Ignite Creator Studios Launches PODignite, A Tailored Content Marketing Strategy

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Ignite Creator Studios, the newest state-of-the-art digital media production facility in Bergen County, NJ, is adding PODignite, a tailored content marketing strategy package, to its array of services. PODignite provides the strategic roadmap for businesses looking to solidify their brand voice and expand their audience reach.

Ignite Creator Studios offers a full suite of services, including podcast production, social media content creation, and branded content development, yet co-founders Gil Edwards and Joseph Oriente realized many clients were missing a critical piece to success: A comprehensive digital media strategy. 

PODignite is the service they are uniquely positioned to provide safer a combined 30+ years of proven industry success. Edwards brings a background of leadership in broadcast, digital product development, and content syndication for companies like CBS Radio and Sirius XM, while Oriente, founder of CommunityPass, brings decades of entrepreneurial and production experience.

“Our mission is to IGNITE business and community growth through content,” says Edwards. “In today’s fast-evolving digital landscape, content is essential to brand awareness, trust, and growth. We provide not only the technical tools but also the strategic guidance creators and businesses need to succeed.”

“We make content creation easy and accessible for everyone,” addd Oriente. “From seasoned professionals to newcomers, we’re here to support your creative journey from concept to distribution.”

Ignite Creator Studios is located in the heart of Ridgewood, NJ, and is now open for booking. For more information on PODignite or to schedule a consultation, visit ignitecreatorestudios.com or contact Ignite Creator Studios at info@ignitecreatorsstudios.com or 201-588-6266.

Nearly Half Of The UK Have Listened To A Podcast In The Past Week

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It’s official – podcasting has firmly established itself as a dominant force in advertising, outpacing traditional channels such as radio. New data from Acast, the world’s largest independent podcast company and Nielsen, a global leader in audience measurement, data, and analytics, reveals that an impressive 42% of the British public have listened to a podcast in the past week and 21% listen at least once a day – highlighting the medium’s growing influence and reach.

Podcasting has matured into a crucial platform for advertisers seeking to engage with a captive and diverse audience. This surge in podcast popularity reflects changing consumer behaviours, where on-demand content is increasingly preferred for its convenience, variety, and accessibility.

Podcasts are a media channel that has seen one of the most substantial increases in consumption in the past six months (43% increase for listening to podcasts, 39% increase for watching podcasts), with listeners citing many reasons such as self-development and mental health as reasons for their increased consumption.

Podcasting’s Unique Appeal To Advertisers

Podcasts offer advertisers a unique environment, combining audio content’s intimate and personal nature with sophisticated targeting capabilities. The data shows that podcast ads are perceived as one of the least intrusive (ranked second least intrusive behind cinema), and the British public trust podcast hosts twice as much celebrity ambassadors (45% vs 20%).

This combination allows for highly effective and personalized ad placements, resonating more deeply with listeners than traditional, broad-spectrum advertising methods like radio. In fact, 25% of monthly podcast listeners do not listen to the radio.

Multichannel Approach

Video podcasts cannot be ignored. Over half of monthly podcast listeners (51%) have watched a video podcast in the last seven days, and 37% of listeners in the UK actually prefer podcasts that include video.

Podcasts’ immersive experience helps form strong listener relationships, making podcast advertising an invaluable tool for brands aiming to increase their reach and impact. Video podcasts allow listeners to enjoy visual engagement and see the hosts’ facial reactions or body language.

Josh Woodhouse, Regional Managing Director, UK & Ireland, notes, “Podcasting has transitioned to a mainstream media channel in an incredibly short time. Our latest findings underscore the importance of podcasting as a popular entertainment medium and a powerful advertising platform. It’s clear that podcasts are not just keeping pace with traditional media but setting new standards for how content and advertising an interact in a digital age.”

The full 2024 Podcast Listener Landscape report from Acast is available by emailing sales.uk@acast.com.

