The IAB UK Audio Council was set-up in 2013 with a mandate to educate the market about advertising in an online audio environment with the key goals of further educating the industry, developing future business models for the audio sector, and increasing the value of the online audio advertising space. Triton has been a participating member since the beginning, often travelling across the Atlantic to participate in Council meetings.
The Council consists of all the prominent players within the digital audio marketplace – broadcasters, pureplays, technology providers, advertising agencies, and others – all of whom provide insight and experience to promote the sector within the UK.
As part of this evangelising, the Audio Council outlined 5 key projects for 2015, which aim to educate agencies and advertisers, breed better collaboration with other industry bodies, increase awareness & visibility at key industry events, and promote standards and guidelines.
1. Listening Britain
Listening Britain is an infographic that indicates key trends of online audio listeners in the UK: how many people listen, across what device, during what time of day, demographic breakdown and other key factors that set online audio apart from other media consumed. Learn more here.
2. Feel the Noise
Feel the Noise is an ongoing ad agency roadshow. The IAB is identifying 5-6 key agency influencers that would benefit from a one-on-one session with the IAB to help them explore online audio as an effective marketing tool.
3. The Taxonomy Project
This is a project to help align all council members around the same terms and industry language so we’re all comparing apples to apples and oranges to oranges.
4. Standards and Guidelines
This is a general education project that is ongoing throughout the year. It includes discussions with the US IAB about APAID (Audio Player Ad-Serving Interface Definition) and what constitutes an audio impression, as well as publishing DAAST in the UK and keeping the market informed about Data Protection and Brand Safety legislation.
5. Audio Round Table Discussions
These round table discussions are earmarked for Q4 of this year. The goal is to gain insight from advertisers and agencies about their thoughts on audio, the barriers they have to buying/planning audio, and what the industry can do to overcome such barriers.
I am extremely encouraged by these five projects. I am confident that they are helping the UK digital audio marketplace flourish in 2015, and I’m excited to be a part of it. If you would like to learn more about the IAB UK, how you can get involved, or what you need to start building your digital audio strategy, please reach out to me at vinnie.khurana@tritondigital.com.