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Audience Engagement Usage

Audience Engagement Tech Usage Skyrockets As Radio Continues to Work from Home

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Futuri’s cloud-based technology sees record usage amid shifts in working and listening behavior.

New data from Futuri shows that usage of their audience engagement technology, designed to make it easy for broadcast teams to work remotely and reach listeners wherever they are, has seen huge growth as so many continue to work remotely amid COVID-19 disruptions.

Futuri, which was just named to the Inc 5000 List of America’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies for the seventh consecutive year, compared product usage data from the four-month period prior to mid-March coronavirus disruptions to the four-month period since.

TopicPulse: The AI-driven show prep, story discovery, and social content system has seen a 61% increase in user sessions. The spike in TopicPulse usage, which uses AI to identify which topics and angles that resonate with a specific local audience, was largely tied to content focused on how local communities are responding to coronavirus-related topics.

POST: As radio adjusts to changing listener habits, podcasting and audio-on-demand production system POST has seen a 27% increase in usage. Much of that growth is driven by stations using its web-based logger feature to help easily time-shift live content, which enables brands to reach and monetize audiences who now operate on a different schedule. Users are also increasing use of video functionality, using POST to instantly convert any audio segment into a video post for social.

Futuri Streaming: Total listening hours have increased 41% across the group of stations that use Futuri’s streaming product as listeners whose normal routines have been disrupted seek new ways to listen to their favorite stations.

Other Futuri solutions designed to support distributed teams, like sales intelligence system TopLine, have seen double-digit growth since the onset of COVID-19 disruptions.

“We work with thousands of broadcasters, and the creativity and ingenuity we’re seeing as teams more deeply embrace technology like ours is inspiring,” said Futuri CEO Daniel Anstandig. “Sales and content leaders who adapt to new ways of working productively and reaching audiences and buyers with the right content at the right time will continue to thrive moving forward.”

Stations interested in a complimentary consultation with Futuri on their productivity and distribution strategies can schedule one by filling out the form below.



how radio can cash in on booming digital ad spending

How Radio Can Cash in On Booming Digital Ad Spending

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With brands spending at record rates on mobile, digital audio, and digital video, radio stations can showcase their best products and add new offerings to grow revenue.

Here’s some good news for radio broadcasters: The digital ad market is surging and now is the time for local stations to cash in. Local radio companies have invested heavily in digital audio, mobile and digital video, positioning them to grab a larger share of digital ad dollars. Consumers are shifting their media time to mobile devices and that’s good for radio’s digital products.

Just how much money are we talking about?

  • U.S. marketers spent $28.4 billion on digital advertising in Q1 2019, up 18% from Q1 2018, according to a new report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers. 
  • The strong quarterly growth comes after a banner year in 2018, when digital ad sales jumped 22% to $104.7 billion, compared to 2017 levels. 
  • Mobile advertising spending doubled last year to $70 billion, compared to 2017 levels. 

As more consumers turn to their smartphones for entertainment, digital audio and video streaming are booming, and advertisers want to reach these audiences.  

  • Thanks to red-hot podcasting and digital streaming, brands are doubling-down on digital audio, spending $2.3 billion last year, up 23% from 2017’s $1.7 billion. 
  • Digital video is similarly growing at a breakneck pace, with ad spend up 37% in 2018 to $16.3 billion, compared to 2017.  

So what are the takeaways for broadcasters? Here are a few suggestions

Keep your mobile apps fresh

The best radio station mobile apps feature live streams, on-demand content, podcasts, and user-favorite features like contests. These are all key components to creating a positive mobile experience for your users. Make sure your mobile app is easy to use and continually revisit to explore new features and integrations. And don’t forget that with the growth of Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, and SDL, mobile apps compatible with these technologies are your ticket into the connected car in a meaningful way.

Podcasts, podcasts, podcasts

Your listeners and your advertising partners can’t get enough of podcasts, so focus on developing more original on-demand audio and make your broadcast content available for on-demand, time-shifted listening. Offer advertisers opportunities in your on-demand audio including exclusive sponsorship and even branded podcasts. 

Develop mobile ad opportunities

For local advertisers, offer mobile ad opportunities that go beyond banner ads. You can create branded content, including video and podcasts, and you can also offer sponsorships for popular sections of the app, such as weather or traffic. Lastly, make sure that your live stream quality is as strong as your over-the-air broadcasts to ensure users have a positive listening experience. Pre-roll, midroll, and post-roll video ads give local businesses a chance to get into digital video. Also, be sure to present podcast ad opportunities, these are a major growth area for digital audio.

