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.
About iHeartMedia
With 245 million monthly listeners in the U.S., 97 million monthly
digital uniques and 196 million monthly consumers of its Total Traffic
and Weather Network, iHeartMedia has the largest reach of any radio or
television outlet in America. It serves over 150 markets through 858
owned radio stations, and the company’s radio stations and content can
be heard on AM/FM, HD digital radio, satellite radio, on the Internet at
iHeartRadio.com and on the company’s radio station websites, on the
iHeartRadio mobile app, in enhanced auto dashes, on tablets and
smartphones, and on gaming consoles.
iHeartRadio, iHeartMedia’s digital radio platform, is the No. 1
all-in-one digital audio service with over 500 million downloads; it
reached its first 20 million registered users faster than any digital
service in Internet history and reached 60 million users faster than any
other radio or digital music service and even faster than Facebook. The
company’s operations include radio broadcasting, online, mobile, digital
and social media, live concerts and events, syndication, music research
services and independent media representation. iHeartMedia subsidiary
businesses include Premiere Networks, which syndicates 90 radio programs
and services to more than 5,500 radio affiliates; the Total Traffic and
Weather Network, reaching almost all U.S. commuters; and Katz Media
Group, the largest media representation company in the US representing
more than 4,000 radio stations, 700 television stations, and their
digital extensions.
About Katz Media Group
Katz Media Group is the largest media representation company in the
United States. Representing more than 4,000 radio stations, 700
television stations and their digital extensions, Katz Media Group
provides advertisers and agencies one point of access to more than 200
million active consumers across the country. A subsidiary of
iHeartMedia, Katz Media Group is based in New York City with 15 regional
offices.
About Jelli Inc. ®
Jelli is the first cloud-based ad platform for the $40 billion global
radio market. Our mission is to create the easiest and fastest way to
buy and run radio spots. We bring the transparency, accountability and
real-time delivery of the web to the offline medium of terrestrial
radio. Our patented audio serving platform automates terrestrial radio
advertising for advertisers and network operators, reaching millions of
listeners weekly and serving billions of ad impressions annually. We are
based in San Mateo, California and New York City, and our investors
include Relay Ventures, Intel Capital, First Round Capital and several
prominent angel investors.
Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/multimedia/home/20150408005285/en/
Copyright Business Wire 2015