WALKING THE TIGHTROPE

Now more than ever, brands are at the mercy of political and societal issues. As they should be, considering they seek to acquire us as customers. They want us to buy what they’re selling. But such transactions are often more than just a dollar amount exchanged for a product. They can fulfill a feeling of belonging, provide entry into a meme-ified subculture or status structure, and so much more. 

All this to say: brands continually walk the tightrope between commerce and culture, across the media landscape. And the terrain of podcasting is particularly rich and complex. 

Advertisers and agencies alike have worked hard to understand and monetize the potential of this dynamic channel. The rate of consumption and engagement seems only to be increasing across all demographics while at the same time, brands are finding it more and more difficult to retain confidence in their message being delivered within a “safe” context. 

One reason being, the diversity of listenership is matched by the variety of shows, genres, hosts, and points of view—those of which span a wide spectrum of what may be deemed tolerable in terms of risk. This, of course, is part of the magic of podcasting. The freedom of expression that hosts wield is a key element of the attraction. Unfortunately, this can create problems for advertisers, as their reputation (and as an extension, their sales or profitability) could be seriously harmed. 

So how do we protect brand safety while taking advantage of the channel’s potency? 

 

COLLABORATION AND TRANSPARENCY ARE KEY

Brand safety and the core values of your brand are of utmost importance to us and directly influence our strategy and recommendations. In order to truly understand and anticipate the needs of our clients, a fiercely collaborative and transparent relationship is paramount. From day one, we sit down with our clients and ask the right questions in order to discern not only their goals in terms of return, but how we can give voice to their brand, and how we can accurately tell the story of their product or service in an engaging way. 

In order to achieve such accuracy and measurable success, we must ensure that integrity is protected as well. Something that is not nearly as simple as tracking data points but just as necessary and certainly not impossible. Even amongst the diversity of expression within podcasting, we are able to create clear parameters—our own guardrails—that help maintain values alignment. For example, through long conversations with a cyber security client, we were able to draw firm boundaries around severing connections with any source(s) that intentionally spread false information or any that would, either directly or indirectly promote or incite violence.  

That may appear to be an obvious example of what a brand should avoid, but sometimes the edges of boundaries can be blurry. The act of listening, clarifying, and writing it down for all to agree upon and refer back to allows us to monitor with precision and remain nimble when (not if) issues arise.  

 

AI IS THE MAP BUT WE ARE THE DRIVER

Here at SMI, we employ a diverse set of tools to help measure and optimize our campaigns. 

We utilize third party partners such as Podscribe and Magellan – which allows SMI to monitor reads and spend data to see where our clients’ competitors are running ads while flagging potential brand safety issues – and regularly check the content of hosts and influencers on various social media platforms. With the rise and expansion of artificial intelligence, we have a plethora of resources to help us aggregate a client’s on-air spots, track, and analyze reads. AI is also helpful in scoring specific shows, based on criteria such as the use of profanity, explicit content, and political or controversial topics, culminating in a convenient, at-a-glance risk assessment. All of this is a fantastic head start, but we view AI as a tool—not the endgame. Algorithms can be volatile and third party tools are limited and not always accurate. 

 

The true benefit to our clients is the foundation of SMI expertise enhancing these methods in real time.     

  

As our Podcast Strategist, Lisa Risk reiterated: “We use third party AI tools to help our team monitor brand safety across our podcast partners. But we don’t stop there. While those tools are able to give us an initial round of risk assessment, we also have team members with years of experience to round out our best show-level recommendations for our clients.”

Our seasoned Podcast Team utilizes all resources at their disposal, including their very human ones. With keen ears, we monitor shows, hosts, and reads; even scoring them ourselves in order to examine efficiency and intercept any errors (and then negotiate better bonus reads on your behalf). Our Onboarding Specialist provides guidance to show runners and hosts, reviewing Talking Points and mandatories, including communicating phrases to avoid during the read. 

A detailed onboarding process reduces the chance of inadvertently upsetting a client, while bolstering the overall quality of the read. 

Our Strategists and Buyers are active in industry events to ensure our position on the forefront of audio advertising remains rock solid. We use cutting-edge technology such as our proprietary operating system, and rely on nearly 25 years of expertise to help ensure your brand’s message is detached from potential or perceived controversy. 

Brand Safety has to be more than an afterthought. For us, it’s a priority. 

 

WHAT IF HIGH RISK IS HIGH PERFORMING?

Most notably, (and perhaps obviously) it is the News genre that presents most opportunities for risk and yet, it is often highly performative in terms of delivering results. 

