"Ears and voice will replace our fingers."

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Proof of the effectiveness and appeal of the audio format, according to the SRI (Syndicat des Régies Internet)*, the French digital advertising market in 2023 will exceed 100 million euros. This is hardly surprising, given that 8 out of 10 French people listen to audio content every day, and 46 million people turn to digital audio and podcasts every month.

Launched in 2018, Audion specializes in audio formats and monetization. Objective: to increase the effectiveness of advertising on all digital audio formats: Streaming, Radio, Replay, Podcast and new audio formats... This audio Ad Tech nugget, which raised 6 million euros in 2022, aims to become the European leader in its monetization market. Interview with Nicolas Thorin, Managing Partner of startup Audion.

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Can you give us an overview of digital audio?

If we take a look at the digital audio market in France, but also worldwide, the first lever is the music platforms Spotify, Deezer, SoundCloud... not forgetting YouTube. People no longer go to YouTube just to watch content, but also to listen to music or podcasts. At the end of 2023, Google announced that it would be discontinuing Google Podcasts. The firm justifies the need to pull the plug on its service to avoid duplication. Indeed, Google reportedly found that many podcasts were also uploaded to YouTube by content creators. Second lever: radios for two types of content: live listening (FM & Digital) and replay of shows. In third place are native podcasts, or content that doesn't come from radio stations but from press groups (Prisma, Webedia, Slate, Le Monde...). Then there are the independent podcasters, who may have a sizeable audience. There are also production companies that produce content and distribute it themselves on the platforms. Finally, there's all the emerging content and delivery methods. For example, text-to-speech, which transforms written content into audio content, listening around connected speakers, in-car listening (connected cars)...

How many listeners does this represent on a monthly basis?

This panorama enables us to reach nearly 46 million unique visitors or unique listeners on the different levers of the players we work with. We have a very large audience, enabling us to reach massive audiences at any given time, both nationally and locally. It's very interesting to observe the trend in the activation of digital audio in local media plans: specialized distribution, supermarkets, store networks...

So digital audio is The Place to Be for advertisers?

Digital audio is a new lever in digital advertising, gaining market share every year. It's the fastest-growing lever. It's a bit like video was a decade ago. By 2023, we've gone from over 70 million to nearly 100 million in investment, with the number of advertisers doubling. We now account for just over 6% of Display investments, compared with 2 or 3% three years ago. I think we'll soon pass the 10% mark. The market should represent close to 200 million euros over the next two years, by the end of 2026.

What are the advantages of digital audio?

The first advantage is low ad clutter. On average, there are between 1 and 2 ads per piece of content: 1 pre-roll and 1 mid-roll. That's a lot less than with video formats, which is an advantage for advertisers. Second advantage: it's an intimate medium, closely linked to personal listening. In all post-tests (evaluation of the effectiveness of an advertising campaign after it has been broadcast) we observe much higher-than-average items of memorization, consideration and attribution. This can also be explained by the high degree of contextualization.

Producing an audio spot is also easy, inexpensive and quick to implement (less than 2 days). Unlike video, which requires more resources. What's more, digital audio offers great flexibility. For example, specific variables can be integrated, with a DCO (Dynamic Creative Optimization) approach to contextualize spots in real time.  

Let's say we have a "day of the week" variable (i.e. 7 variables), plus 10 "city" variables, and we add 2 "weather" variables (sun and rain), that gives us 140 different spots (7 * 10 * 2). All this from a single record. We record all the variables, which are then assembled in real time using the data collected at instant T (geolocation, weather app on the device...). So we can offer a different spot in Marseille, Bordeaux or Lille, depending on the day of the week and the weather! That's the real feat.

How do you measure ROI?

A completion rate is used to measure whether the ad has been listened to and to what extent (100%, 50%, etc.). On average, on audio, you have a completion rate of 95% because the ad isn't skippable and there's a pre-roll before the content.

Is there a specific auditor profile?

Reaching 46 million listeners a month, we can't speak of a specific profile. On music platforms, we tend to deal with a younger audience, and even so, it's becoming more democratic. On radio, the target audience is a little older for live content, but for replay, it's much broader. That's why the number of advertisers doubles every year. Already, with so many different ways to listen, the audience is massive. I think that ears and voices are going to replace our fingers. Gen Z no longer sends text messages, they send voice messages!

With communication budgets stretched to the limit, where did you gain market share?

Part of the radio budgets came naturally with the digitization of listening. It's like a communicating vessel, but in the end, it benefits the same players. We took from display because of the clutter on this channel. But also because digital audio is essentially a brand safety channel. According to the SRI and UDECAM observatory, in 2023, the French digital advertising market will grow by 9% versus 2022. At the same time, growth in display advertising will slow (6% vs. 11% in 2022).

What are the specific features of the French market compared with the United States, for example?

Apart from the fact that in the United States, as in Germany for example, some native podcasts have massive audiences, the main difference concerns the way we buy. In France, we're still using a very "media planning" approach, a bit like we might do in TV or radio with spot by spot, hour by hour... Advertisers are still reluctant to invest large budgets with a logic of impact at the top of the funnel. Yet digital audio, for example, can convey a different or complementary message to the visual display, and offers a higher rate of memorization.

And what about Artificial Intelligence?

AI helped us with the text-to-speech part, where we use artificial voices. We have also created a syntax algorithm to optimize the fluidity of written transcriptions (no dead time between the end of a sentence, after a comma, etc.). Other developments include voice recording for variables which, until now, have been performed by actors. Tests are already underway in the United States, notably to adapt to the end of leaflets. We can record the catalogs, the different variables and then restructure the products according to region, targeting, affinity...

*SRI-UDECAM study

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