NEWS AND PRESS
February 26, 2013
American Public Media's Marketplace Morning Report host Jeremy Hobson this morning said, "You know, I have to say, in all the mobile advertising that I experience in my life the only ones that I actually pay attention to are when I'm listening to Pandora and I hear, basically, a radio ad for thirty seconds or something like that... I listen to those."
Hobson was speaking with Derek Thompson, senior editor at The Atlantic, about Thompson's recent article on the ineffectiveness of most mobile advertising.
"Mobile platforms, from phones to tablets, now command one-tenth of our media attention, but only one one-hundredth of total ad spending," Thompson wrote here.
He explains how advertising has powered much of the information and entertainment media for decades. But now advertising on mobile platforms, which is where our attention is headed, isn't working. Thompson calls it a "business crisis."
One of the reasons, he says, is that we simply don't expect to get "advertised to" on our mobile devices. So when ads do come, they just seem intrusive and get in our face, and it makes us less likely to engage with that which is advertised.
But the difference with audio ads in an Internet radio stream is that we're comfortable with advertising when it appears in familiar places. We've heard audio ads on radio all our lives, and we're familiar with the concept of advertising between songs on the radio. We're simply still uncomfortable with it in mobile, and until marketers and publishers can figure out how to change that, Thompson's "business crisis" will continue.
www.kurthanson.com/news/listeners-expect-audio-ads-radio-other-mobile-ads-are-intrusive-says-expert
February 25, 2013
According to a new study released by Katz Marketing Solutions, Television ads using audio elements can efficiently enhance a brand's identification and messaging. The Katz study examined TV commercials from 14 brands (see below) where all audio and visual brand references were removed, and 300 respondents were served either the de-branded television clip or an audio-only version of the same clip.
The respondents were asked to identify the brand, pinpoint their "aha" moment of recognition, and describe their emotional response to the audio and video segments. Katz Marketing Solutions President Bob McCurdy says, "This data strongly supports the strategic and creative use of radio to supplement a television campaign."
From the Katz study: "The audio clips generated 93% of the brand identification metrics that the television commercial clips generated. Even with the absence of visual stimuli, consumers were able to correctly identify the brands being featured in the ads. The results also indicated that in certain instances audio triggered brand identification at a much greater rate than visual cues."
"For example, 25% of the respondents exposed to the Taco Bell television clip referenced visual cues as the brand trigger, while 55% mentioned the sound of the iconic Taco Bell "bong" as the "aha" branding moment. In Duracellâs television clip, 50% more viewers referenced its distinctive three-note audio signature as the brand trigger than any visual stimuli. And for Outback Steakhouse, four times as many respondents cited the announcerâs distinguishing voice as the brand trigger than any visual element of the commercial."
McCurdy adds, âMarketers often allocate large sums of ad dollars to broadcast television commercials, which results in the creation of tremendous audio equityâa brandâs audio logo or signatureâthat can continue to carry the marketing punch of a television commercial."The study examined television commercials from:Allstate, Apple, Capital One, CoverGirl, Diet Pepsi, DirectTV, Dos Equis, Duracell, GEICO, Old Spice, Outback Steakhouse, Snickers, Taco Bell, and Warner Brothers.
January 24, 2013
Last week, Justin Timberlake and executives at Specific Media threw open the doors to the new Myspace and welcomed in the general public en masse for the first time. The newly reconfigured, music-centric platform offers potential users myriad enticements: a new Justin Timberlake single, a robust music catalogue, shiny personal profile pages, vintage Ice-T tracks ("You don't know me, fool. You disown me, cool. I don't need your assistance, social persistence..."), a jumbo search bar, and a lustrous, effervescent design that seemed the antithesis of the original site's kaleidoscopic, techno-junkyard aesthetic.
But despite it all, the reincarnated Myspace emerged notably incomplete. The free, ad-supported site was lacking one crucial thing-ads.
businessweek.com/articles/2013-01-24/why-the-new-myspace-has-no-advertisers-yet
San Francisco, CA - February 23, 2012
Today, Moodagent and Mixberry Media announced a partnership that can change the future of audio advertising. For years, the world has talked about the arrival of mood-based adverts; finally, the promise of direct targeting through sentiment analysis is fulfilled.
Moodagent, recently praised for it's Spotify application, is world-renowned for accuracy in music analysis, delivering mood-based playlists to millions of customers through mobile and desktop applications and streaming services.
