Audio revolution
- Charlotte van den Hoogen
- Oct 6, 2020
- 3 min read
Sound is everywhere, so much so that in most aspects of our lives we don’t even notice it. We pay no more attention to sound than we would to trash on our streets and that says a lot- how you interpret that is up to you.
But let’s get back to sound for a minute. Have you heard of the quietest room in the world? It’s a room that is designed to block out any outside sound. It’s an anechoic chamber, which means it creates no echo, and the background noise is measured at 20 decibels below the threshold of human hearing, the equivalent of leaves rustling or a mosquito looking for its next victim.
Being inside the room is an experience so absurd that longest time someone has spend in there is 55 minutes, but plenty people can’t stand it for longer than a few seconds.
If it isn’t clear yet from this experiment: sound is incredibly important to us, and its missed potential is disappointing. Luckily, some companies have caught on and started incorporating audio technologies or creating audio-based content. One example is Audio Tweets, introduced by twitter in June. The feature allows users to record up to 140 seconds of audio, allowing for much more to be said in a single tweet. The feature has great potential, but its poor performance in the first month after launching shows that it still needs some work. So let’s take a look at a more established form of audio-based content: podcasts.
Pod-what?
I’m sure most of you will know what a podcast is, but if you don’t, let me refresh your memory. A podcast is a series of episodes, which are presented in the form of audio files, that you can access via various podcasts apps. The concept dates back all the way to the 1980s, when they were called ‘audio blogs’, but due to a lack of means to distribute them, they didn’t take off until the early 2000s. Currently, in 2020, they’re really having a moment. Granted, the worldwide pandemic plays a role in this, but there are more reasons for their popularity.
Multitasking
You know it has a negative impact on your productivity, but do it anyways and I can’t blame you for that. Nowadays, we have so much going on in our lives, it’s much more convenient to listen to a podcast whilst doing the dishes than it is to read a book or watch a video.
A niche subject for everyone
Because it is so easy to create and share a podcast, there are podcasts about everything. Murder mysteries, unknown moments in history, 30 minutes of free therapy? There’s something for everyone’s needs.
A community feeling
Podcasts have the ability create a sense of community. Because podcasts often target a niche audience, it’s easy to create a community over shared interests amongst an audience.
Podcasts and marketing
So how does this information help us marketeers? When it comes to marketing, content is key. Podcasts, or any form of audio, can be a medium for this content in a couple of different ways. The first is pretty straightforward: advertisements. By advertising through podcasts you can target a very niche audience, and because it’s not as easy to scroll past an advertisement in podcasts, ad retention might be higher.
Another way to go about it would be by creating your own audio content as a brand. By creating high quality, relevant content, consumers will be more likely to engage with your content. This can help you create a community around your brand, which can help build brand loyalty.
Lastly, because audio is so important to human beings and has the potential to elicit different moods and emotions, audio-based content can establish trust and drive behaviour in consumers.
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