Tags containing: "audio advertising"

As podcasting soars, advertising follows

September 2, 2021 Micaeli Rourke – Independent Media Reporter

Although the pandemic has revolutionized many of our media consumption habits over the past 18 months, one thing has become increasingly clear: podcasts are not going anywhere. Even as new work-from-home regimes supplanted daily commutes at the height of the pandemic, audio programming continued to find its way into the ears of its consumers.

According to The Infinite Dial, an annual report released by Edison Research and Triton Digital earlier this year, over eighty million Americans ages 12 and up (roughly 28% of the U.S. population) are weekly podcast listeners. That’s a 17% increase in listenership, which is sizable compared to the 9% increase recorded from 2019 to 2020.

“Let me be the first to admit — the increase from 24% to 28% year-over-year did surprise me,” said Tom Webster, SVP of Edison Research and co-author of the report. “In a year in which absolutely nothing was normal, podcasting grew even more than it had the year before.”

Once society enters a truly post-pandemic era, Edison Research’s Webster is confident that listenership will remain loyal, particularly with the resurgence of the daily commute. “Habits are habits. And when people go back to the office, we’re going to see a lot of these habits stick.”

A formidable playing field for ad spending

Advertisers are banking on this habit retention and focused audience attention. The podcast advertising market continues to rise steadily, quarter after quarter. By next year, the global podcasting industry is anticipated to reach $1.6 billion.

While leading podcast providers like Spotify have reported less users than they projected for the second quarter of 2021, their advertising sales are up 110% from last year. Congruently, their ad revenue has jumped from 10% to 12% in the past 12 months.

“It’s clear to me that the days of our ad business accounting for less than 10% of our total revenue are behind us. I expect ads to grow to be a substantial part of our revenue mix,” Spotify CEO Dan Ek told investors in a conference call last month.

According to research conducted by Magellan AI, podcast spending in the second quarter of 2021 rose by a sizable 22% from the first quarter of this year, a 40% increase year-after-year. It’s worth noting that, according to Magellan AI, sports podcasts added the most new advertisers in Q2 than any other genre.

Impactful advertising

Which brands packed the biggest ad-spend punch? For longtime podcast listeners, direct-to-consumer brands like HelloFresh, Casper Mattresses, or BetterHelp may come to mind. Although, in recent months, larger corporations have risen to the top of the list of biggest ad spenders.

What makes the podcasts so valuable to advertisers, especially the behemoth brands that seemed to have gone “all in” on podcast advertising in recent months? (In particular, what’s in it for those like Amazon or Geico, which seemingly have no lack of demand for their products/services?)

“When you look at that [podcasting] audience, that audience is typically more affluent, more educated, has a higher disposable income. So, it’s very attractive to advertisers,” according to Damian Radcliffe, digital media analyst and professor of Journalism at the University of Oregon. “The other big factor here is that podcast advertising tends to be pretty limited & there’s a value in that exclusivity for podcasters which is quite appealing.”

A season of exclusive brand extensions

As the podcast industry continues to rise in listenership and sponsorship, we can also expect a growing wave of corporate partnerships and exclusive podcasting networks. This month, HBO Max and WWE both announced they would be launching exclusive podcast programming for their subscribers.

HBO Max will be producing a number of ad-free podcasts as in-app exclusives to subscribers, beginning with “Batman: The Audio Adventures,” a scripted series featuring the voices of A-list actors Jeffrey Wright and Rosario Dawson. HBO already has over 25 network-specific podcasts that expound upon its programming including “The Chernobyl Podcast” and “Allen vs. Farrow.” However, “Batman: The Audio Adventures” will be the first audio program exclusively available to HBO Max subscribers beginning this fall.

WWE has teamed up with The Ringer, a subsidiary of Spotify, to create an exclusive audio network specific to wrestling-related content, in what will be a multi-year audio content partnership

“I think this is a model we’re going to start to see also in the podcasting space,” explained Radcliffe. “Instead of this content being available and distributed via an RSS feed to any number of podcast platforms it’s going to be locked in, behind a paywall. The only way [listeners] are going to be able to access it is by taking a subscription to that platform.” Radcliffe also points to an interesting development that’s emerged over the last couple of months, the ability to subscribe to specific shows with a paid relationship.