Moodagent has detailed knowledge of the emotional and musical aspects of almost any track in the world. Combined with the first class digital audio advertising of Mixberry Media, advertisers can now, for the first time, target their message to distinct emotional profiles.
Moodagent and Mixberry Media are developing tools that make it easy for advertisers to target desired audiences when the listener is in the mood for it, therefore making ads more relevant and much less intrusive. Brands will be able to determine a specific song to embody the essence of their message and, as a result, have their ads heard when the listener is enjoying other tracks with the same emotional data and characteristics. This allows advertisers to communicate the core value of their brand as they perceive it and deliver it to users when they're in a similar mood or state of mind.
Brands are now able to target such moods and emotions as Happy, Sad, Angry, Tender, Sensual, Fear, and varied levels of each. These combined with genres of music is a winning approach to web and mobile advertising.
"At Moodagent we have the World's most extensive collection of mood data enabling us to precisely decode the exact mood of any given track", said Peter Berg Steffensen, CEO at Moodagent. "Our knowledge of emotional analytics, user behavior and perception, combined with the ability to connect this data with specific products, provides us with the key to an unparalleled precision for targeting audio advertisement. Together with Mixberry Media, we're taking audio adverts to the next level".
Moodagent and Mixberry Media, the premier global audio ad network, have engaged with major players like Nokia (ADR) (NYSE:NOK), Spotify and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) who will be among the first movers in this new field of targeted audio advertising. But anyone broadcasting music, be it commercial radio, music streaming services or podcast providers, can benefit from this new technology. And naturally, anyone with a featured campaign can more precisely reach the intended target audience with higher precision at the appropriate time.
"The positive reception and retention of the advertiser's message has a lot to do with the consumer mood", said Andre Hawit, CEO at Mixberry Media. "Our ads are delivered real-time taking into consideration all known user conditions at the exact moment the ad is delivered. We believe our partnership with Moodagent will create huge opportunities for brands and advertisers to reach their target audience at optimum time.Even the ad content has the ability to change or the entire ad delivery may be canceled based on the expected effect on the consumer."
The future of mood-based advertising has only begun. Look for more announcements from Moodagent and Mixberry Media as they move forward, determined to improve the world of digital audio advertising.
About Moodagent
The team at Moodagent deliver powerful solutions for leading mobile device manufacturers,
mobile operators, online music businesses and streaming music services, and provides applications
direct to consumers. More than 7,000,000 customers from over 200 different countries have synced
over 5 billion songs to create instant playlists based on moods and emotions.
Moodagent is located in Frederiksberg, Denmark, and can be found online at
www.moodagent.com, on
facebook.com/moodagent or
twitter.com/moodagent
About Mixberry Media
Mixberry Media, Inc., a company based in Silicon Valley, has developed an advanced,
fresh approach to advertising bringing their intelligent and highly targeted digital
audio ad technology to mobile apps, WEB and mobile WEB. The Mixberry global network
allows advertisers to reach their target audience dynamically, in real-time with a high
degree of precision. Publishers can maintain full control of their app/site behavior and
flow while increasing their revenue. Mixberry Media can be found at
www.mixberrymedia.com, on
facebook.com/mixberrymedia or
twitter.com/mixberrymedia
San Francisco, CA - November 10, 2011
Mixberry Media, Inc. officially launched their vAds® technology allowing advertisers to reach a mobile and WEB audience using Voice & Audio Ads. The global solution enables publishers to increase their ad revenue while maintaining full control of their app behavior. Mixberry Media also announced the launch of their online AdStudioT giving advertisers the freedom to produce an ad in seconds.
An innovative way to connect advertisers and publishers. Publishers request an ad from the vAds® server and Mixberry Media delivers it in milliseconds. This technology capitalizes on dead time while the user is fully engaged waiting for an audio response from the app or site. Current audio ads lack flexibility and real-time content modifications based on current user conditions - they are pre-generated and placed in a predefined stream. This makes them less relevant and less effective.
While mobile use is growing exponentially, streaming media has exploded. The ability for advertisers and publishers to fully take advantage of this surging popularity has been limited. Given that most mobile advertising models typically charge advertisers for clicks, the survey findings indicate that a large portion of mobile ad dollars are wasted. Advertisers need to measure beyond the click, focusing solely on the clicks is not working. With streaming audio applications on mobile, the user hears the majority of ads while their phone is in their pocket, while not viewing the display or while the app is running in the background.
"Our vAds® technology brings a fresh and unique approach to mobile and WEB advertising." said Andre Hawit, Mixberry Media founder and CEO. "We capitalize and monetize idle and transition time in a friendly, non-intrusive and extremely effective manner. We are the shortest distance between advertisers and their target audience."