Next Broadcast Media And AudioStack Launch AI-Driven Audio Production

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Next Broadcast Media And AudioStack announce a strategic partnership to bring advanced AI-driven audio production capabilities to advertisers in the MENA region, enabling the rapid creation of high-quality, multilingual audio ads and content at scale. 

By integrating AudioStack’s cutting-edge technology, NBM enhances its existing platform, allowing advertisers to seamlessly produce custom, contextually relevant audio spots to engage diverse audiences across podcasts and digital audio channels.

Next Broadcast Media (NMB), one of the largest global podcast and digital audio advertising networks, and AudioStack, the world’s leading infrastructure for fully automated, scalable AI audio production, have joined forces to provide advertisers, media agencies, and publishers with tools that streamline production and maximize creative potential.

Together, they will enable seamless integration of dynamic, scalable audio systems that adapt to the demands of today’s digital broadcasting and podcasting environment. By incorporating AudioStack’s advanced AI production suite, NBM expands the capabilities of its existing platforms, allowing clients to generate multilingual audio spots faster and unblock more creative possibilities for digital ads, mobile gaming, and podcast sponsorships.

“With AudioStack’s advanced AI capabilities integrated into our suite, we are enhancing how agencies and brands in the MENA region can create impactful, high-quality audio ads across multiple formats and languages,” says Adel Saadi, Co-Founder and Managing Director at Next Broadcast Media. “This partnership strengthens our mission to empower brands to harness the full power of audio effortlessly and effectively, delivering unmatched value through flexible, high-performing audio solutions that adapt to diverse campaign needs.”

Adel continues: “Bringing AudioStack’s state-of-the-art technology to the MENA region addresses a critical need for brands looking to connect authentically with diverse audiences. With a rich tapestry of dialects and regional variations, this partnership enables us to produce tailored, culturally relevant audio content that resonates with local listeners, ensuring our clients’ campaigns are impactful and effective.”

AudioStack’s Co-Founder & COO Björn Ühss added, “Our collaboration with Next Broadcast Media empowers us to push the boundaries of audio creation. We are excited to combine our technology with their broadcasting solutions to help customers in the GCC & MENA Region achieve new levels of audio performance and flexibility.”

This partnership represents a significant milestone for both companies as they continue to drive innovation and provide customers and agencies with tool that offer greater adaptability and creativity in their audio workflows.

For more information, please visit https://nextbroadcast.media and https://audiostack.ai.

Wondercraft’s New “Director Mode” Puts Expressive AI Voices In The Spotlight

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Wondercraft, the world’s first AI-powered creative audio platform unveiled “Director Mode”, a feature that gives content creators unparalleled control over AI voices. This latest release turns Wondercraft’s audio editing platform into a virtual recording studio, allowing users to direct AI voice characters with precision and nuance.

Building on the success of Wondercraft’s Parrot Mode — which was released earlier this year and enabled AI voices to mimic a user’s own intonations and pronunciations — Director Mode is taking AI voice technology to new heights.

Wondercraft users can direct performances through a chat interface; instruction AI characters to adopt specific accents, emotions, and even unique speech patterns. This advancement will enable brands leveraging AI voices to express complex emotional narratives and subtleties with greater ease.

Wondercraft’s platform leverages the latest AI innovations from OpenAI, Google, Anthropic and a range of LLMs and voice models. With the launch of Director Mode, Wondercraft becomes the first audio platform to integrate OpenAI’s newest and most advanced model into its production studio.

Key features of Director Mode include:

Natural language interface: Give performance instruction to AI voices via a simple chat interface.

Full emotional range: Combine different emotions, moods, accents and tones for full-range voice performances.

Endless creative possibilities: From “speak English with a strong Swedish accent” to “sound excited but your trying to hide it,” or combine the two. The only limit is the user’s imagination.

Oskar Serrander, co-founder at Wondercraft, comments:

“Users can now ask their Wondercraft characters to authentically act out their scrips: Gasp, laugh, cheer, sound insecure, sarcastic or even speak like they have a mouthful of food in a New Jersey accent. Director Mode puts you in the coveted Director’s chair with complete control of the theatrical performance when producing ads, voice-overs or content.