As media Goliaths and corporations continue to expand their purview to the podcasting sphere, brands across every industry are finding ways to appeal to even the most obscure of consumer niches. Considering that some podcasts have as much listenership as prime-time television viewership, there is no lack of ‘big fish’ in the podcasting pond. All advertisers need to do is find ways to reel them in.

Best practices for embracing the ‘podvertising’ future

Focus on presenter reads

The Super Listeners 2020 study from Edison Research found that 48% of respondents reported paying greater attention to podcast ads than any other form of media advertising. A big reason for this is due to presenter reads.

“If you look at things like presenter reads as a format…It is seen as a very effective way to reach an audience because it feels more integrated into the show, a more seamless part of the content,” explained Radcliffe. “It doesn’t feel as intrusive as ads coming in the same way as pop-ups, banner ads online, or TV advertising.” Radcliffe added that when it comes to presenter-read advertisement, tone matters. If advertisement copy is read casually and informally, it has a tendency to be less obtrusive to listeners.

Select podcasts that make sense for your brand

According to Radcliffe, “As [podcast advertising] continues to grow and as we see more specialized content being offered, that creates more opportunities for targeted advertising.” Although, Radcliffe was quick to emphasize an overlap in listeners and brands’ target consumers. “There has to be a cultural fit there. A fit in terms of style and content.”

Benchmark ROI with listener discount codes

If you’ve ever listened to a podcast, you may have heard advertisements that provide discount codes to listeners of the show. Not only do these discounts incentivize potential consumers, they are “quite a quick way to get a benchmark of ‘Is this advertising working? Am I actually converting listeners into consumers of my product?’ which matters a lot to advertisers,” said Radcliffe, adding, “They know exactly where that consumer has then come from.”

For larger brands, small conversion rates can still be valuable

“Because the reach of a lot of these shows is large, brands don’t need a large percentage of conversion,” Radcliffe articulated. “Their equivalent ‘open’ rate could be small but because brands have got scale in terms of that audience reach. That could still be very valuable for them.”

Yes, your newsroom can get into podcasts. Here’s how.

December 19, 2019 Corinne Podger—Director, Digital Skills Agency

Starting a podcast is easier than ever now. But how do you create a sustainable strategy around audio content, especially in the local and regional newsrooms that are dwindling at an alarming pace? That was the question Alison Gow, Digital Editor in Chief for regional content at Reach Plc – one of Britain’s biggest regional publishers – began exploring last year.

Reach had several podcasts spread across the business, created as passion projects by staff keen to experiment with audio. These included Black Mirror Cracked and Blood Red, both of which performed very well with audiences.

However, Reach lacked a strategic framework around its shows, which would better enable growth. So, at the end of 2018, it began formalizing its podcast output, switching from Audioboom to Acast. It also created new internal positions to explore the long-term viability of audio content and other emerging platforms.

One of those staff, Michael Pearson, now a permanent podcast producer at Reach, says the results were enormously encouraging. “We found that the levels of engagement of a podcast audience were far greater than any other platform we were currently utilizing, be it website dwell time, video watch-rate on our owned and operated websites or on other social platforms,” he says. The podcast audience also gave additional value to Reach’s existing sites, because people clicked through from podcasts to the site and vice versa.

Putting formal support structures in place gave shape and focus to existing shows. It also provided strategic direction to new ones, including Everything is Black and White and a mental health show called No Really I’m Fine.

Audience demand

However, one question the publisher still didn’t have an answer for was whether there was an appetite among regional audiences for podcast content made specifically for them. “Audio at the moment is dominated by comedy, true crime, and sport. We wanted to know whether local news providers could find a foothold in that market, and – on the other side of that equation – how a local audience might discover that content,” Gow says.

So, Reach joined forces with another large regional publisher, JPI Media, and a new podcast provider called Entale, to bid for Google funding to explore the viability of local and regional shows. In July this year they secured a €500,000 Google News Innovation grant over two years for the Laudable Project.

Google’s Digital News Innovation Fund was created to fund creativity in digital journalism and the development of new business models. Madhav Chinnappa, Director of News Ecosystem Development at Google says, “We’re seeing more and more innovation by publishers in podcasts and voice technologies, and we’re proud to support initiatives like Laudable which can have a real and positive impact on the news ecosystem.”

