SCA continues digital growth, with 70% climb in unique listeners

Southern Cross Austereo (SCA) data shows the broadcaster is experiencing continued growth on the digital side of the business, with unique listeners at 1.5 million in November.

This puts November’s unique listeners on par with the September figure, and slightly above the October figure of 1.4 million, however it represents a 70% increase year-on-year.

Listening hours were 10.3 million, down slightly on September and October’s figure of 10.5 million, but again up year-on-year. The November year-on-year increase in listening hours was 29%.

Smart speaker listening hours sat at 2.4 million, on on par with October, but a 61% increase year-on-year.

And there were 8.8 million active streams in November, up 25% from 2019. October had 9.1 million active streams.

The figures measure SCA’s Hit and Triple M Networks, as well as SoundCloud Radio. It said when these assets are combined with SoundCloud’s music streaming platform and Sonos Radio, the company has a market-leading addressable audio offering covering the widest audience from Gen Z to Baby Boomers.

SCA’s head of streaming sales and operations, Jonathan Mandel, noted the opportunities for advertisers.

“Live radio streaming continues to grow and create scale for a premium addressable advertiser environment,” he said. “Our advertisers are leveraging data to plan and execute their digital audio campaigns with ease and success, driven significantly through programmatic audio and culminating in a record-breaking Black Friday weekend.”

He said savvy clients are now completing the loop with SCA’s new attribution tools, SCA Footsteps and SCA Soundcheck.

SCA Footsteps tracks consumers’ movements after they’ve been exposed to an audio advertising campaign via its live radio streaming or SoundCloud. Location data on their smartphone is matched with that of tech provider Hypo to identify store or location visits across Australia.

SCA Soundcheck uses ad tracking and retargeting technology to identify listeners who heard a specific ad. They will then be hit with a campaign study questionnaire, allowing comparison to a control group of internet users who have not been exposed to the ad.