iHM Introduces SmartAudio Digital Data Ad Product

RADIO ONLINE | Thursday, March 16, 2017

iHeartMedia introduced its SmartAudio digital data advertising product, an added feature of its programmatic solution, Wednesday night at its "SoundFront" advertising industry event. SmartAudio uses iHM's programmatic solution to help advertisers evaluate, plan and buy broadcast radio, enabling them to build campaigns that target key audience segments and provide brands with effective ways to reach their audiences.

With SmartAudio, iHeartMedia can now mine its digital data from more than 95 million registered iHeartRadio listeners, along with second and third-party digital data, consumer and behavioral resources and social networks, to create audience segment profiles --including Millennials, auto intenders, mothers and more. Advertisers will be able to utilize these enhanced profiles to select the best broadcasting schedules and methods to reach their targeted consumers. iHM has already developed more than 700 SmartAudio audience segment profiles, and will continue to create more based on advertisers' requests.

SmartAudio also enables advertisers to use dynamic ad creative that utilizes real-time triggers such as weather, pollen counts, sports scores, mortgage rates and more to deploy different campaign messages based on what is happening in a specific market at a specific moment. This allows a brand's radio ads to dynamically serve the most relevant message in each market just as they have done with digital to ensure increased relevance and impact. For example, advertisers can serve one message in Los Angeles when it's sunny, a different message in New York when it's snowing or even a different message in the same market later that day when the weather changes automatically without any back-end work on their part.

"Broadcast radio has the unparalleled advantage of real-time connection with consumers, giving the ability for advertisers to reach enhanced audiences at scale, and even tailor their creative messages for real-time," said iHeartMedia President of National Sales, Marketing and Partnerships Tim Castelli. "We've been testing SmartAudio with some of the top brands and we're already seeing additional impact for those using it. They're able to leverage the product's flexibility to decide which specific ad to run based on something as simple as whether the local sports team won or lost last night's game."

"SmartAudio allows us to easily sort through the millions of combinations of stations, shows, dayparts and markets, and hone in on the ones that best reach the audiences we care about," added Discovery Communications Senior VP/Media Strategy and Analytics Seth Goren. "Combining the efficiency and scale of radio with data and advanced analytics of digital, moves iHeartMedia beyond the standard age and demo paradigm to create enhanced audience-based plans that drive real business outcomes for us."