Reach used the grant to help pay for studios, recording equipment and dedicated podcast producers. It also paid for training for around 50 reporters to help them turn ideas for new regional podcasts into reality in three trial cities – Manchester, Birmingham, and Edinburgh.

The new shows will be available across all major podcast platforms. However, they’ll also be hosted by Entale, which is using some of the grant funds to design bespoke analytics that give greater granularity on key indicators. Entale will also build an Android version of its IOS app, through which users can access interactive visuals and other online content as they listen.

The first Laudable shows are starting to go live, beginning with The North Poll, a show about politics from a northern British perspective, which launched in November. Other new shows include North In Numbers, which gives a human voice to data journalism stories, The Edinburgh Briefing, and Scran, a new podcast about food from The Scotsman. More podcasts will launch in early 2020.

Building the business

Gow says the Google grant has given Reach and JPI “breathing space” to test the value of podcasts to local and regional audiences without the pressure to monetize those shows straight away. “We wouldn’t have been able to scale like this [without Google’s support],” she says. “The time commitment and investment involved in this project, the cost of building studios – it’s a huge amount of money when you’re a regional publisher.”

Now, she says, they’ve “been given a low-risk environment to find out whether what we create has value beyond being appreciated … that it has value commercially, and can attract advertising clients, and we’ll be layering commercial into it next year.”

That will include creating a new post to sell audio advertising. Mind you, that’s a skill that doesn’t come naturally to journalists and editors. Nor is it a natural fit for advertising departments at newspapers that have yet to dip a toe in the podcast ocean, and which will face stiff competition from an increasingly crowded market in 2020.

Structure and strategy

Gow acknowledges that most publishers don’t have the luxury of Google funding, but has some tips for outlets that have organic podcasts that need structure and strategy to have a chance of long-term sustainability. “First, you really need to look at your audience, and at your digital analytics to find the themes that people are engaging with.

“For us, sports like rugby and football absolutely drive our audiences and have a huge fan base, so that was a no-brainer. It’s where we can start building revenue quickly because there are advertisers keen to get on board and the opportunity to host live events.”

They also found that their audiences were quite interested in financial information particularly because “audio means they can tell those stories in their own voices.” And Gow says that “combining those voices with insights from our data unit in a show like North By Numbers, moves the format on from being a host talking to an expert about housing shortages, to an individual who becomes a first-person case study for that data, and that’s incredibly humanizing.”

Trying to monetize podcasts before experimenting with audio is difficult, and Gow cautions against it. “You do need to create content first, but as soon as you’ve done it, you’ve got something your advertising team can show to clients as a proof of concept,” she says.

“And sometimes you just need to think of a podcast as loss-leader marketing. That may be what some of our Laudable podcasts become, a way of exploring issues that are occupying minds in places like Edinburgh or Birmingham, which might attract a sponsor at some point, but might not but it’s good journalism and may be worth doing on that basis alone.”

Monetization matters

In 2020, Gow says her focus will shift to trying to monetize the new shows. This includes those that are purely journalistic, as well as branded content programs.

“My approach next year is going to be working with our commercial team on themes we have in mind for 2020, what clients might want to be associated with different ideas, and what kinds of stories would overlap with what they’re interested in.” That doesn’t mean that advertisers will dictate the content, she says. Rather, they’ll work in partnership through things like sponsorship.

Gow believes that there’s an audience for the ‘how to live a good life’ podcast market beyond mindfulness. This could include practical questions like how to have a good divorce, how to buy your first house, how to prepare for a funeral, or how to pick the right school. “And there are potential commercial partnerships around all those ideas, because I can see someone tuning in while they’re in the kitchen asking Alexa to find something to listen to.”

Tracking results

The team at Reach adheres to the strategic approach recommended by the Reuters Institute to help outlets experiment with new formats and approaches while keeping business as usual running smoothly. “SMART principles have been drummed into me since I went on my first management course about 20 years ago, and we also had Google milestones to hit,” she says.

“We’ve been specific about what we need to deliver for Google, what we tell editors to achieve, and what our podcast producers need to deliver, and all of that can be measured.” However, podcast statistics are still somewhat lacking. So, Entale is building bespoke analytics as part of their partnership.