Dig into digital video

Both users and marketers are clamoring for more digital video. Radio stations can shoot video in studio or in the community. Local events, sports and concerts all offer opportunities for video. There’s even opportunities to create video to accompany original podcasts. Local businesses can buy pre-roll, mid-roll and post-roll video as standalone or in conjunction with audio spots. Radio can also produce branded video content for local advertisers, leveraging both their production and sales capabilities.

So how do you tackle all this to-do list? Futuri Media can help. 

  • Top-quality mobile apps: With Futuri Mobile, we can design mobile apps with custom features to showcase your best content and create an immersive mobile experience. Our apps are highly customizable; choose from one of three starting points and create a station app that has any of literally hundreds of customizations. 
  • Get into the video business — without derailing other parts of your business: To help time-strapped hosts and producers with content, we’ve added TopicPulse Instant Video. Subscribers can access dozens of videos daily, based on the day’s hottest topics that they easily can customize with their station branding and even their own PPM-encoded audio. Distribute these on your mobile, web, and social channels. And our POST podcasting system makes it incredibly simple to turn your audio into a video with a licensed image and a dynamic waveform designed to drive engagement. It’s a great way to take advantage of YouTube and other video sharing platforms for your audio content.

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By embracing mobile, digital audio, and digital video, your station can participate in the fast-growing digital and mobile ad boom, as well as bring more innovative and exclusive content to your audience. That’s a win-win for everyone. 

4 ways to maximize your talk breaks

Four Ways to Maximize Your Talk Breaks

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To create engaging breaks, radio should focus on timely tidbits, local happenings, and reveal themselves 

Faced with more competition than ever, radio stations need to make sure their listeners stick around for talk breaks rather than tuning out. The good news for AM/FM stations? Audiences want to hear what hosts have to say. In fact, listeners routinely say their favorite DJs and hosts are a top reason they use local radio. Talk breaks give these popular personalities a chance to speak directly to their audience, engage them on quirky or newsworthy topics, give a glimpse behind the curtain, or get personal. To make the most of breaks radio hosts and producers should plan and program these segments. Understanding that it takes 5 minutes of listening within a 15 minute period to get ratings credit helps us strategize length and content of these breaks as well.

When it comes to breaks, you want to sound as fresh as possible. If you’re a country station, your listeners want the latest music news and celebrity gossip. Sports listeners are hungry for info and insights on their hometown teams. Pop stations can dish on pop culture news and fun factoids to entertain younger fans, like it being National Avocado Day or National Leftover Day and local celebrations or promotions. Radio hosts can share details about their lives and interests. (Listeners really do want to hear about your dating life and your new puppy!) In these breaks you have the audience’s attention, so don’t waste the opportunity. 

Of course, radio hosts and producers are already multi-tasking media mavens juggling on-air, digital, and social responsibilities. Here are four suggestions for making your breaks as engaging as possible: 

  1. Hot topics in your community

    Radio stations are local experts, so there’s no one better to share news and information about happenings in your community. During talk breaks, music stations can share news about upcoming concerts and events while also plugging events your station is sponsoring and where talent is making appearances. You can also clue listeners in on up-and-coming acts that might be coming to town as well as intimate venues they should check out. Similarly, news and talk stations can keep listeners up to date on local news and current events including any newsmakers coming to town or gatherings. Sports stations can dish on local players and teams as well as upcoming opponents and the best tailgates in town.

  2. Give them the best industry news

    When it comes to dishing on the latest news and gossip, you need to be as plugged in as possible. Listeners expect their favorite DJs and hosts to be in the know.  Music format talent should be as up to date as possible on pop culture, celebrity news, and music information, and they should be ready to share that information like a newscaster. Likewise, sports stations can comment on developments in your team’s league or conference and information on teams and sports. Establish your over the air, digital, mobile, and social brand as the go-to resource for your audience’s latest news and information needs and your breaks will become indispensable.

  3. Craft conversation starters and destinations

    Listeners often view breaks as water cooler moments that give them fodder to use in casual conversations throughout the day. To facilitate those moments, radio hosts should be on-point with trends, quirky tidbits, and oddball news, and as they then relay that to your audience and tell them how it impacts your life. This can even be a way to tie in advertisers. For instance, if it is National Ice Cream Day, tell your listeners about your favorite flavors or failed attempts at making homemade ice cream. You can also direct them to a local ice cream shop for free cones. With effective breaks, you can help guide listeners’ conversations as well as drive them to local businesses.

