iHeartMedia Partners with Sounder for Brand Safety Tools

RADIO ONLINE | Wednesday, February 16, 2022 | 11:28am CT

iHeartMedia

iHeartMedia inks a partnership with Sounder, an audio intelligence platform that builds foundational podcasting technology. iHM will leverage Sounder's Audio Data Cloud to provide both established and emerging podcast creators AI and Machine Learning (ML) tools to help them gain real-time insights to accelerate growth and improve monetization. Sounder's brand safety solution will enable iHM's marketing partners to buy across a wide array of creators with the assurance that the content adheres to industry safety standards.

"As the leader in podcasting, the iHeartPodcast Network hosts the most diverse group of high-quality creators in the world and produces the most podcasts that generate over one million plus downloads. It's critical that we learn from the challenges advertisers have had with video and social media to deliver safety tools and controls that allow brands to customize their campaigns and ensure that their ads will be delivered at scale in a brand safe environment," said iHeartMedia Chief Data Officer Brian Kaminsky.

"Our partnership with Sounder underscores our commitment to innovation in audio advertising and our goal of creating more meaningful connections between advertisers and listeners. In addition to simple brand safety, this partnership will also unlock brand suitability tools that will dynamically align brands with content and creator-sentiments that supports their goals and objectives," he added.

Sounder's Audio Data Cloud enables large publishers the ability to perform brand suitability analysis, topic analysis, content summarization and dynamic segmentation. These solutions help accelerate the size and engagement of the iHeartPodcast Network's audience from the biggest and most diverse shows in the network, to the rapidly growing number of up-and-coming creators. Audio Data Cloud leverages Sounder's proprietary automated speech recognition technology and AI/ML models. In doing so, it unlocks uncaptured value for all enterprise audio content.

In addition to this commercial partnership, iHeartMedia has also announced a strategic investment in Sounder, as lead investor in the company's Series A round.

"The audio advertising industry is set for continued explosive growth, but requires the rigor and capabilities of other media," said iHeartMedia's President of Corporate Development and Ventures Joe Robinson. "Sounder has cracked the code on enabling contextual targeting for audio, ensuring brand safety, and promoting discoverability."

"We're excited to have iHeartMedia as a commercial partner and strategic investor. We are eager to help iHeartMedia, the world's leading audio publisher, realize the true value of audio," commented Sounder CEO and Co-founder Kal Amin. "With Sounder's Audio Data Cloud, we're integrating a layer of data that is absolutely crucial for advertisers to take advantage of the world's high level of engagement with podcasts."