iHeartMedia announced the launch today of a new programmatic and automated ad buying platform for its stations utilizing the services created by Jelli.
The new platform will enable advertisers to purchase spots automatically online in a way that iHeart states will reduce administrative hurdles and delays. iHeartMedia also intends to use its data to allow unique targeting “such as music-based psychographic groups, weather and traffic patterns, purchase behavior and other environmental, population and consumer trends”.
The service will also be made available to other broadcaster through iHeart’s Katz Media Group subsidiary. The national sales company will make “Expressway from Katz” available to groups such as Cumulus, Entercom, and Cox Media.
iHeartMedia, the media and entertainment company with the largest reach of any radio or TV outlet in America, announced today the launch of a programmatic and automated ad buying solution for its broadcast radio stations, powered by cloud-based technology innovator Jelli. This solution is the foundation for iHeartMedia to be able to offer its ad inventory to advertisers and agencies looking to leverage programmatic and automated technology including private market place and exchange environments to improve the buying process and reduce administrative hurdles and delays.
The new programmatic solution will also allow iHeartMedia to apply its rich data and insights to the planning process and will utilize data sets to enable unique forms of targeting, such as music-based psychographic groups, weather and traffic patterns, purchase behavior and other environmental, population and consumer trends.
“Programmatic is already an important and expected method of ad buying in the digital space. Now we can bring broadcast radio into that world at a scale no digital audio provider can offer,” said Bob Pittman, Chairman and CEO of iHeartMedia, Inc. “This new tool will give our sales groups the ability to more deeply partner with an advertiser and bring the best resources, unprecedented accountability and speed – allowing us to provide much better service and performance to every client.”
“We are excited to be aboard as a charter user,” said Bill Koenigsberg, President, CEO and Founder of Horizon Media, Inc. “This move allows us to finally combine the tremendous power of radio advertising in a cost-effective and responsive way with unique and real time targeting capabilities.”
“This is an important step by iHeartMedia and the radio industry at large given the growth of marketers’ use of, and desire to, enable their messages to be more intelligent, discreet, and fueled by data,” said John Nitti, Chief Investment Officer, ZenithOptimedia. “ZenithOptimedia and iHeartMedia have a strong partnership in place, and this milestone is a great step in the continued evolution of that partnership.”
Additionally, Katz Media Group, the top national sales firm representing more than 275 radio broadcasters including iHeartMedia, Cumulus, Entercom, Cox Media Group and others, will launch Expressway from Katz, the first industrywide programmatic buying ad exchange at scale for the radio industry’s most important players, which also uses the same technology.
“As the top national sales firm representing many great radio companies, we felt it was critical that radio take the lead. Expressway from Katz will deliver the capabilities and speed of automation and programmatic to all of our radio companies as we bring the power of radio to advertisers, providing unprecedented scale and customer knowledge,” said Mark Rosenthal, President of Katz Media Group. “Everyone here, from the CEO to our sales assistants, is excited about how this new capability will transform our business and how much more responsive we can be to our partners. It will give the entire radio industry an additional way to sell, putting this industry ahead of even the newest digital companies.”
“We applaud the efforts of iHeartMedia and fully support their entry in the automated buying space. Like them we recognize the relevance of enabling commerce to travel in this new sophisticated way. It saves time, it significantly improves our ability to target our customers, and makes it easier to scale buys,” said Bill Hoffman, President of Cox Media Group. “Also as data becomes more important we are pleased that with the creation of Expressway from Katz, radio now has the foundation to lead the media marketplace.”
“This partnership is an innovative milestone for the radio industry,” said David Field, President and CEO of Entercom Communications Corporation. “Radio has always provided unmatched value, and now we can bring today’s data sources, targeting at scale and the speed, ease and precision of programmatic buying to our advertising partners, matching or exceeding the capabilities of any other media sector.”
“The ability to deliver the right message to the right person at the right moment is the holy grail of advertising, and we are just beginning to deliver on that promise across devices,” said David Cohen, Chief Investment Officer of UM. “This announcement is a watershed moment in the radio industry. Activating music-based psychographic groups, automatically triggering campaigns using weather and traffic patterns, purchase behavior and other environmental, population and consumer trends is something that we cannot wait to put in market.”
“We couldn’t be more excited to be chosen to power iHeartMedia’s programmatic solutions as well as Expressway from Katz, and we look forward to working with them to provide cutting-edge technology solutions that can’t be found anywhere else,” said Mike Dougherty, CEO of Jelli.