  4. Keep an eye on what’s fading

    While it is important to stay on top of news and trends, you also need to know what’s fading out. These may be topics that you want to avoid, such as a song that’s past its prime or a celebrity who has faded from public view. If the audience thinks you’re out of touch with what’s cool and interesting you lose your platform as a must-listen during breaks. Take note of the topics in your industry that seem to have lost their luster, whether that’s an overplayed song, an overexposed talent, or a meme that’s had its five minutes run out.

At Futuri Media, we know AM/FM stations need help tracking news and trends. Our TopicPulse tool is like insurance for your talk breaks. We track what topics and conversations are trending or fading with your specific target audience so you can focus on your live broadcast, and make sure any voicetracked content is as fresh as possible once it airs. As a real-time story discovery tool, TopicPulse’s AI curates news and information from social channels like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram as well as more than 100,000 verified news sources. We track what’s popular, what is emerging, and what’s fading.

With TopicPulse, hosts and producers can quickly and easily find fodder for talk breaks, social posts, on demand content, and more! The web-based tool allows you to search by format, topic. and even keyword to find information and news stories that are relevant and interesting to your listeners. Based on our live-tracking, TopicPulse can see what topics are trending and what is burning out. During a live radio broadcast it is invaluable to know what your audience is searching for and reading about in real-time. Our system tracks what is about to go viral, and you can’t get much more up-to-the-minute than that.

TopicPulse also offers IdeaStarters™ that are updated in the TopicPulse app throughout the day and delivered via e-mail twice daily to prep for AM and PM drive. These packaged talk break content offerings feature talking points and even pre-written script suggestions that your hosts can plug and play.

topic pulse Nielsen

TopicPulse Launches New Show Prep Features as Nielsen Audio Study Confirms Its Measurable Results in Time Spent With Radio

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Study shows that users of Futuri Media’s real-time, AI-powered show prep system have consistently higher CUME and AQH share than non-users

Cleveland, Ohio, October 17, 2018 – Futuri Media, a global leader in technology designed to drive audience and revenue growth for broadcasters, today announced the addition of new features to TopicPulse, its real-time, AI-powered show prep system, as well as the results of a new study from Nielsen Audio that shows its measurable results on time spent with radio.

TopicPulse is the only show prep system that uses artificial intelligence that combines real-time insights from Facebook, Twitter, and 100k+ other verified sources of news and information, paired with a team of moderators and content writers, to:

      • Identify topics that resonate with a show’s specific target audience, including Audience, Demo, Format, Market, or Category, in real time;
      • Determine which stories are about to go viral and which are burning out; and
      • Deliver IdeaStarters™ copy points that can be used to kick off a conversation as-is on broadcast, station websites, or social media.

New features available to TopicPulse users include:

      • The Rundown: TopicPulse users can now create an interactive show rundown by dragging and dropping stories and IdeaStarters™ into specific time slots and sharing the schedule with their team. The Rundown’s ‘What’s Missing?’ feature will surface the top five stories trending with a station’s audience that haven’t already been selected for its Rundown.
      • 2018 Midterms Pulse: TopicPulse users can now see which stories related to the upcoming Midterm elections are trending with their audience. This feature is active for all News/Talk stations and available to all other TopicPulse users upon request.

The new features launch at a time when TopicPulse is demonstrating clear ROI for its partners. Nielsen Audio recently conducted a study that correlated ratings of TopicPulse users vs. average stations, and examined whether heavy users of TopicPulse correlated with even higher ratings. Key findings include:

      • Stations doing real-time show prep with TopicPulse have 2x higher cume and AQH share in both P18-49 and P25-54 demos compared to average PPM measured stations.
      • The more frequently TopicPulse stations use the system, the higher their average cume and AQH share. The ten heaviest users of TopicPulse, based on number of logins and minutes used, had +7.3% higher cume rating and +3% higher AQH share than average TopicPulse users.
      • Morning Drive users logged into TopicPulse during the show had 48% higher 6a-10a M-F AQH share than stations that only log in the night before.

The study also determined that morning shows using TopicPulse consistently performed better in AQH share compared to those not using TopicPulse, a finding that was consistent across multiple formats and demos.