As marketers and creators, we are all familiar with situations in which risk is measured against reward, but as the airwaves become more and more saturated with a myriad of opinion based information and entertainment, we must also become familiar—and comfortable with—when to choose reputation over reward. 

But how?  

We return to the foundation of how we do business here at SMI: as collaborators who commit to a transparency that prioritizes your goals and your core values as a brand. We return to the conversations, strategies, and boundaries we’ve set together. We make our own guardrails. We hold ourselves accountable. 

That’s what a valuable and successful partnership means to us. 

 

Want to hear more about what it sounds like to partner with an agency that prioritizes your brand safety?

Give Your Brand a Voice: (Part 1)

Media Buying Keeps the Pulse on All Things Audio

When it comes to audience targeting, nimbleness, and reach–the evidence is clear: audio advertising is a wise investment.  

That being said, marketing managers are more often forced to justify ad spend with ever increasing returns on investment. Budget and talent constraints–no matter how remarkable your product or service is–often put your brand at a disadvantage when it comes to breaking through the noise and seeing any meaningful ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) so relying on great creative alone is not enough. A multifaceted approach is paramount.

We Have the Expert Infrastructure

In addition to SMI’s dedicated Creative and Analytics teams, our media buyers and strategists have deep industry relationships and format connections.  

Our Media team works in tandem with Client Services to understand the target demographics and geographical considerations alongside the short and long-term goals of our clients. Their combined expertise, in collaboration with our Analytics team, allows us to be vigilant in evaluating and communicating campaign performance in real time.  

Because our buyers and strategists have built and nurtured relationships with stations, agencies, and shows–we are also able to pivot precisely and aggressively if need be. Even in the days of such potent technology and automation, sometimes a format or rate adjustment simply comes down to the power of a well-handled telephone conversation.

Collaboration Yields Results

Senior Media Buyer, Pam Wolfgram underscores the importance of our industry relationships:  

“Our media partners are exactly that: partners. They have a vested interest in helping us help our clients; it means more business! Even if they have to take it on the chin here and there for a client’s success–and they do–they know they’ll make it up in the long game, as we will send them every schedule that makes sense down the road. They want to work hard for us and for our clients.

As an example, we recently orchestrated a massive creative change affecting over 600 stations and it had to go off without a hitch, as “hitches” are mistakes that lead not only to credits being taken, but also to skewed results that make a test difficult to read. I reached out to every rep impacted by the change to express the importance of the test and walked away feeling completely at ease knowing that they were going to get with their traffic people and watch over the test like hawks. A little extra communication goes a long way!” 

All of SMI’s media buyers, researchers, and strategists have something in common: they know firsthand the value of respectful dialogue and perseverance. 

The motto of our Media team? 

There’s always a workable solution to get meaningful return on ad spend. 

If you’re ready to invest more wisely in your audio advertising, start a conversation with us today! 

This is part one of SMI’s three-part series called Give Your Brand a Voice. Stay tuned for our next article focused on Creative! 

There’s an old joke about a couple who drove down a country road, got in an argument, and stubbornly gave one another the silent treatment until they passed a barnyard of mules and sows. At this point, the husband asked sarcastically, “Relatives of yours?”

“Yes,” the wife replied. “In-laws.”

Whether it’s mules and sows or magazines and cartoon bears, it’s all about perception. Perception, in fact, is one of the most important aspects of human behavior – including purchasing behavior.

The fact that we’re a radio advertising agency doesn’t make us immune to the impact or importance of TV, Print and Web advertising. So, in this post, we’ll take a look at the lighter side of direct response and marketing in general to show you five brands that changed consumer perception and one that might want to consider it. We’ll also give you a few tips on how to change your own brand perception.

#1 National Geographic

Oh, National Geographic, the magazine subscription held by many a grandmother (said with much love for grandmothers). But wait, what is this? National Geographic has become…dare we say it…hip?

For over a hundred years, National Geographic has been known for it’s stunning magazine layouts and, more recently, its documentaries on wildlife. But besides the occasional naked body, they haven’t exactly been considered “cutting edge” for a while.

Enter the rebrand masters…

With an updated logo that appears as a window’s view into global culture, National Geographic has positioned itself as a vehicle for connecting us to our greater “human family” rather than a stark display of our differences. Subjects of shows on their TV channel range from the Andes to Ancient X Files. And their new slogan, “This is who we are,” makes the focus about all of us, rather than the “other.”