By Richard Palmer, VP, Market Development & Strategy (APAC) for Triton Digital
Audio growth, podcasting in particular, in the APAC market has continued to exceed expectations. Earlier this year, our Audio Marketplace saw a 90% increase in impressions delivered, which contributed to more money for publishers. The opportunities in this territory are endless but it’s going to take the right strategy to lay a path for growth, otherwise publishers risk hitting a ceiling.
I’m here to walk you through three steps, or what I call the three M’s to help audio publishers grow by Managing, Measuring and Monetising in the APAC market.
Step #1 – Manage your content distribution
A key part of producing content is to ensure that it’s available on the right platforms. By right platforms I mean somewhere where: the listening experience is crisp and clear, listeners can easily find multiple episodes, and where publishers can easily manage ads. This makes finding the right distribution partners key because you could be leaving money on the table.
For example, one of the first projects we were tasked with when our engagement with ARN, one of Australia’s leading audio companies, popular for its radio brands such as KIIS Network, Pure Gold, CADA, and iHeartRadio, began was to migrate ARN’s live audio streaming content delivery to Triton’s platform. This addressed a number of legacy issues, including digital ads intruding/bleeding into songs and talk sets as well as consolidating multiple systems for reporting. This improved metadata solution resolved previous issues of misaligned and limited ad insertion, unlocking advertising and revenue capabilities that were previously unavailable for ARN.
Quickly following that, the ARN team installed Triton’s Station Manager software to encode their national, regional, and digital stations. The software encompasses all the necessary components to capture metadata as well as securely transport it to the Triton CDN for public distribution, among other things. The ARN team then developed a middle layer metadata processor to route and translate multiple data streams to the assigned Station Manager. This allowed ARN to capture reliable and adaptable metadata streams that Triton can utilize for targeted spot ad replacement. As a result, ARN audiences are now able to enjoy and experience high quality, pristine audio streams with accurate metadata and volume normalization, resulting in an enhanced listening experience; meanwhile, ARN’s digital listenership continues to see significant growth, with a doubling of Session Starts and Total Listening Hours month after month.
Step #2 – Measure your content
After you’ve set your content distribution strategy, you need to focus on measurement. As competition for listeners increases, the ability to measure and analyze the consumption of content has become critical – it could ultimately give publishers a competitive edge.
To support publishers and buyers alike, Triton launched Podcast Metrics in APAC, and subsequently the monthly Australian Podcast Ranker, to create an industry standard and showcase how content in the region is performing. Podcast Metrics, which is certified by the IAB Tech Lab as complying with Version 2.1 of the IAB Podcast Measurement Technical Guidelines, gives publishers accurate and insightful data around how, when, and where podcast content is being consumed across multiple hosting platforms, with the ability to view metrics by date range, location, device, podcast name, episode, title, and more.
By giving publishers access to this data, they can learn more about what type of content performs best, how listeners are tuning in, and more, so they can then learn how to better market their content.
Step # 3 – Monetise content
Lastly, publishers need to figure out how to monetise their content and partner with a platform that helps them scale their operations – from providing the tools to create ads to being accessible to buyers who are investing across different forms of advertising, including programmatic.
In October 2022, for example, SPH Media – one of Singapore’s leading audio content publishers and content creators across English and Mandarin languages – launched a program called Ready Reset Go and used Triton Digital’s TAP to create a ‘house-ad’ campaign to introduce and promote the new show.
The campaign strategically promoted the upcoming show within their existing popular program, providing a significant advantage in audience building and generating awareness.
Furthermore, with dynamic ad insertion from Triton Digital, SPH has been able to promote newly launched titles on current popular programs for audience sharing. As a result of its partnership with Triton Digital, SPH’s podcasts are a hit among Singaporeans and the global audience – since 2019 through 2022, SPH Radio has experienced a 194% growth.
As you get your ducks in a row and prioritise these three M’s in your growth strategy, make sure you’re leveraging tools that provide multiple capabilities – don’t just plug and play with each because when a problem arises in any of these steps, it’ll be that much harder to get the wheels moving again.
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Top Image: Richard Palmer