Nuance Communications Unveils Voice Ads

Nuance Communications NUAN today unveiled Voice Ads, an innovative new mobile advertising format that lets people have a two-way conversation with the brands they love. By integrating Nuance's powerful voice technology, Nuance Voice Ads transforms traditional mobile advertising into an engaging and entertaining conversational experience, and finally gives consumers a say in the way brands advertise to them – literally. Mobile advertising is one of the fastest growing segments of digital advertising landscape. According to eMarketer, mobile ad spending around the world more than doubled in 2012 from $4 billion in 2011 to $8.41 billion, and anticipates that spending will approach $37 billion by 2016. Despite the explosive growth, mobile ad revenue still lags behind the larger-screened PC and Internet TV experiences. The billion-dollar question in all these billions – how can advertisers create a more engaging experience that compels the consumer to act? The way we see it, nothing is more engaging or natural than a conversation. Nuance Voice Ads gives mobile advertisers and creative agencies an opportunity to go beyond the limitations of the four-inch mobile device screen and create a conversation with consumers through the power of voice recognition. Voice Ads finally creates an opportunity for brands to deepen the relationship with their consumers, with targeted interactive ads that deeply engage their core audience – much in the way that the world's most popular mobile personal assistants have deepened consumers' relationship with their mobile phones. Nuance has partnered with many of the leading companies in the mobile advertising ecosystem to ensure broad reach and distribution for Voice Ads – a completely new format for mobile advertising. Creative advertising agencies include Digitas, OMD and Leo Burnett, while mobile advertising companies such as Millennial Media, Jumptap and Opera Mediaworks (AdMarvel, Mobile Theory, and 4th Screen), will provide distribution to more than 100,000 app publishers and hundreds of millions of consumers globally. In addition, mobile rich media ad servers such as Celtra are providing tools for rich media production and analytics on mobile devices.