Chief Marketing Officer, AUDACY INC
Audacy CMO Paul Suchman and Stagwell's Alexis Williams in the Stagwell Content Studio at CES 2023
Stagwell Chief Brand Officer of North America, Alexis Williams and Audacy Chief Marketing Officer, Paul Suchman.
About Paul Suchman
Paul Suchman, Chief Marketing Officer at Audacy, has discussed the company's transformation from the radio-focused Entercom Communications into a multiplatform audio brand. He stated that the rebranding to Audacy, launched in 2021, was intended to position the company as a modern audio media and entertainment company alongside competitors like Spotify and iHeart. Suchman described Audacy as a "challenger brand" within the industry and noted that the company holds itself accountable to advertisers through reach, frequency, and precision metrics enabled by digital delivery. Suchman has emphasized the growing role of audio in media, describing it as a "visualist medium" that engages listeners through "theater of the mind." He cited the rise of screenless, voice-driven computing as a factor driving audio's growth and argued that brands need to develop an "audio identity" or "sonic identity." He also highlighted the importance of creators moving into audio from other platforms and the role of audio in building community and connection, particularly in a post-pandemic environment where people continue to seek meaningful interactions.
Transcript (16 segments)
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Alexis Williams0:03
I'm Alexis Williams, Chief Brand Officer for Stagwell, coming to you live from the convention floor at CES in lovely Las Vegas. I'm joined here by Paul Suchman, Chief Marketing Officer at Odyssey. Thank you so much for being here, Paul.
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Paul Suchman0:16
Hi Alexis, how you doing?
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Alexis Williams0:19
I'm doing great. Well, tell me a little bit about yourself. How did you get to CES today?
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Paul Suchman0:20
Well, I took a plane, so very modern. I have been here all week. I've been here since Tuesday. Odyssey is activating big at the event. We're seeing all of our clients. One of our killer sales people is just off camera here, and we are activating in the convention center, activating with clients. This is a year we're coming out and bringing the Odyssey brand to our clients and agency partners in a really big way.
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Alexis Williams0:52
The whole Odyssey name is a bit self-explanatory: all things audio. But tell us a little bit more about the business.
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Paul Suchman0:56
Our business: we are in the audio platform. We consider ourselves one of the big four audio platforms. We have about 235 of what we consider the best radio stations in the country in the major markets. We're the second largest commercial creator and distributor of podcasts. We have past studios that live under the Odyssey brand. We've just relaunched our Odyssey app, which is really redefining radio into a truly interactive experience, and we have a live events business. So it's the full audio ecosystem, advertising supported, listener driven, and it's going great. We're having a great time with it.
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Alexis Williams1:39
A medium that people can both really enjoy and also connect with in a way that's visceral, tactile, super real. Talk to me about what you think is making audio so resonant at this moment in time.
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Paul Suchman1:49
Well, we built this brand Odyssey. We're about two years old. We were truly a house of brands, and now we've become this branded house under Odyssey. We launched the new brand about two years ago, and the brand itself was launched on a proposition of real human connection. Those are not just meant to be words, because our legacy is so deep in radio, live local at national scale. The value we're delivering to communities of just real connection with real voices, personalities, content, it's driving our listenership up. In this day and age, even though out here off camera it's so crowded, people are still living fragmented, isolated lives. So these audio communities we're building, whether they're geographic based or shared interest based, they're really important. We're finding listenership, terrestrial radio, podcasts, on the stream is continuing to grow because people are craving that connection.
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Alexis Williams2:56
That's awesome. One of the things I find really interesting about CES this year as opposed to prior years is there's sort of three concurrent themes I see playing out. There's definitely something really big happening with creators and this idea of the sort of creators of content. Second, there's really something around connectivity and this need for communities and technology and content enabling that. Third, around content, that is clearly supreme and driving so much. When you think about Odyssey and the technology behind it and what you're seeing here at CES, talk to me about what you're most excited about. What are you most bullish about when you look out at the stuff on the floor?
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Paul Suchman3:37
Creators. This idea of creators, we're seeing creators coming into audio from other platforms. You're seeing people coming from movies, television, print, sports, politics into audio and back out again. It's really amazing. We're seeing all this technology that's enabling these creators to move fluidly through medium, and listeners and audiences are following these creators. All of this technology is smart and enabling listeners, whether you're viewers, listeners, subscribers, or digital consumers, to just move effortlessly throughout all of this technology. Obviously I'm super bullish about audio. We're seeing so many voice activated devices. It's going screenless, whether in the cars, computers, even your screens, you're speaking to your screens. Voice is such a dominant theme that is resonating across the convention center. It's so emotive too. You hear a sound, you hear a voice, and it immediately brings you back to some moment in your life, which is unlike a lot of other mediums and content. It's really cool. The other thing we're seeing is audio's influence in conversation. When brands used to think about how does our brand look, how does our brand speak, what's our brand voice, now the conversations are starting to evolve to include how does our brand sound, what does that evoke, and what is that emotional connectivity through sound. So I totally agree.
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Alexis Williams5:14
Looking at five years, because CES is always about the future, what do you think will be the most transformative and disruptive tech trend that's going to impact audio specifically?
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Paul Suchman5:20
That's a really hard one, and I don't know that I have a great answer, but I will tell you that I think it comes back to what I talked about with voice. If you look at the cars that are coming out, the trucks that are coming out, these EV trucks, they are fully voice commanded. The trend that I'm seeing is voice is a thread that rolls through all of the technology. It's going to become central. People are going to become the activators of their entire technology ecosystem through voice.
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Alexis Williams6:03
All right, well before we adjourn, how do people get involved with Odyssey? What can the person watching this video on social media do to learn more about the platform and engage with it?
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Paul Suchman6:12
Yes, go download the app. I need you to tell like 10 or 15 million of your best friends to download the Odyssey app. It's a really wonderful app. It allows you to come in through a specific podcast, a streaming station, or your favorite radio station. It's a smart app. It's going to get to know you and start to suggest content, suggest podcasts, suggest streams, radio stations. So that's one way to get to know us as a listener. And as an advertiser, come see the platform, see that connection that we're creating and how we can bring your brand into those environments in really organic, meaningful ways.
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Alexis Williams6:53
Awesome. All right, well Paul, thank you so much. Everyone tuning in, thank you for joining us. It's been great to learn more about Odyssey. Everyone, not to do a shameless plug, but you should check it out. Thank you so much for joining us. Take care.
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Paul Suchman7:05
Thanks Alexis.