Dynamic Radio is the first and only ad-replacement technology in the world for traditional radio (AM/FM/DAB+). While “dynamic creative” itself may not be new, the concept applied on radio has allowed advertisers to be more targeted, relevant and effective, without losing scale – and to create campaigns never-before thought possible on broadcast radio.

Beyond its innovative technology, Dynamic Radio has also breathed new life into Radio – a channel often dismissed as a “dying medium” despite its resilience through the Internet era; its inception offers an unprecedented solution for bridging the widening gap in advertising between analogue and digital media.

Digital platforms offer targeting capabilities audio isn’t known for. Inspired by software from the world leaders in dynamic audio creative (A Million Ads), we formed a partnership to implement their technology on our digital audio platforms.

Yet lack of scale quickly became a barrier; the digital audio market is still immature in Australia compared to the powerhouse of broadcast radio, which compels 76% of Australians to listen each weekday. This realisation led to our creation of the code behind Dynamic Radio – Transonic – allowing A Million Ads' technology to connect to our own radio broadcast technology.

Dynamic Radio currently has the dynamic targeting abilities of digital audio (time, day, daypart, location, weather, creative sequence, advertiser data, music, voice). It can be served across any inventory on our AM, FM and DAB+ stations, and as such, abides by standard Australian regulatory codes.

In Ebiquity’s Re-Evaluating Media study, radio was proven to be the best-performing channel for targeting (“targets right people at right place at right time”) – a media attribute agreed as the single most important by advertisers. Despite this, advertisers ranked Radio equal-last in performing this job.

It was clear radio had a perception problem: while radio is famous for connecting on a personal level, advertisers didn’t see radio as a personalised channel. It was analogue, mass and therefore limited. That’s why radio attracted only 7.8% share of Australian media agency spend in 2020, despite reaching 82% of our population each week.

We recognised to shift this bias and overcome channel under-utilisation, we needed to demonstrate the same capabilities seen in digital media – hence Dynamic Radio was born. The ambition: help advertisers recognise the true potential of radio by enabling the power of personalisation on the scale of broadcast radio.

6 Nov 2019 – 10 Jan 2020 Planning, Topology and Coding of Transonic product

13 Jan – 21 Feb 2020 Offline testing of Transonic code

20 Jan – 25 Jan 2020 Hardware configuration

25 Feb – 6 Mar 2020 Test campaign goes live on select DAB+ stations

11 March 2020 Revised partnership agreement signed

11 Mar – 14 Apr 2020 Test campaign goes live on DAB+ stations nationally

20 Apr – 1 May 2020 Training Engineers, Traffic and AdOps teams

6 May – 2 Jul 2020 Client and agency presentations / rollout

8 May 2020 Sales training

26 June 2020 Recording of first client campaign

5 August 2020 Test campaign goes live on all AM, FM and DAB+ radio stations

5 August 2020 Deployed quantitative research to determine effectiveness

5 October 2020 First paid client campaign goes live

9 November 2020 Deploy neuro research to determine effectiveness

Dynamic Radio is the end-product of our software, Transonic, allowing online ad-replacement technology (A Million Ads) to talk to our radio broadcast playout system.

It requires two separate systems: the first is located within our secure automation network (Back End); the second within an internet-facing zone (Front End). The Transonic software allows both systems to communicate between our broadcast playout system and the A Million Ads’ (AMA) servers.

Both the Back End and Front End systems are hosted on-site in each of our radio markets to mitigate against disruption to our inventory.

The Back End polls the live automation logs in the broadcast playout system to find upcoming scheduled ads, and sends a request to the Front End, which sends a request to the AMA servers with unique parameters of station ID, and whether dynamic or generic audio is required.

The dynamic creative is then downloaded from the AMA servers and sent to the Back End, which verifies and loads the new, dynamic audio creative into the automation system.

This entire process has an audit trail with logs and alarms to ensure the system is operational, and downloads a default version of the creative, protecting against internet or server outages.

Dynamic Radio has been transformative in modernising the radio industry, and rejuvenating advertiser awareness of the power and capabilities of radio to drive effectiveness.

Neuro A/B testing research has proven Dynamic Radio ads to be more effective than standard ads, driving up to 100% higher peaks in attention, memory encoding and engagement. We are confident it will become the ‘new normal’ for advertisers, in their continual quest for addressability and ROI.

On a global scale, the potential of Dynamic Radio is significant; the exportable nature of our code means it will allow global radio networks to compete with on-demand audio streaming platforms, whose market share is growing.

Since the first Dynamic Radio campaign went live on 5 August 2020, some of the biggest brands in the world, including McDonald’s, Toyota, Mazda, Ladbrokes, Panasonic and 7-Eleven, have cited our technology as the reason for winning their business.