during the most intimate moments in their day. 

Research from the IAB recently revealed that some of the most popular times to consume digital audio include down time, working or studying and driving/travelling. I guess you’re all wondering if it works though. A study from Radiocentre has recently revealed that engagement with ads rose by 23% as a result of the ads being more contextually relevant to the listener. 

So, let’s take a moment to think about how much time we spend doing all the above in a day… that’s a whole lotta time for a brand to tap into an individual’s mind. Then think about how cool it would be to have an ad that is personalised to every listener, based on their location, the time of day, device type, or even the pollen count. 

Pretty cool, right? 

Well, fortunately for you, there’s a solution. Here at A Million Ads we are on a mission to educate the market on the power of personalisation, and our clever tech makes it super simple to make a million ad variations instead of one. Don’t believe me? Take a look at this. 

Livia Dixon is marketing manager at A Million Ads