Mixberry Media's online AdStudio, the first of its kind, enables local, national and global brands to create an audio ad with background music, multiple languages and voice personalities all in seconds. Advertisers no longer need long processes, expensive equipment, and a recording studio to produce quality material and increase customer engagement and loyalty. The Mixberry Media system is fully automated - with advanced publisher and advertiser portals for management, analysis, monitoring and real-time reporting.
AdStudio Tool and Feature set -TTS, text-to-speech ad creation -Ability to assign over 30 targeting parameters -Multiple languages and accents -Multiple voice personalities -Ability to use multiple voices in one ad -Voice speed, pitch and volume controls -Choose from the freely provided background music or upload your own -Choose and insert emotions and voice effects -Ad length control -Portal to manage campaigns and measure results
The vAds® technology and AdStudioT assure impressions in a cost efficient way while delivering ads in a strategically timed manner for optimal results. Mixberry Media's revolutionary technique in delivering dynamic and targeted Voice & Audio Ads enables advertisers to reach the necessary audiences easily and effectively. The intuitive interface allows for easy, quick management and editing of ads, saving a significant amount of time and money.
About Mixberry Media, Inc. Mixberry Media, Inc., a company based in Silicon Valley, has developed an advanced, fresh approach to advertising bringing their vAds® technology, Voice & Audio Ads, to mobile apps, WEB and mobile WEB. The Mixberry global network allows advertisers to reach their target audience dynamically, in real-time. Publishers can maintain full control of their app/site behavior and flow while increasing their revenue. Mixberry Media's online AdStudioT allows advertisers to produce a professional quality ad using their text-to-speech and targeting technology in seconds.
Last year, Google was on track to resurrect its radio ads project for online streaming music only to throw in the towel again and focus efforts on its own music service.
With the rise in streaming music services such as Pandora, Spotify, Mog, and Rdio, Silicon Valley startup Mixberry Media believes it can succeed where the search giant failed.
The company has recently introduced a new ad platform for voice and audio advertising that takes advantage of the dead time common in streaming music apps to deliver 5, 10, or 15-second ads.
According to Mixberry, monetizing streaming music services is difficult because mobile users are about half as likely as non-mobile Internet users to click on ads. Most listeners simply hide or minimize their Pandora or Spotify apps so they never even see the banners that accompany audio ads.
Rather than relying on banners, the company's approach utilizes the idle time that crops up in between songs whenever a user changes channels or skips songs. In about a second, a publisher can request an ad from Mixberry's servers and then play it to a user as the next song is queued up, all non-disruptively.
"Our vAds technology brings a fresh and unique approach to mobile and WEB advertising." said Andre Hawit, founder and CEO. "We capitalize and monetize idle and transition time in a friendly, non-intrusive and extremely effective manner. We are the shortest distance between advertisers and their target audience."
The company simplifies ad creation for advertisers with an online studio, aptly named "AdStudio." The tools in the studio, such as text-to-speech ad creation and the ability to choose various languages, accents, and personalities, makes it possible to create quality ads without the need for costly gear, voice talents, or a recording studio. Advertisers can also directly upload an audio file up to 15 seconds in length.
The self-financed startup is in talks with nearly all the top 20 music streaming apps (web and mobile) on the market and have their sights on providing an additional source of revenue for streaming radio providers.
Emerging ad models like Mixberry's platform could help sustain digital streaming music services as they continue to struggle with record labels over revenue.
Sillicon Valley based Mixberry Media has announced the launch of their vAds service, which allows digital advertisers to more efficiently reach mobile and web audiences using their Voice & Audio Ads network to improve ad monetization.
Mixberry has developed their technology specifically for music streaming - online radio in particular. The company is in talks with most of the Top 20 music streaming apps (web and mobile) on the market now, and plan on being an increased source of revenue for streaming radio providers.
Functionally speaking, publishers request an ad from the vAds server and Mixberry Media delivers it milliseconds later. This technology capitalizes on dead time where the user is fully engaged waiting for an audio response from the app or site.
"Current audio ads lack flexibility and real-time content modifications based on current user conditions," Mixberry said in a recent release. "They are pre-generated and placed in a predefined stream. This makes them less relevant and less effective."
Given that most mobile advertising models typically charge advertisers for clicks, Mixberry feels that advertisers need to measure beyond the click. Streaming audio applications on mobile devices tend to be used while the device is in a user's pocket, preventing the ad to be displayed while the app is running in the background.