Index of AQH Share on TopicPulse client stations vs. average non-TopicPulse client stations during Morning Drive

      • Rock / Classic Rock: 131% P18-49, 116% A25-54
      • Top 40 / AC: 115% P18-49, 100% A25-54
      • Country: 98% P18-49, 85% A25-54
      • Urban: 37% P18-49, 22% A25-54
      • N/T/S: 12% P18-49, 35% A25-54

“A solid blend of art and science is critical for making content decisions that will engage audiences in today’s fragmented media landscape,” says Futuri Media Senior Vice President of Operations, Todd Thomas. “We’re proud that the science TopicPulse technology delivers – a capability no other show prep service delivers – is delivering such a strong competitive advantage for our partners.”

Scott Lindy

Scott Lindy joins Futuri Media’s Partner Success team

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Longtime radio programmer brings his talents to Futuri

Veteran programmer Scott Lindy has joined the Partner Success team at Futuri Media. In his new role, Lindy will work with Futuri’s radio partners to devise station-specific strategies for using the company’s audience engagement technology, like POST, TopicPulse, and #engage, to drive ratings and revenue growth.

Lindy, most recently Program Director at Cumulus Media’s country WKHX Kicks 101.5 Atlanta and Cumulus corporate Program Director, adds his more than 30 years programming experience to Futuri’s Partner Success team. In addition to Cumulus, he’s held programming positions at companies including iHeartMedia and SiriusXM Radio, and he’s served on the boards of directors for several industry organizations, including the Country Music Association and Country Radio Broadcasters.

“I’ve been a fan of Daniel Anstandig since the day we met,” said Lindy of the Futuri Media CEO. “I’m so excited to join the talented team and invigorating culture he’s built here, and to help our partners best use Futuri’s truly innovative technology solutions to stand out in an increasingly crowded marketplace.”

People at the beach jumping for joy

Summer is the Time to Drive Digital Engagement

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Consumers turn to digital in the summer more than any other time of year. Engage your audience across all digital platforms using technologies proven to boost both audience engagement and revenue.

This summer, as more Americans stream audio in cars, on smart speakers, Bluetooth devices, and smartphones, online audio is primed to be more popular than ever. For radio broadcasters, this equals new opportunities to engage with audiences and attract advertisers.

In recent years, online listening for both radio broadcasters and pure play services has been booming. About 57% of Americans, or 160-million users, are streaming digital audio weekly, up from 53% last year and just 17% in 2010, according to the latest “Infinite Dial” report created by Edison Research. The average listener consumes more than 13.5 hours of digital audio per week, including music, spoken word formats, and podcasts.

In-car digital audio is also rising in popularity, 44% of consumers listening in-car, up from 40% in 2017 and 21% in 2013, Edison reported.

Meantime, radio stations are working to maximize new revenue streams from digital platforms. Last year, radio digital ad revenue jumped 13.4% to $700-million and is expected to reach nearly $800 million this year, according to the Radio Advertising Bureau and Borrell Associates. On a per station level, digital accounts for 7.5% of the average station’s ad revenues, up from 6.3% last year.

At Futuri Media, a global leader in SaaS software for broadcasters, our solutions make it simple to create, distribute and share content across digital platforms, and to produce and integrate ads for digitals channels.

Futuri Streaming delivers the finest-quality streaming audio to your mobile app and web player through our reliable system and comes with 24/7, VIP support.

Our team can create a custom mobile app just for your station. Optimize mobile with Futuri Mobile, our app platform that boasts more than 50 customizable features, including contests, push notifications, audio and video streaming, and more.  

POST, our exclusive content delivery and management system, enables on-air talent and producers to easily create digital content, including podcasts. The in-studio, touch-screen system makes it simple to grab and upload content for digital and on-demand listening, and to create exclusive digital audio.  

To help monetize digital, POST’s audio is PPM encoded, which enables broadcasters to measure their digital listening in the same ratings system as on-air audiences. POST also offers ad-insertion to create custom messages for podcasts and digital audio.

With #engage, our interactive programming tools, stations can keep up with trending topics. Our customized actions, including song alerts, text and email notifications, push alerts, and song voting, boost mobile and social engagement. Stations can sync social posts to song lists.  

Our custom-built Alexa skills can deliver your content, promotions and ads to Alexa-powered smart speakers.

Keep up with your audience’s trending chatter with TopicPulse, a real-time monitoring system that tracks the stories of interest to your listeners and provides fodder for on-air, online and social posts.

