Our team recently made a stop in Lisbon to attend Web Summit — one of the world’s biggest annual tech conferences. Not only did we connect with some of the biggest names in the audio, gaming, and advertising spaces — we also shared the space with some pretty prolific figures, including the Queen of Jordan, the President of Portugal, and even legendary author Noam Chomsky.

Audiomob Co-Founder and CTO Wilfrid Obeng also gave a talk at this year’s Web Summit, alongside some other major names in audio, gaming, and adtech. It was surely an event to remember — and Audiomob was stoked to be a part of this year’s panel! 

As we reflect on the awesome time we’ve had at Web Summit 2022, here’s a breakdown of what Wilfrid highlighted in his exciting presentation on the expanding relationship between audio and gaming.

What is Web Summit?

Web Summit is a Dublin-based company that holds annual tech conferences across the world to bring together top media outlets, leading speakers, and some of the biggest names in the tech industry. 

Each November, the Web Summit group holds one of its largest networking events in Lisbon, Portugal. This year’s big event ran from the 13th to the 16th of November, with an impressive lineup of speakers — including major political figures, leading journalists, and key leaders from the world’s biggest tech companies — including Apple, Meta, Microsoft, LinkedIn, Wikipedia, and many, many more.

Ads in our Ears

Alongside Ghazi Shami (Founder and CEO of Empire) and John Koetsier (Journalist at Forbes), Wilfrid presented a talk titled ‘Ads in our Ears’. 

With audio advertising being one of the fastest growing advertising mediums, Wilfrid, Ghazi, and John highlighted how artists and brands are turning to audio ads in gaming to reach consumers more effectively.

Here are some of the key takeaways from their talk:

Most consumers are gamers: The mobile gaming audience is very diverse in comparison to console games, making it one of the most effective mediums for reaching consumers. Other statistics are also highly noteworthy — such as that there are over 3 billion gamers, that 49% of mobile gamers are female, and that over 70% of parents play mobile games daily.

Audio is the best way to reach consumers: Our research with YouGov has shown us that 86% of mobile gamers are opposed to video ads. 28% of respondents have said they prefer audio ads, while only 18% prefer video ads in games.

Musicians are an advertising gateway: An increasing number of artists are looking for more cost-effective ways to reach their listeners. Moreover, Audiomob’s audio advertising campaigns evidence a huge increase in engagement when consumers hear artists’ voices inside ads. Other major artists are also jumping on board with these trends (for example, Snoop Dogg has collaborated with Deliveroo and Dr. Dre has famously collaborated with Apple to create Beats).

We’re also seeing more voice synthesis and gaming takeovers: Wilfrid also detailed how Audiomob is exploring voice synthesis, which will allow artists to lend their voice to advertising campaigns. While taking 30 seconds of someone’s speech, this technology is capable of formulating sentences in their distinct voice. We’ve also seen an influx of this same technology in some of the world’s most popular games, including Fortnite, IMVU, and Avakin life. In light of this, we have plans to develop the framework for artists to do game takeovers — which will allow their music to be played throughout more 3D environments.

See you in Lisbon next year!

It was an honour to be part of Web Summit 2022’s impressive panel and our team had an incredible time connecting with members from adtech, gaming, and other key areas of technology. We can’t wait to return to Lisbon for Web Summit 2023. See you there!