Xaxis has launched its programmatic creative services solution, Xaxis Creative Studios (XCS), in India. With full-service in-house creative capability, XCS team of designers, producers, developers, and animators will help clients develop and deliver more relevant, more engaging creative executions to drive greater programmatic performance and insights.
Said Rita Sahajpaul, National Head of Product and Marketing Science, Xaxis India: “With the launch of Xaxis Creative Studios, Xaxis will be able to provide last-mile services to the clients and address a gap in the market in integrating creatives and media for digital ads. Digital media can be quite cluttered, and our focus is to bring innovative and engaging creative solutions which allow the brand messaging to stand-out and be effective in reaching the right audience,” adding: “The co-ordination of agencies, creatives, data and programmatic strategists is essential in exploring the diversity of the digital media to help companies boost brand awareness. Xaxis Creative Studios has been helping clients in Asia Pacific, North and Latin America drive meaningful creative impact with its suite of cross-channel solutions. We hope to bring the same capabilities to the Indian market to solve our clients’ unique business challenges and needs.”
GroupM India’s programmatic advertising arm Xaxis’s new Audio Playbook finds that India devotes an average of 19.1 hours per week to listen to music, more than seven per cent higher than the global average. Despite the high adoption rate , only 71% of advertisers commit less than ten per cent of their total ad investment to digital audio channels
To understand the drivers, challenges and adoption of programmatic audio, Xaxis surveyed 107 agency and advertiser participants, and 25 publishers and media owners.
For agencies and advertisers, mobile devices are believed to have the highest audience reach. According to publishers, the four most important metrics for clients running programmatic audio advertising are – Brand awareness (71%), Advertising recall (71%), Reach and frequency (54%) and the listen through rate (54%).
The future of digital audio industry looks optimistic where the number of smartphone users in the country is estimated to reach 829 million of the total population of 1.4 billion by 2022, as a vast majority of advertisers believe that mobile devices (94%) are the most effective means to reach audiences. While the Indian music industry is also expected to grow at CAGR of 15.8% between FY19 and FY24; audio streaming is expected to be the key catalyst for this growth.
Bharat Khatri
Said Bharat Khatri, Country Head, Xaxis India: “Programmatic advertising for audio in this country is at a very nascent stage but the future of the digital audio advertising industry looks bright in India. Soon digital will surpass broadcast as an audio consumption channel. Today over 200 million users use music streaming services. Yet, we have realized that audio is an undervalued and underutilized area by the advertising industry. As internet access via mobile grows, we believe that audio advertising can provide an edge to the advertiser and brands.”
Rita Sahajpaul
Added Rita Sahajpaul, National Head of Product and Marketing Science, Xaxis India: “India is only at the start of its journey in digital audio advertising, but new data suggests that this category is about to take off in this nation in a big way. Explosive smartphone adoption has led to a 17x increase in content consumption. A staggering 97% of people listened to music through their device in the past three months, and they devote an average of 19.1 hours per week to the activity. The growing demand for more content is increasing the popularity of podcasts, music streaming services and online radio, especially among the 18-34 age group. Audio streaming is gaining popularity with the influx of domestic and international platforms, along with the power of data and AI, opportunities for advertisers looks bright with programmatic digital audio advertising.”
