Digital radio has exploded this summer with the debut of new audio streaming platforms. Apple and Google are leading that pack, but smaller competitors and updates to Pandora and Spotify are making the whole industry buzz. That's music to the ears of D.C.-based interactive audio advertising developer XAPPmedia. One of the company's ads has even been nominated for the prestigious Interactive Advertising Bureau Mixx Award.
"The nomination validates that this advertising works," said XAPPmedia CEO Patrick Higbie. "New Internet radio publishers will have our ads in the fall after a long testing cycle."
The ad, for Mack Avenue Records artist Cecile McLorin Salvant, played on NPR, which was one of XAPPmedia's earliest platform clients. Since it launched last year, the company has produced ads for Ford, Amazon, Columbia University, StubHub and other well-known brands, and the opening up of new platforms offers even more scope for their productions Higbie said.
"There's a lot of talk about voice replacing visual content for mobile," Higbie said. "We have hard data showing that 77 percent of people listening to ads have no screen visible. There's too much friction for responding to visual ads, listeners will only interact with audio."
Higbie pointed out that while interactive audio assistants like Siri, Cortana and Google M can interact with users via voice, all of them are user initiated. None of them start interacting without getting prompted first, and that's what makes XAPPmedia attractive to companies trying to reach customers who are fully mobile most of the time. When the ad comes on, listeners can say things like Call Now, Find Location, Download App, Go To Page and Send Coupon depending on the ad, without having to actually take out their phone and before they forget about the ad.
"We're getting some really good response rates," Higbie said. "People are checking out things they might never have found otherwise."
XAPPmedia is the only company so far making these kinds of interactive audio ads, Higbie said, adding that as digital audio expands there may be some competition. But XAPPmedia is going to have a major head start. The company has raised $6.8 million in funding so far, with long-term plans for more. And as it builds its reputation with the platforms and the brands advertising on them, it could cement itself as the leader in the field. The long approval process by the platforms unsure about the new kind of ads could also slow down future competitors.
"The companies are very concerned about user experience," Higbie said. "They want users to respond positively to what they are hearing. And then we want them to say something and interact with the ad."
Check out the ad that XAPPmedia was nominated for below.