Beyond that Gow says that they are tracking what’s been produced, how many people have generated ideas, and how engaged they are in the process to gain a better sense of staff buy-in and participation. “I work with incredibly smart people who love journalism and care about their audiences.” And giving them the tools to achieve good journalism on the podcast platform – the physical hardware, the training, the encouragement and feedback to build confidence and deliver the best possible outputs – has made it achievable.

Ultimately, Gow would encourage any size newsroom to experiment with podcasts. “With all this in place, it’s 100% realistic for any newsroom to create great podcasts.

As podcast advertising grows, big advertisers await better metrics

June 20, 2019 Maureen Morrison, Independent Marketing Consultant

There’s no doubt that podcasts are a growing business, as measured by audience and ad dollars flowing into the space. U.S. advertisers spent $479.1 million on podcast advertising in 2018, up 53% from $313.9 million a year earlier, according to a report released earlier this month by the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Those who have advertised on podcasts are often pleased. “Podcasts are a phenomenal opportunity for brands,” said Michael Duda, managing partner at Bullish, a creative agency and consumer investment firm. “We’ve seen tremendous results for our early-stage brands who conduct marketing programs that are synergetic to their target profiles.”

But many advertisers—particularly large, established ones—still feel they need more solid metrics to justify their spending. Groups like the IAB work to address these concerns through initiatives like the compliance program it launched in December, which certifies that companies are adhering to its technical guidelines.

Measurement challenges

According to the IAB announcement, podcast advertising lacks uniformity in measurement systems and metrics. Their statement also notes that “meaningful measurement has been thwarted by an inability to connect, track, and analyze user requests; measurement products that use dissimilar, proprietary algorithms; and a lack of an agreed-upon set of metrics and their meanings.”

Though standards exist, marketers say podcast advertising generally performs better for burgeoning direct-to-consumer brands and other early-and mid-stage advertisers versus the multinational, established stalwarts. “The early and mid-stage brands do better with podcast advertising because they can measure it more effectively,” said Steve Shanks, partner at Ad Results Media, an ad agency specializing in audio and podcast advertising.

The top five business categories of audio and podcast advertisers were direct-to-consumer brands, followed by financial services, business-to-business, entertainment, and telecommunications brands, according to the IAB report.

Common currency

But larger, more established consumer brands need additional reassurance from a metrics perspective if they are going to invest more heavily in podcast advertising. “The reason some larger brands don’t get into it is because with their media mix models they don’t know how to effectively buy this medium, and therefore the direct-to-consumer brands are smarter in the way they approach it and take advantage of the channel,” said Shanks.

“What the industry needs is one common currency of how we count downloads and making sure that all networks and shows are abiding by it,” he said. He added that the best standard now is IAB’s, “but not every network or show is abiding by those standards. If a download means something different depending on who you’re speaking with, it’s going to be hard for some of the larger brands to trust this space.”

Although some podcast networks may not adhere to these standards, Shanks said he’s noted that several of them “are making the effort to switch over.”

Hurdles to accurately provide universal metrics standards are numerous. The IAB’s standards note that “the ability to track podcast content and ad playback largely depends on the player requesting the file” and that only a sliver of “the market share enables client-side tracking as it exists in other forms of digital advertising.” The IAB also said that the Apple Podcasts app, for instance, commanded about 50% market share for podcast players, and yet prevented any client-side tracking or even the ability to count a “play.”

Targeting Improvements

Marketers also have a need to better target their desired audiences on audio platforms. Spotify wants to prioritize advertising around podcasts, and we’re beginning to see what that looks like. This week the company announced that advertisers can now target ads based on the podcasts people are listening to, according to the Verge.

Though these ads won’t be inserted in the shows themselves (they will run in between songs on its free service), advertisers can now “target based on the category of podcast they consume, which is likely going to be much more specific and fruitful for the advertisers.”

Test marketers for the new targeting service were Samsung and 3M. With this new ability, Samsung can, for example, target people who listen to tech and business shows, versus the previous targeting which was by age, gender, and music genre.

Audiences abound

Still, podcasts represent the opportunity for brands of all types to reach a growing audience. The IAB/PwC report projects that podcast ad revenue in the U.S. will generate $1 billion by 2021.

The preferred ad type for podcasts remains host-read ads, representing about 63% of U.S. podcast ads in 2018. Just over half of U.S. podcast ads are still direct-response ads, though that has decreased since 2016 from 73% as brand awareness ads grow in popularity.