Let us help you be the soundtrack for the summer. Contact your Futuri Media partner rep or contact us here.

people looking at their phones at a train stop

Mobile Usage in America Reaches All-Time High

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Radio Must Respond with Mobile-Ready Content

How many times a day do you check your smartphone? The answer is probably much more than you think. In fact, the average American checks their phone every 12 minutes, or 80 times per day, and nearly one in ten Americans peek at their phones every four minutes, according to a recent study by Asurion.

Among smartphone users, streaming audio and podcasts rank as top activities. Radio broadcasters are eager to connect with these mobile consumers – and with good reason. Each day, 40% of Americans stream audio on their smartphones, according to the latest findings from Edison Research Infinite Dial. In fact, 75% of podcast listeners engage with programming content on a mobile device more than any other source.

Through mobile apps and websites, radio stations can offer live streams, on-demand music, podcasts and more to their consumers. Mobile serves as a tool to extend the life of on-air content as stations time-shift their most popular shows, or offer replays of live shows and music events.

Now more than ever, radio broadcasters need to be mobile-ready. According to Pew Research Center, smartphone penetration is at an all-time high, with ownership reaching 77% among adults, up from just 35% in 2011. The smartphone penetration reaches its highest loyalty with consumers between 18-29 with 94%; and 89% own a smartphone with adults 30 to 49. The boomer generation of adults ages 65 plus, have yet to make the consumer conversion to smartphones with the lowest ownership rate of 46%. 1:10 Americans are smartphone-only Internet consumers, following an overall market trend to more mobile connectivity and fewer broadband households, according to Pew Research Center.

Media consumption is driving Americans’ mobile usage, with 50% of Americans relying on their smartphones to receive breaking news alerts, while the device also serves as a buying tool with 51% making online purchases via their device, and 28% searched for work.

At Futuri Media, a global leader in SaaS software designed to drive audience and revenue growth for broadcasters, we believe smartphones are key to grow listening and the bottom line.

Futuri Media’s suite of tools can help you create, distribute and monetize your digital content across platforms. Allow us to share a few ideas:

Futuri Mobile:  Our mobile app platform offers more than 50 customizable features, including contests, push notifications, audio and video streaming, and more. Our team can design your mobile app with the features that are most important to your station and audience.

POST: With our exclusive content delivery and management system, on-air talent and producers can easily convert content for on-demand consumption. Producers can grab and upload benchmarks and exclusive interviews, and create bonus content, such as an after-show podcast or in-studio visit from a musician and local personality.

TopicPulse: Our real-time monitoring system tracks the stories your specific target audience is responding to now so you can talk about it on the air, on a blog and on social channels.

Futuri Streaming: Deliver top-quality streaming audio to your mobile app and web player through our reliable system, which includes 24/7 support.

#engage: Stay on top of what’s trending with our interactive programming tools. Designed to increase your mobile and social interactions, we offer customized actions, including song alerts, text, email and push notifications, and song voting.  Stations can even sync their social posts with their song lists so listeners can build their own playlists.

Want to learn more? Contact your Futuri Media partner or reach us here.

 

futuri logo

Futuri Media Makes a Broader Set of Patented Interactive Features Available for Licensing

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Cleveland-based technology company holds patents in more than 150 countries worldwide.

Cleveland, Ohio, April 18, 2018 – Futuri Media, a global leader in SaaS technology designed to drive audience and revenue growth for broadcasters, today announced that it is making a broader set of its most popular intellectual property available for license to media companies who desire to use its award-winning IP in their own applications.

Futuri, named Tech Company of the Year 2017 by OHTec, has an extensive portfolio of intellectual property assets. These include patents (of which the company has 11 published or pending), trade dress, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets. Futuri has protected IP filed in 151 countries, and has licensed IP to media companies in twenty countries to date.

While Futuri’s IP licensing agreements are typically in connection with product subscription or service agreements, Futuri is now opening up licensing for features and systems of interest to media companies desiring to build their own apps or other software in the likeness of Futuri’s award-winning IP.

Futuri’s product offerings include Futuri Mobile™, highly-customized and engaging mobile apps; on-demand and podcasting system POST™; the TopLine™ sales research and data visualization app; story discovery and show prep tool TopicPulse®; interactive broadcasting system #engage®; high-quality, ultra-reliable Futuri Streaming™; and smart speaker skills for broadcasters.