“With Director Mode, Wondercraft is evolving to a must-have tool in the modern marketer’s tech stack. This feature represent a big leap forward in our mission to provide fast, affordable, safe and secure pro-quality audio creation in any language for brands and creative teams.”

Director Mode works seamlessly with Wondercraft’s extensive library of voice characters and the platform’s voice cloning feature, available to Pro and Enterprise users. This combination offers virtually limitless possibilities for creating distinct, engaging audio content for advertising, video voice-overs and content.

The platform is on a mission to make high-quality audio storytelling accessible to creative storytellers, with over 60,000 creatives across more than 50 countries already leveraging the tools, including teams from leading audio companies around the world including Amazon, Acast, DAX, Paytunes, Wondery, Audacia, Otonal and more.

Australia’s Audio Ad Industry To Reach Diverse Audiences At Scale

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The global audio advertising marketplace, Audacia Audio, is enabling brands and agencies in Australia and Asia Pacific to access diverse international audiences in a one-stop marketplace for their campaigns in a first for the industry, meeting rising demand.

Brands and agencies have previously found it difficult to reach minority groups including culturally diverse languages, audiences with a disability and the LGBTQI+ community. Audacia Audio helps brands and agencies target premium audio advertising campaigns to diverse audiences internationally at scale.

Audacia Audio Founder & CEO Kym Treasure said, “Audio advertising has gained immense popularity worldwide and serves as a vital opportunity for Australian brands to penetrate international markets and access diverse audiences at scale.”

“Throughout Australia, more than 23% of consumers communicate in a language other than English at home. Multicultural targeting is a growing and significant demographic that all brands must take into account. Audacia Audio empowers marketers to effectively reach these important audiences,” said Ms Treasure.

According to Santosh Murthy, Managing Director of Identity Communications — IPG Media brands’ diverse audience specialists, and an Audacia Audio partner, “We know Australia is growing, and this growth is being propelled by diverse audience groups.

“Relevant changes with in-language content is required to reach and communicate effectively with growing multicultural populations of Australia – with the growth coming from Gen Z and young families. Audio, through radio has been a penchant for multicultural Australia over the decades and we are excited to explore how digital audio can extend this to age groups for both Government and corporate campaigns,” said Mr Murthy.

Audacia Audio is the only independent, global, digital audio advertising solution, providing a powerful combined solution for brands and agencies across Podcasts, Gaming, Music and Streaming.

Audacia Audio was founded in Singapore by ex-Spotify Sales Director, Kym Treasure in November 2022, identifying a gap in the market for a comprehensive premium audio advertising marketplace in Asia Pacific. Since inception, the Audacia Audio team has delivered over 50 campaigns across 15 countries around the world for brands including McDonald’s, Porsche, Mastercard, Cancer Council and many more.

Across Asia Pacific, Audacia Audio is assisting airlines and tourism organizations in reaching inbound customers by producing audio ads in their native languages, including Singapore Tourism Board, Singapore Airlines and Malaysian Airlines.

The business has experienced 400% year-on-year growth from 2023 to 2024 and is ready for expansion throughout the APAC region. According to IAB, audio advertising revenues are expected to more than double between 2023 and 2025, presenting a significant opportunity for market growth.

Audacia Audio is also poised for growth, having partnered with five of the leading media buying agencies in Asia Pacific, — IPG, OMG, Dentsu, Publicis Group, and WPP – while also expanding its partnerships with independent media agencies and brands directly.

“Collaboration with the largest media buying agencies in Asia Pacific, we enter our third year primed for significant growth. Our relationships with premium global publishers will enhance our clients’ opportunities to engage with previously untapped audiences. This unique access will allow brands to reach consumers internationally including minority groups and multilingual audiences, in their local languages, in ways that no other marketplaces can,” said Ms Treasure.

Combining media buying, creative production, diverse audio environments, and thorough reporting including attribution, the Audacia Audio solution creates efficiencies for media agencies and brands. This streamlined approach allows for effective campaign planning, audio production, distribution, and reporting of audio investments.

