United Stations Head of Digital, Tracy Parsons, had the pleasure of speaking with recently appointed African Media Entertainment (AME) Head of Innovation, Chris Borain about his philosophical approach to innovation at large. You can read the conversation below.
What is your new role at AME, and how does it impact United Stations?
I was recently appointed as the Group Head of Innovation at AME, the holding company for United Stations, OFM, AlgoaFM, Moneyweb and MediaHeads360.
Primarily my role is to expand and enhance our “All Things Audio” strategy, which simplistically put, requires me to help facilitate the growth of all forms of digital audio content, audio streaming, and podcasts and ensure that our advertising clients can engage these audiences wherever they are.
What are you listening to right now?
A mix of traditional radio and digital audio:
- We recently launched SimplySmooth – a mix of all the best easy-listening music from the 80s onwards, which is a soundtrack to my life. I love listening to this when I am working.
- Smile FM which has been my favourite radio station since I settled in Cape Town, recently joined the US stable, so my dial remains fixed on 90.4 FM.
- I am a podcast fanatic, so a mixture of Wondery’s Smartless, Dan Snow’s History Hits, Brian Cox’s The Infinite Monkey Cage and my perennial favourite, Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist History.
- An old colleague of mine – John Robbie – recently started recording podcasts with another ex-colleague David O’Sullivan, and I’ve been listening to his interviews with fascinating people.
What do you think more people should be listening to?
The beauty of podcasting is the sheer variety of topics that are available. The difficult part is finding these gems. One of our goals is to find these gems – local and international – so that you can enjoy them with us.
Digital audio is fascinating as it can help you both focus and relax, by streaming a music service such as SimplySmooth or being educated and entertained by listening to the likes of Smartless and The Infinite Monkey Cage.
You should always be open to listening to new things, and we’ll be your trusted friend that introduces you to these gems.
What is your career background, and what made you choose radio?
I’m a chartered accountant by profession, and I was lucky enough to end up as Financial Director of Primedia Broadcasting just after they bought 94.7 Highveld Stereo and launched Cape Talk. I also moved around the Primedia group and managed iAfrica.com when it was the second largest website in the country.
We also lived in Australia for five years and I dabbled in online gaming and subscription television, but always ended back in radio.
With my new role, I’m at the cutting edge of radio and digital – an exciting space to be.
I’ve also been fortunate to be the Chairman of the IAB(SA), and a director of the Advertising Regulatory Board.
How can advertisers make the most of radio and digital audio?
As a group, we are very excited about the growth shown in digital audio since the first Infinite Dial research was conducted in 2019. With more people working from home, many are making streaming and podcasts their first choice in audio consumption.
Our digital audio brands now include Moneyweb and MoneywebNow, Simon Brown’s morning podcast which has shown incredible growth since it launched and averages around 120,000 downloads per month.
United Stations has the exclusive sales mandate for Wondery and IONO in South Africa.
Wondery – with podcast brands like Business Wars, Smartless and My Favourite Murder, reaches 120,000 South Africans each month. An important market missing from your radio campaign.
IONO is the technical partner for the majority of South African radio stations, offering both streaming and podcast solutions to an excess of 12 million economically active South Africans.
The benefits of combining your radio with a digital audio campaign are:
- Reach your audience anywhere and anytime – not just when they are in the car on the way to work.
- Target a specific audience – you can target audiences in much more granular detail.
- You only pay for the ads that are delivered – digital audio is based on impressions, not reach, so there is minimum wastage.
- Track and optimize your campaign on the fly – with digital audio campaigns, the campaign metrics are detailed and instantaneous, so you can optimize the campaign to suit your brand objectives.
- Pre-roll ads are the first thing the audience hears – being the only commercial message your customer hears, aids recall.
- Digital audio is cost-effective – did I mention that digital audio ads are based on impressions and not reach, so you only pay for the people who hear your ad?