“Since Futuri Media launched in 2009, we’ve invested millions of dollars in innovation, feature set development, and new technologies. Along the way, we’ve taken considerable measures to protect Futuri’s unique intellectual property – not just our products, but the underlying technology that powers each of them,” said Futuri Media CEO Daniel Anstandig. “We’re pleased to open discussions regarding licensing to partners who want to build on our current innovations while Futuri continues to focus on our core mission – driving audience and revenue growth by deepening consumers’ trust in, affinity for, and loyalty to brands and the teams who represent them.”

For more information on licensing Futuri’s intellectual property, please contact Kelly Johanns at kelly@futurimedia.com.

 

OH Tech Award Badge

Futuri Media Reflects on a Year of Growth

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We were honored to be named OHTec’s Tech Company of the Year 2017, and honored again when they reached out to us to get an update on what we’ve been up to since winning. This article originally appeared on the COSE website.

What a thrill it was for Futuri Media to be named OHTec’s 2017 Tech Company of the Year!  Ever since we launched our company out of a tiny Rocky River office in 2009, Futuri has maintained a deep belief in the quality, passion, and promise of the Northeast Ohio technology community. Today, we employ nearly 100 people, our SaaS technology solutions are relied on by more than 1,000 broadcasters in 20 countries worldwide, and all of this happens right here in Cleveland. That’s a clear testament to fact that Northeast Ohio’s technology industry is thriving, and we’re incredibly proud to be leaders in this community.

In the months since receiving OHTec’s 2017 Tech Company of the Year honor, Futuri Media has continued our rapid growth.  In August, Futuri was named to the Inc. 5000 List of America’s fastest-growing private companies for the fourth consecutive year, and this year, we took the coveted #1 spot for percentage of three-year revenue growth among all Northeast Ohio software firms. Obviously, revenue growth means that we can hire more people to create, market, sell, and train partners on Futuri’s innovative SaaS technology solutions, so we’re very focused on an Inc. 5000 five-peat in 2018.

Speaking of hiring more people, the size of our team has more than tripled in the past three years, and we’re currently hiring for several new positions. We’re sure that many who have worked in a fast-growing startup environment know that growing pains frequently manifest themselves in the office, in the form of a lack of personal space. It’s hard to do brilliant work when you’re packed in like sardines! So this year, after working from a series of spaces that couldn’t accommodate our faster-than-anticipated growth, we moved into a new headquarters.

On the product side, our incredible technology team once again outdid themselves by creating, maintaining, and constantly improving on dozens of new features, and in some cases, new products. Our entire family of audience engagement and sales SaaS technology solutions has been deployed around the world – interactive broadcasting tool #engage; podcasting and on-demand platform POST; sales research and data visualization app TopLine; data-driven story discovery tool TopicPulse; high-quality Futuri Streaming; our smart speaker skills division, Futuri Voice; and our app division, POST, our podcasting and on-demand audio platform, was one of our highest-growth products. While this might sound unsurprising to anyone who’s familiar with the incredibly fast pace of growth in the streaming audio market – a recent Nielsen Audio report showed that 2017 saw a 59% increase in year-over-year on-demand audio streams – we built POST to stand out in a very crowded technology market. For example, understanding that visuals are a great driver for on-demand audio consumption – and that an increasing number of brands are getting fined for unauthorized usage of copyrighted photos – we built a library of fully-licensed images into the product.

We completely redesigned TopicPulse, our real-time story discovery tool that delivers audience-specific insights based on engagement on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and 100k+ sources of verified news sources. As one of our TopicPulse partners, Emily Stone at Fox 5 DC, recently said during a panel at a convention of television executives, “You used to go into your news meeting with a stack of papers…you’d assign your reporters, and you’d start your day. Now, everything would be different by the time you printed the paper.” Media has never been in such a period of rapid change, and it’s critical that the art of story selection be paired with the science that tools like TopicPulse provides. Now, broadcasters can see in real time not only which stories are predicted to go viral with the specific demographic they target, but they can also see which stories their audience is tiring of, and find fresh angles on ongoing stories to keep their audiences engaged.

We’re committed to generating strong ROI for our partners.  In January, we launched the Futuri Ad Network to help our partners take better advantage of on-demand audio growth. Now, POST and Futuri Streaming clients have very flexible ad insertion options, where they can sell all of their advertising inventory, some of their inventory, or none of it. Inventory is available through the Futuri Ad Network and our clients are compensated for their time.  Of all the reasons we’re excited about this, it’s gratifying that our technology now gives our partners direct access to revenue opportunities.