Oxford Road And Veritone One Combine To Create World’s Largest Podcast Agency

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Oxford Road and Veritone One, two leading audio and creator-based advertising agencies, announced their plans to form the world’s largest podcast group and leading creator-based media entity. The deal, facilitated by Insignia Capitol Group, positions the companies to transform how brands leverage audio and creator-led content to drive measurable results. Both businesses will continue to operate independently in the near term, with future designs for a unified lead brand.

The transaction unites Oxford Road’s international traction and industry innovation with Veritone One’s advanced technology stack, data capabilities, and creator-led video and influencer expertise. This union addresses a critical gap in the market, offering brands unparalleled access to and performance in podcasting, streaming audio, radio, and creator-based video channels.

“Brands have been missing out on the full power of audio and creator-led content because these highly fragmented channels are challenging for firms without deep subject matter expertise,” said Dan Granger, CEO of the newly combined organization. “Our mission is to redefine the value of these channels for advertisers. With Veritone One’s industry-leading tech and data platform, in combination with Oxford Road’s innovation on behalf of brands, we’re creating an agency that sets a new standard.”

Key benefits for brands include:

Unmatched Scale and Experience: As the world’s largest podcast buyer and a leader in creator-based video, the new entity offers brands access to unparalleled market leverage and expertise.

Advanced Performance Metrics: The combined company boasts the industry’s most robust data set in audio and creator-based video, delivering superior performance results through insights and optimization.

Comprehensive Channel Coverage: From podcasts and streaming audio to radio and creator-based video, brands will access best-in-class services across all audio and creator-led channels through a single, integrated agency.

Innovation in Brand Safety and Measurement: Building on existing tools like Audiolytics, and new metrics in Brand Safety, the merged company will continue to lead in creating innovative solutions for the industry’s leading measurement challenges.

Global Reach with Specialized Focus: This creates a unique entity offering the specialized expertise of a boutique agency with international scale, serving both direct-to-consumer and established global brands.

“This endeavor is a pivotal moment for brands seeking the next generation of media opportunities,” said Connor Doyle. President of Veritone One. “Podcast, audio, and creator-based media continue to outperform, but the industry still lags behind other mediums in key area. Having a shared focus will deliver unparalleled leverage, knowledge, and results for our clients, which helps the industry monetize at greater rates. For those of us dedicated to audio, this is a very good thing.”

The companies will continue to operate each business as usual, with plans for integration and expansion to be announced at a time that best serves all clients. For brands looking to unlock the full potential of audio and creator-based advertising, this union represents a significant opportunity to partner with the industry’s leading experts, realizing unmatched scale and performance.

According to Tony Broglio, President and Partner at Insignia Capital Group, “The advertising industry continues to rapidly evolve as brands seek more effective ways to reach consumers. We believe these two businesses are at the forefront of digital marketings next great evolution with the transformative growth of audio and creator-based advertising. By combining forces, we are empowering brands with unprecedented access to innovative solutions and influential creator networks, setting a new benchmark for the industry.”

Canaccord Genuity served as financial advisor and Cooley LLP served as legal counsel to Veritone. Cascadia Capital served as financial advisor to Insignia Capital and Oxford Road. DLA Piper served as legal counsel to Insignia Capital and Sheppard Mullin served as legal counsel to Oxford Road.

 

Slipstream Acquires Anthem Production Music Group

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Slipstream, the leading music licensing platform, has announced the acquisition of Anthem Entertainment’s production music businesses, specifically US-based Jingle Punks and 5 Alarm Music, and UK-based Cavendish Music. The acquisition comprises of more than 650,000 tracks, together with music production capabilities and now positions Slipstream as the largest global independent music licensing platform.

The acquisition, facilitated by the financing and expertise of Pollen Street Capital, has unlocked Slipstream’s potential to emerge as the market leader. Moelis & Company acted as exclusive financial advisor to Anthem Entertainment on the transaction.