"Our vAds technology brings a fresh and unique approach to mobile and web advertising," said Andre Hawit, Mixberry Media founder and CEO. "We capitalize and monetize idle and transition time in a friendly, non-intrusive and extremely effective manner. We are the shortest distance between advertisers and their target audience."
Also announced today, Mixberry Media's online AdStudio enables brands to create custom audio ads complete with background music, multiple languages and voice personalities. The entire Mixberry Media system is fully automated with advanced publisher and advertiser portals for management, analysis, monitoring, and real-time reporting.
As the use of mobile devices continues to grow rapidly and show no sign of slowing down anytime soon, streaming media have dramatically increased in popularity as well. Previously, advertisers and publishers have had limited access to these technologies. Advertisers need to be able to measure how effective their campaigns are beyond how many actual clicks they receive. With streaming audio applications on mobile devices, users can be exposed to ads while on-the-go.
Based in Silicon Valley, Mixberry Media is a developer of an innovative approach to advertising and has just introduced the world to the company's vAdstechnology, which enables advertisers to reach a much wider audience through utilizing voice and audio ads. The solution also will assist publishers in driving ad revenue while simultaneously being able to completely maintain their app behavior.
"Our vAds technology brings a fresh and unique approach to mobile and WEB advertising." said Andre Hawit, Mixberry Media founder and CEO, in a statement. "We capitalize and monetize idle and transition time in a friendly, non-intrusive and extremely effective manner. We are the shortest distance between advertisers and their target audience."
Today proved to be a big day for the company as Mixberry Media also kicked off the opening of their online AdStudio which allows advertisers to design their own ads easily and effectively. Through creating a forum where advertisers and publishers can connect and share ideas, this technology will be able to leverage the required waiting time, while keeping the user who is anxiously awaiting an audio response from the app or site occupied.
Mixberry Media's online AdStudio helps brands simply create an audio ad with capabilities including background music in a very short period of time, according to a press release. With this technology, advertisers can now completely eliminate the long processes, expensive equipment, and recording studios that were once needed to create advertisements.
Some of the features of AdStudio include text-to-speech ad creation, the ability to assign over 30 specific target audience characteristics, the ability to handle multiple languages, accents and voice personalities, the use of multiple voices in one ad, full control over voice speed, pitch, volume and ad length, and the insertion of emotions and voice effects.
The vAds technology and AdStudio power ads in timed precision to ensure the best results possible at a cost effective price. Mixberry Media's solutions are forever transforming the way in which voice and audio ads are delivered.
Streaming music is becoming big business, with the growing popularity of websites and applications like Pandora, Spotify and Rdio. And with that growth comes an opportunity for increased monetization, through targeted audio ads delivered to listeners of those applications. Enter Mixberry Media, which is introducing a new ad platform aimed at inserting ads into the dead space in audio streams whenever a user switches channels or changes songs.
Today, most streaming music apps are monetized through banner ads, with some limited audio interruptions interspersed between songs. But many listeners never see those banners, as they normally tune in with the Pandora in a hidden tab or with the Spotify app minimized. Those ads that are inserted during a music stream typically have a click-through component or call to action that few listeners ever take advantage of.
By contrast, Mixberry hopes to take advantage of the dead space that crops up between songs whenever a user skips a song or switches channels. As the music application buffers the next audio track, Mixberry can fill the silence with short audio messages through a quick call to its ad server. This not only gives creates a monetization opportunity that streaming providers weren't previously taking advantage of, but it provides the ability to serve up more targeted messages. Ads can be targeted based on 32 different parameters, including location, time of day and date. For advertisers, Mixberry provides easy-to-use ad creation and distribution tools, enabling them to quickly roll out new ads without pre-made assets. They can choose to create text-to-speech ads, which can be customized with different voices, personalities, accents, languages, background music and other features. Or they can directly upload an audio file up to 15 seconds in length. Ads are typically short - ranging anywhere from up to 5 seconds to 15 seconds. That's typically just long enough for listeners to get a brand message across, but not so long as to disrupt the listening experience or annoy users waiting for the next song, Mixberry Media founder and CEO Andre Hawit told us in a phone interview. Mixberry is working to get embedded with 19 of the top 20 audio applications, Hawitt said. The startup, which is self-financed, has more than 30 employees and is located in Silicon Valley. Its workforce is mainly engineers today, but it's looking to hire more sales and marketing folks over the next few months.COMPANY
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