Futuri is well positioned for another banner year. There are several new product developments and partnerships that will be announced over the coming months, and as always, we continue to cultivate a company culture centered around trust, speed, passion, and proactivity. We’ve consistently found that the best talent thrives in that type of culture.

We’re very much looking forward to future events OHTec and its technology partners have in store! It’s so important to take the time to celebrate Northeast Ohio’s incredible technology community. We’re a fast-moving, forward-thinking, change-minded group of people, and to see this sector booming is incredibly gratifying. And we love all the opportunities Tech Week provides for us to meet our peers, share ideas, talk about how what we’re doing to shape the future, and encourage each other.

Learn more about Tech Week, of which the Best of Tech Awards is a part, by clicking here.

Futuri Alpha Media

Alpha Media Stations Add Futuri Media’s SaaS Technology Solutions for Podcasting, Show Prep, and Smart Speakers

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Group deal includes Futuri Media’s POST for podcasting, TopicPulse for story discovery and show prep, and Alexa Skills

 

Cleveland, Ohio, January 17, 2018 – Futuri Media, a global leader in SaaS technology designed to drive audience and revenue growth for broadcasters, today announced a wide-ranging deal with Alpha Media, a diverse multimedia company. This new partnership empowers all 228 of Alpha Media’s stations in 50 US markets with multiple tools from Futuri Media’s audience engagement suite.

All Alpha Media stations will have access to podcasting system POST, which instantly turns broadcasts into PPM-encoded on-demand audio, complete with fully licensed images, and distributes on multiple platforms; and customized Alexa Skills, enabling all stations to make streams, on-demand content, and interactive features accessible in the hugely-growing Alexa-enabled device market. More than 50 select Alpha stations will have access to TopicPulse, the revolutionary story discovery and show prep tool that analyzes social media and 100k+ sources of verified news and information to deliver audience-specific insights on what’s trending, what’s about to go viral, and what’s on the downswing.

“Alpha Media is a fast-growing, diverse media company, and it’s a privilege to extend their brands’ reach and engagement as their technology partner,” said Futuri Media CEO Daniel Anstandig. “Marrying Alpha Media’s content and local media expertise with Futuri’s audience engagement technology gives their brands reliable, real-time consumer intelligence and distribution on multiple key platforms, like smart speakers. We look forward to powering their programming innovations.”

“Like Alpha Media, Futuri Media prioritizes quality and innovation, and you can see that in their products. That made this partnership a natural fit,” said Alpha Media CEO/President, Bob Proffitt. “I was impressed by Futuri Media’s commitment to training services, round-the-clock support, and ongoing consultation. They understand the industry and how to engage fans of every demographic.”

ABOUT FUTURI MEDIA

Futuri Media is a global leader in SaaS technology designed to drive audience and revenue growth by deepening consumers’ trust in, affinity for, and loyalty to brands and the teams who represent them. Futuri Media’s audience engagement and sales technology, for which it holds 11 published or pending patents in 151 countries, is used by thousands of broadcasters and publishers worldwide. Named to the Inc. 5000 List of America’s fastest-growing private companies for four consecutive years, Futuri Media’s best-in-class customer support is a key driver of its growth. Founded by CEO Daniel Anstandig in 2009, Futuri Media is dedicated to driving measurable success for its partners through innovative SaaS technology, proactivity, speed, and trust in all of its relationships.

ABOUT ALPHA MEDIA

Upon the successful completion of all pending transactions, Alpha Media, a diverse, multimedia company will own or operate 227 radio stations and 224 websites serving 49 markets across the United States. In addition to the stations and websites, Alpha Media owns the intimate performance venues, PDX Live Studio in Portland, OR., Alamo Lounge in San Antonio, TX, and StudioEast in Kenosha, WI. Strong relationships with clients and community members keep Alpha true to its Live and Local philosophy. Alpha Media is relentlessly focused on innovation, efficiency, and entertainment.

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Futuri is the leading provider of cloud-based audience engagement software for the enterprise. Brands rely on Futuri to make their content more relevant, accessible, engaging, and results-driven. Founded in 2009, Futuri holds 11 published or pending patents in 151 countries. Named to the Inc. 5000 List of America’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies for seven consecutive years, Futuri is the only audience engagement platform that includes solutions for sales, marketing, and content teams.