iHeartMedia today announced the launch of the first programmatic private marketplace for digital radio in the U.S. The private marketplace will allow select programmatic buyers to access iHeartMedia’s premium radio inventory across its digital properties on iHeartRadio, the company’s digital music and streaming service. Agencies and brands will be able to programmatically target iHeartRadio’s extensive audience using a combination of first and third party data segments.
iHeartMedia, which reaches more than a quarter billion U.S. listeners each month, offers free digital listening to its 858 live radio stations from across the country through iHeartRadio. The all-in-one digital audio service, which features live and custom stations, is the fastest growing digital service in history, surpassing 85 million registered users and more than a billion downloads in only a few short years. Now, with the launch of iHeartMedia’s private marketplace for programmatic buying of its digital audio inventory, select advertisers will be able to deliver automated and targeted campaigns with ease to iHeartRadio’s millions of dedicated listeners.
“Audio has a significant and growing role in the lives of today’s consumers and iHeartMedia is committed to evolving the ways marketers can reach and influence their target audience through our audio channels,” said Brian Kaminsky, President of Programmatic and Data Operations for iHeartMedia. “Offering a programmatic approach to buying iHeartRadio’s digital listening audiences is a natural extension of our direct sales and broadcast programmatic initiatives and further enables us to capture even more of the $20 billion in ad spending that is projected for 2016.”
“We’re thrilled to work with iHeartMedia to further advance the rise of programmatic in the digital audio space,” says Alexis van de Wyer, CEO at AdsWizz. “iHeart‘s unique audience reach, its brand relationships and its appetite for innovation makes it a perfect fit to be the first digital radio private marketplace. Their decision to launch a private marketplace is also perfectly timed as a growing number of agencies have been eager to start buying digital audio programmatically.”
iHeartMedia’s private marketplace is powered by AdsWizz’ programmatic platform and will offer programmatic guaranteed, private marketplace, and open auction opportunities to its advertising partners. With AdsWizz’ technology, iHeartMedia will take full advantage of its first-party and partner data to create a rich advertising experience that leverages the effectiveness of programmatic buying. AdsWizz’ programmatic platform capitalizes on its leading market share across Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America to provide iHeartMedia with proven solutions to power its private marketplace.
iHeartMedia continues to demonstrate its commitment to innovation by providing brands with new and more effective ways to reach their audiences. In addition to introducing a digital programmatic private marketplace, last spring, iHeartMedia announced a groundbreaking, programmatic and automated ad buying private network for its broadcast radio stations, powered by cloud-based technology innovator Jelli. With 858 radio stations reaching a quarter of a billion listeners a month, iHeartMedia’s groundbreaking programmatic Private Network is enriched with unique user and listener data and allows brands to evaluate and buy its radio station inventory in an automated way.
“Enriching the buying process with advanced data matching and automation is the ‘new school’ of marketing optimization,” said Seth Goren, senior vice president, media strategy and analytics, Discovery Communications. “Bringing data and programmatic capabilities to the broadcast and digital radio space, iHeartMedia becomes a highly valued partner that is uniquely positioned to help companies drive optimal business outcomes.”