Dan Demole, co-founder of Jingle Punks and former President of Anthem Production Music Group, and Jesse Korwin, former Managing Director of Jingle Punks, founded Slipstream in 2021. Now, with this new acquisition, they are reclaiming their previous businesses, marking a full-circle moment for both. This purchase also underscores Slipstream’s ambitious vision to redefine music licensing across TV, film, advertising, gaming, social media, and brands.

Slipstream takes control of three renowned production music brands: promotion music agency Jingle Punks, 5 Alarm Music, the largest independent production music library for film, television radio, and commercials in North America, and Cavendish Music, the UK’s oldest and largest independent production music publisher, celebrated for its high-quality compositions and extensive catalog used across global media platforms.

Slipstream will continue to provide creator-safe music for digital content makers, as well as expanding their offering for traditional film, TV and advertising clients. Their platform now caters to content producers and creators of all sizes across the entire media landscape, from social content creators and small businesses to global brands and enterprises.

Dan Demole, CEO of Slipstream, said: “This acquisition is a homecoming for us. Jesse and I built both Jingle Punks and Slipstream on the foundation of making great music accessible to every type of creator. We now have an unprecedented opportunity to build on the success of both brands while leading the next wave of innovation in music licensing. With this vast catalog on our tech-enabled platform, we’re not only the largest independent player in the space, but also the most innovative.”

Jesse Korwin, Chief Revenue Officer of Slipstream, adds: “Our focus is to blend creativity with technology, making it easier for TV networks and producers, brands, filmmakers, and creators of all sizes find and license the perfect soundtrack for their content. We’re excited to leverage our experience in production music and our deep understanding of client needs to deliver something truly groundbreaking for the industry.”

Anthem Entertainment has placed Jungle Punks, 5 Alarm, and Cavendish Music back in the familiar and capable hands of proven leaders in the production music and technology space. Dan and Jesse already know these businesses have a unique vision for their future as part of Slipstream. Our belief in them as leaders and their unique vision is the reason we have also chosen to invest in Slipstream going forward.”

Michael Katramandos, Partner at Pollen Street, adds: “We are very excited to be partnering with the Slipstream team and supporting them in a transformational acquisition that will create one of the market leaders in production music. Combining a vast music library, fresh tech and Dan and Jesse’s deep industry expertise, makes this a very exciting business to be part of and one that could contribute materially in reshaping an industry that is evolving at a rapid pace.”

Dive Deeper Into Your Favorite Podcasts With DeepCast

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DeepCast, Inc. is revolutionizing the future of podcast listening and discovery with the launch of DeepCast. DeepCast is focused on becoming the central hub for audio content intelligence, transforming how people discover, engage with and monetize spoken audio content, starting with podcasting.

There are more than 4.2 million Podcasts (podcastingindex.org – June 2024) today, streaming over multiple platforms. DeepCast leverages the latest in AI -based natural language processing (NLP) and large language models (LLM) to help listeners search and discover the most relevant podcast content, guests, topics with key insights and meaningful excerpts immediately available and easily sharable across networks and modalities.

“We are on a mission to enable the next evolution of information distribution and facilitation of meaningful conversation,” says Lucas Dickey, CEO and founder of DeepCast. “The goal is to leverage AI in a meaningful way to make podcasts more accessible for listeners and more effective for storytellers. Our roadmap is quickly developing as the platform that will give billions of listeners and creators the higher-quality, immersive experience in the direction technology is leading.”

DeepCast currently offers podcast listeners:

Easy sharing of episodes, quotes, and transcript snippets

Knowledge-graph relationships between episodes, topics, and people/company/products

Rich episode summaries and key takeaways

Al-informed advanced search and intelligent navigation

All data searchable as indexed as an open web app

In addition, DeepCast recently announced the launch of DeepCast Pro, DeepCast’s comprehensive AI-powered platform offering podcast creators a full suite of solutions designed to empower podcasters in their post-production journey, focusing on enhancing the entire podcasting community’s discoverability, audience engagement, and overall success across all distribution channels.

