NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--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.