Dynamically inserted ads continue to grow as well. In 2018, they accounted for about 49% of ads, up from 41.7% in 2017. Host-read ads, whether baked-in or programmatically inserted, tend to perform more efficiently than produced ads, said Shanks. He said this can be looked at like ads on influencer channels. When executed well, these provide much more value for listeners and advertisers, assuming pricing is the same.

Services emerge

In addition to Spotify’s efforts, we’ll continue to see more companies develop solutions to bring hefty ad spend to podcasting. This week in Cannes, audio platforms, media companies and agency networks are touting new audio and podcasting services to take advantage of the rise of streaming audio and bring more advertisers into the fold.

WPP and iHeartMedia announced a new venture called Project Listen, which will offer “creative consulting and media planning covering multiple platforms, including broadcast radio, digital streaming, podcasts, smart speakers and live events,” according to Ad Age.

“Project Listen is about tapping into the scale of audio and moving from the traditionally transactional radio business to the future of audio advertising where insights and ideas lead the way to growth for brands,” iHeartMedia CEO Bob Pittman said in a statement.

Pandora is planning to promote Studio Resonate, “a consulting arm that aims to help brands navigate tasks like creating a ‘sonic logo,’ which is a tune or sound that listeners associate with any given brand,” according to Ad Age.

So, while established brands may only be cautiously wading into the shallow end of the audio advertising pool, a slew of players are testing the format. And new solutions are being developed from all sides of the ecosystem so that the marketing and advertising opportunities sound as good as the podcasts themselves.

About the author

Maureen Morrison is a consultant and writer, working with agencies, startups, publishers and brands on marketing, editorial and communications strategies. She previously was a reporter and editor at Ad Age for 12 years, covering agencies, digital media and marketers.

How publishers can win the voice war between Amazon and Google

January 17, 2019 Mark Glaser, Founder and Publisher – MediaShift

“Alexa: What’s the news today?” That depends. If a consumer wants to get news from a voice assistant such as Amazon Echo or Google Home (or the hundreds of devices that support them), the process isn’t always easy and the results are inconsistent. People have complained that the news reports on voice assistants are too long, or don’t answer questions accurately, according to a recent Reuters Institute report.

But the devices aren’t going away. In fact, they are multiplying like rabbits, if last week’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) was any indication, with more voice assistants in U.S. households and more of them built into other “smart home” devices such as refrigerators, mirrors, home security and yes, “Intelligent Toilets” (“Alexa, flush!”). So: What should publishers do? Experiments so far have been mixed, but that doesn’t mean giving up is an option. Instead, publishers need to fight to get better deals for content. They also need consider new types of business models such as product placement, as Meredith is doing.

Amazon Alexa vs. Google Assistant, Part 2

If you want to understand how big the voice wars have become between Amazon and Google, you just need to go to Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show. Last year, Google was the upstart taking on the incumbent at Amazon. This year’s battle was more evenly matched. Google plastered ads all over town and even had an “It’s a Small World” Disney-style ride as part of its booth. Amazon opted for a lower key approach with “Works with Alexa” tags on all the associated products.

Amazon touted selling more than 100 million Alexa devices. But Google shot back by saying it had 1 billion devices with Google Assistant – though that includes all Android phones sold with it built-in. While CNET had its writers decide who won the Amazon vs. Google voice war at CES (Google got the nod), the real question is how can publishers use this battle to their advantage? Will the tech companies ever give more credence to news and information on voice assistants, and what will that value be in the long run?

What People Want

Before we answer, we first need to understand how people are using voice assistants in their everyday life. People typically use these omnipresent devices in the morning and evening. And people mostly want them to play music, answer general questions and get weather updates. In an analysis of the Reuters Institute report, Nieman Lab’s Laura Hazard Owen noted that people love using smart speakers, but not really for news. Even though 42% said they used smart speakers for news, only 1% said news was the most important feature for them.

Users also have a lot of complaints about news on voice assistants: The updates were too long, they aren’t updated enough, many use synthesized voices to read the news, and there’s no way to skip or select stories. Even worse, when people asked specific questions related to news stories, the answers were inaccurate and inconsistent.

