The following was written by Mac Maison and Mamuna Oyofo of Atunwa Digital:
NEW YORK and GHANA, November 25, 2019 — Headquartered in New York with key personnel based in Africa, Atunwa Digital is a digital network that advises media enterprises on monetization strategies. We develop full-scale digital marketing and advertising strategies, helping clients from planning to execution and analytics.
Two years ago, we launched our initiative to help African audio content publishers better leverage digital distribution and advertising opportunities to get the most monetization value from their content. We find that while a lot of African media enterprises have loyal, global audiences listening to their content regularly, they do not possess the in-house technical expertise nor advertising capacity to fully realize its built-in value.
We were seeing a trend where many of these organizations were leaving revenue on the table by receiving only a small percentage back from their streaming or podcasting service provider.
COLLABORATION
We set out to address this issue by helping creators of African content reach both their local and diaspora audiences through online streaming, with the ability to serve geo-targeted advertising to their listeners, all while taking control of their digital future.
To do this, we needed to find an audio streaming technology provider who could supply not only the tools and infrastructure needed for online delivery, but also the support and expertise that our customers would need as they develop their own digital media autonomy. We wanted to work with a company that we could depend on for support, while collaborating with us to design the optimal streaming workflows for our clients.
A recommendation from one of our partners led us to StreamGuys, and we determined that they would be an ideal fit. In addition to having great tools, technology and support, they were willing to deal with us on a collaborative level. We now use the complete suite of StreamGuys services and solutions, from their robust content delivery network to their analytics tools.
At Atunwa, our advertising offerings span both programmatic and direct sales approaches, as we have established relationships with both multinational and local brands looking to reach the African demographic globally. StreamGuys’ integration with industry-leading ad platforms allows the insertion of dynamic, server-side, targeted advertising into our clients’ live streams and podcasts.
The targeted addressability of the ads is particularly valuable in capitalizing on revenue opportunities from the African diaspora living in the United States, Europe and other markets, as that audience receives spots that are relevant to them.
Another significant challenge faced by African content providers has been unauthorized redistribution of their content. It is crucial that content owners regain control of their streams and have visibility into their daily earnings. Unauthorized usage leads to revenue being taken away from the original content owners.
StreamGuys’ tools including the SGPassKey system enable our clients’ streams to be restricted to authorized distribution partners and are also integrated into StreamGuys’ embeddable SGplayer media player, giving us end-to-end security for both affiliate and consumer delivery.
The SGrecast live stream repurposing system enables our clients to turn live productions into on-demand podcasts, with automatic template-based publishing ensuring they are submitted correctly to aggregators. The fact that StreamGuys’ dynamic advertising capabilities are unified across both live streams and podcasts is advantageous; rather than managing two separate systems, podcasts just become a seamless extension of live operations.
The results of working with StreamGuys have been impressive. As an example, they have enabled us to deliver over tenfold growth in the monetization of radio content online for respected Ghanaian media organization Multimedia Group Limited, as well as significantly growing their digital traffic by taking back control of their content. Across five key MGL stations, monthly total listener hours increased by 152% and monthly cume by 96% in their first month of full operation with StreamGuys, and both metrics more than tripled over the past 18 months.
There has always been significant value in African content providers’ programming. Our goal with Atunwa is to build a digital network whereby we become the most trusted monetization source for African content publishers and the resource for brands/advertisers looking to connect with African audiences globally. StreamGuys’ streaming technology and expertise have allowed our clients’ digital media operations to become more independent, unlocking that value through the power of digital advertising.