{"id":117505,"date":"2020-07-07T19:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dacgroup.com\/audio-killed-the-video-star-how-audio-drives-engagement-in-the-age-of-multi-screening\/"},"modified":"2024-12-21T05:52:47","modified_gmt":"2024-12-21T10:52:47","slug":"audio-killed-the-video-star-how-audio-drives-engagement-in-the-age-of-multi-screening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dacgroup.com\/en-ca\/insights\/blog\/strategy\/audio-killed-the-video-star-how-audio-drives-engagement-in-the-age-of-multi-screening\/","title":{"rendered":"Audio killed the video star? How audio drives engagement in the age of multi-screening"},"content":{"rendered":"

Listen to this post<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

You may have noticed a trend emerge in the past couple of years that has content creators\u2014ranging from news outlets to scholarly article resources\u2014offering readers the option to listen to their long-form content online. From The Atlantic<\/em> to The New Yorker<\/em> to The Economist<\/em>, audio articles have become ubiquitous.<\/p>\n

Unlike podcasts, which require content strategy, production resources, and a distribution plan, audio articles take existing assets and convert them into playable audio files that are served alongside their written counterparts.<\/p>\n

But is adding yet another format into the crowded content landscape really going to improve engagement? In a time when we\u2019re consuming more content than ever, adding audio into the mix may seem like adding clutter to an already crowded room. And yet the evidence says otherwise. According to Megan Leap, Content Director at Convince & Convert, audio articles helped increase time on site from four minutes to nine minutes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hands-free convenience<\/h2>\n

With an overabundance of content available online, audiences are no longer struggling to find content they want to consume. Instead, they are struggling to find the time to engage with it. SpeechKit<\/a>, a tech company that enables news publishers to convert readers into listeners with audio articles, found that the convenience and mobility of audio editions served alongside news articles is giving readers a totally new way to engage with content that matters to them. The numbers speak for themselves: SpeechKit found an average listening time of 3:44 per article\u2014a nearly 300% increase in engagement time<\/a> relative to traditional text-only content.<\/p>\n

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Despite initial expectations that audio articles would be primarily consumed on mobile, SpeechKit reports that more than 40% of audio consumption happens on desktop<\/strong>. This “hands-free” approach to long-format content engagement lends itself well to users’ multi-tasking mentality\u2014appealing to audiences who want to mainline content without having to dedicate undivided attention to reading.<\/p>\n

As The Atlantic<\/em>\u2019s EVP of Strategy and Operations, Kimberly Lau, puts it: “Audio articles are about convenience and delivering content in a way that works best for our readers<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

Benefits you can’t ignore<\/h2>\n

So, as marketers, what opportunities does this application of audio content provide? The way we see it, audio presents three key benefits for brands of all sizes:<\/p>\n

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