While people do use the devices to stream live radio (19% of all NPR online listening happens on smart speakers), they aren’t keen to listen to longer form audio or podcasts. Maybe that’s just a factor of podcasts being an on-the-go commuting format, while smart speakers are in the home.

What Publishers Can Do

In the wake of Reuters Institute study and many experiments by publishers, how can they better reach consumers via voice assistants? As with all new formats, publishers must understand how people use the devices and tailor their content appropriately. The New York Times announced a new briefing for Alexa-enabled devices based on “The Daily” podcast. It is in a much shorter format for smart speakers and they are promoting it through the print edition of the paper. The Times has developed a weekly News Quiz taking into account the popularity of trivia quizzes on the devices.

As The Verge’s James Vincent pointed out: “Audio content won’t necessarily drive subscriptions, but it could be a relatively easy way for the paper to reach millions of new listeners before — maybe — turning them into readers.”

Meanwhile, Meredith announced its new Innovation Group at CES. The new division includes a Voice Network that brings together all of the company’s audio, voice, and podcast products under one umbrella.

Meredith has experimented with “content-to-audio” where someone reads story content. However, what’s most interesting is their initiative to create skills or actions for smart speakers. One example would be using Alexa to open an AllRecipes skill with an option to order ingredients for a recipe. “The skills are actually the best place to do the product placement and direct links to commerce,” Meredith’s head of innovation Corbin de Rubertis told Folio.

Publishers are still feeling their way to what works best on voice assistants. (And the payoff is difficult to envision right now.) However, growing use of these proliferating devices means that publishers can’t dismiss them. Instead, they need to start with shorter briefings, try out some new interactive skills, and as the platforms become more mature. And perhaps they can even get compensation for offering the most up-to-date relevant answers for users.

Advertising | Industry-Research

Older listeners are as likely to pay to avoid ads as they are to stop listening altogether

May 16, 2018 Rande Price, Research VP – DCN

Consumers value access to ad-supported content when they feel that there’s a fair trade between the content and advertising. The study, “Consumer Sensitivity to Audio Advertising: A Field Experiment on Pandora Internet Radio,” examines the balance in this relationship. Specifically, the research analyzes the correlation between the number of advertising breaks, the number of ads, and content consumption. While Pandora sells display, video, and audio advertising, this study focuses on audio ads. Today most of Pandora’s advertising revenue is generated from audio advertising.

Jason Huang, David Reiley, and Nickolai M. Riabov created an experimental design using more than 30 million Pandora listeners. The design included nine test groups (1% of listeners) and a control group (10% of listeners). Each test group received either three, four or six ad interruptions per hour. And each interruption was comprised of either 1, 1.5, or 2 ads. By varying these two dimensions, the research assessed whether listeners prefer more commercial interruptions or longer commercial interruptions. The control group received Pandora’s normal advertising experience: four interruptions with 1.5 ads per interruption. The level of audio advertising remained consistent for each test group for the 21-month duration of the research.

Quantity Matters

The findings identify aclear relationship between the quantity of hours listened and the number of audio ads per hour. Interestingly, the number of commercial interruptions per hour showed little impact on listening behavior. Reactions in the test groups in the final month support these findings.

The findings identify a clear relationship between the quantity of hours listened and the number of audio ads per hour. Interestingly, the number of commercial interruptions per hour showed little impact on listening behavior.

Results across all nine test groups included:

A 41% percent decline in the number of active Pandora listeners,
A 41% decline in the number of days per active Pandora listener, and
An 18% decline in the number of hours per active Pandora listener.

Of the three reactions, the most common (82%) reaction involves a decline in listeners or listening sessions.

Age Impact

Further, the decline in demand for Pandora’s ad-supported product that was triggered by an increase in ads suggests a potential opportunity to transition consumers to an ad-free alternative. The findings show that the correlation is highly significant and increases the older the consumer. Therefore, the probability of leaving Pandora entirely due to an increase in ad load decreases with age. It turned out that older consumers were just as likely to switch to an ad-free paid subscription as they were to leave the Pandora service entirely.

Huang, Reiley, and Riabov use of an experimental design allows for a better understanding of causal relationships. Each independent variable, the number of ad interruptions and the number of ads per interruption, is important to evaluate. Examining the impact of the independent variables and the correlation with listening time (the dependent variable) offers a dynamic learning environment. Interplay between the elements identifies the variable impacting a change in behavior.