Bauer Media is the largest audio operator in Finland and Europe, leading the audio business by innovating, developing, and investing in new ventures to provide customers with more comprehensive and effective audio advertising solutions now and in the future.
Alongside Bauer Media's extensive FM channel family and digital audio network, a new external audio advertising network, Outdoor Audio, is being developed and expanded in partnership with Doohlabs and Craneworks.
Together, the companies have developed an audio network solution that allows companies from various industries to easily join and benefit from the rapidly growing market and advertisers' need to reach very different interests or audiences with certain characteristics through new audio advertising touchpoints.
Growth for the network inventory is being built through partnerships with retail media operators and other companies in industries where listeners can be commercialized as part of Bauer Media's comprehensive audio advertising solutions.
Rapid Growth of Retail Media
Retail media is currently growing and evolving rapidly in the Finnish media market as well. Retail media refers to the fact that both retail and other industries, through which different consumer target groups can be reached, have begun to offer their audiences to advertisers. In retail media, audio is still a new form of media advertising, and Bauer Media Finland is also a pioneer on a European scale in commercializing the inventory offered by retail media.
Modern retail media in physical environments is primarily realized through two channels: digital screens and speakers intended for audio marketing. With current technology, both can target the displayed marketing precisely to the right place and time to reach the desired audience.
Craneworks is Finland's most significant builder of in-store retail media networks. Its sister company, Doohlabs, develops and offers an internationally recognized and advanced in-store retail media software platform for creating audiences, reaching target groups, and enabling media sales. In developing new business, it has been extremely important for Bauer Media to find a partner capable of offering a comprehensive service to Bauer Media and its advertising network partners, both in terms of hardware and software solutions.
The expertise and experience of Craneworks and Doohlabs in technology and retail media technology, combined with Bauer Media's top-notch audio expertise, have complemented each other from the start of the partnership, accelerating the commercial launch of Bauer Media's new business.
Many Strengths of Audio Advertising
In April 2024, Bauer Media, together with Kantar, studied the impact of audio advertising on radio, digital audio, and retail networks. Many findings encourage advertisers to expand audio advertising into retail media:
Audio advertising in radio and retail media is perceived more positively than advertising in other media – as many as 78% have a positive or neutral attitude towards audio advertising. Simultaneous audio advertising on radio and in retail media increases positive or neutral attitudes towards advertising by 6 percentage points. It will be interesting to see if audio advertising in retail media also affects the average time spent in stores and outlets where consumers encounter audio advertising.
Kantar's study also confirmed that simultaneous audio advertising on radio and in retail media plays a significant role in various stages of the consumer purchase process: planning and consideration stages, the purchase situation, and even after the purchase by reinforcing the chosen brand's purchase experience. As many as 57% find audio advertising meaningful during the purchase process. This gives advertisers confidence that extending audio advertising to retail media increases effectiveness at every touchpoint.
When audio is combined with visuals in the store, and perhaps even other sensory marketing elements such as trials or tastings, a brand can create a very comprehensive experience for the customer through retail media.
The benefits of audio for companies can also be considered more broadly through audio branding. With audio, it is possible to create an image-building soundscape for the company in all spaces and produced media, leaving a lasting positive memory.
Audio branding is part of multisensory brand communication and comprehensive brand design. Its purpose is to tell the company's identity and values in a distinctive and unique way and to influence both long-term and short-term customer relationships with the company and its products.
Pleasant and well-produced audio advertising stands out positively, making it possible to effectively and comprehensively build the desired image in the target audience's minds. It also allows differentiation from competitors positively.
Source: Audio Advertising Effectiveness Study, Kantar 4/2024
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Bauer Media is the market leader in commercial radio and a trendsetter in the audio business in Finland. We are experts in audio and have the tools to build a productive brand voice. We offer our customers measurable business benefits through audio and together with our 17 audio brands, we work purposefully and curiously to make the world sound better.
Craneworks is the leading digital signage company in Finland, specializing in building and maintaining retail media networks and multi-sensory marketing solutions.
Doohlabs is an in-store retail media platform which enables retailers and media to build their own in-store retail media networks and monetize their audiences for advertisers.