If you are a listener, DeepCast’s immersive platform has all the tools necessary to drive a feature-rich podcast experience through better recommendations, intelligent search, easier sharing of episodes and clips, and other ways to sample shows that are “new and interesting”, DeepCast is a must have for any podcast enthusiast and is and is adding new features regularly. To try DeepCast, and customize your listening experience, visit https://deepcast.fm./

If you are a creator interested in saving time, spreading the word, connecting with audiences, and capturing revenues. Claim your show and create an account now to get started for free here: https://deepcast.pro/

Audacy Bolsters Its Addressable Audience Targeting And Personalization Capabilities

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Audacy is strengthening its addressable audience and identify capabilities through a collaboration with Experian, a global data and technology company.

Audacy will leverage Experian’s digital identity graph to gain a more comprehensive view of listeners’ digital identifiers, ultimately enhancing the listening experience for its digital audience across the Audacy app and website. By better understanding its consumers and their preferences, Audacy plans to deliver more relevant content and offer more precise advertising solutions, enabling advertisers to reach specific goals with greater accuracy.

Additionally, Audacy will integrate Experian’s Audiences into its platform. This will allow advertisers to build and reach target audiences in real-time using accurate listener insights such as demographics, shopping behaviors and interests. This integration will lead to more personalized and relevant advertising experiences, providing advertisers with a higher return on investment.

“As we continue the re-imagination of Audacy, our investments in our digital audio product suite are essential,” said Brian Benedik, Chief Revenue Officer, Audacy. “The creation of an Experian-powered Audacy identity graph is an important step in the process and allows us to create more value for both marketing partners and our listeners.”

“We are collaborating with Audacy because of their innovative vision for the future of audio,” said Chris Feo, Chief Business Officer, Experian. “Historically, audio advertising lacked precise targeting capabilities, making it challenging for advertisers to reach specific audiences. By integrating our digital identity graph and syndicated audiences with Audacy’s platform, we’re transforming how advertisers connect with listeners. This collaboration enables more effective audience targeting and delivers personalized, impactful audio experiences across all channels.”

Veritonic Enhances Brand Lift Solution With Advanced Self-Service

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Veritonic, the industry’s comprehensive audio analytics and research platform, announced significant enhancements to its renowned Brand Lift solution. These updates are designed to streamline the setup of both pixel-based and prefix-URL studies, offering users increased control and flexibility. 

The new features include a templated questionnaire that simplifies the study setup process and facilitates the easy entry of audience profiling questions. This user-friendly design enables straightforward definition of parameters and an increase in self-serve management of brand lift studies.

Additionally, Veritonic has increased the ability for teams to collaborate within the platform itself, adding a feature that allows users to invite colleagues or partners to work together on the study setup. This functionality offers customizable permission levels, including options to view, approve, edit, and manage sharing.

Moreover, users can now leave comments within the study setup process, enhancing communication and feedback within the platform. These advancements highlight Veritonic’s commitment to delivering a flexible, user-centric experience for brands aiming to measure and optimize their campaign performance.

“Today’s enhancements to our Brand Lift solution represent a significant leap forward in empowering our users,” said Scott Simonelli, CEO and Co-Founder of Veritonic. “By simplifying the study setup and providing advanced collaboration tools, we are making it easier for teams to gain actionable insights and optimize their campaigns with grater efficiency. These updates reflect our dedication to enhancing user experience and ensuring our clients have the flexibility and control they need to drive impactful results.”

The leading provider of independent and holistic audio data and analytics, the Veritonic platform is supporting the audio strategies of leading brands, agencies, and platforms around the world. For more information or to request a demo, visit www.veritonic.com or contact sales@veritonic.com.

About Veritonic

World-renowned brands, agencies, publishers, and platforms rely on Veritonic’s comprehensive audio research and analytics platform to research, test, and measure the ROI of their audio assets and campaigns pre-market, in-market, and post-campaign.  The resulting insight enables clients to gain confidence in their audio investment, mitigate risk through optimization, and increase return as they engage consumers with compelling audio experiences.

For more information, visit https://www.veritonic.com.