Jelli Introduces SpotPlan® For Advertisers, The First Demand-side Platform For Broadcast Radio

SAN MATEO, Calif., April 7, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Jelli (http://www.jelli.com), the technology that powers the programmatic platforms for the $40 billion global radio industry, today announces the availability of SpotPlan® for Advertisers, the first demand-side platform for broadcast radio advertising.  Initial customers of SpotPlan for Advertisers include the largest ad agencies in the United States, and it provides access to the groundbreaking programmatic ad buying platforms including iHeartMedia's Private Network and Expressway from Katz, the first industry-wide programmatic buying ad exchange at scale for the radio industry's most important players.  Jelli created the new cloud-based technology platform in response to advertiser demand, opening up the ability for both advertisers and agencies to buy premium radio advertising in real-time on a self-service, automated basis.

Radio is a $40 billion global advertising medium, reaching hundreds of millions of people and representing approximately 1 in 10 advertising dollars.  However, before today all radio advertising has been sold via a highly manual request for proposal (RFP) process that has significant inefficiencies and lacks the ability to apply new data-driven ad buying strategies.

By contrast, programmatic buying is scaling rapidly in digital advertising.  As part of this trend, a large portion of programmatic advertising is bought by advertisers and agencies using self-service automated demand-side software that leverages real-time data and automation efficiencies.  According to IDC, programmatic advertising is on target to hit $19.7 billion globally in 2016 and is growing at 23% annually.  IDC forecasts that 'automated guaranteed' and 'private networks' will be the fastest growth segments of programmatic advertising, projected to expand by 37% in 2016 and 47% in 2017, as the availability of premium inventory continues to grow. Source: IDC, Digital Advertising Market Model (DAMM), 2015.

Karsten Weide, Program Vice President, Media & Entertainment at IDC said, "Radio is emerging as an exciting new area for programmatic advertising, combining the inherent reach of the medium with self-service demand-side technology, advanced data integration and large scale automated guaranteed and private exchanges. The use of programmatic continues to grow rapidly across the media landscape, as marketers tap the benefits of automation and efficiencies to achieve higher ROI on their media spend."

SpotPlan for Advertisers is cloud-based software that for the first time enables advertisers and agencies to buy radio ads on a self-service basis from the largest programmatic ad platforms for radio advertising—the iHeartMedia Private Network and Expressway from Katz.  With 858 Radio Stations reaching a quarter of a billion monthly listeners in the U.S., iHeartMedia's groundbreaking programmatic Private Network for Spot Radio is enriched with unique user and listener data and allows brands to evaluate and buy its radio station inventory in an automated way like digital companies.  Expressway from Katz offers programmatic solutions across the entire broadcast radio marketplace providing access to multiple companies' advertising inventory through one exchange. This will allow advertisers to have real-time access to inventory available on thousands of stations in every major market in the United States.

"This new tool puts the power of programmatic radio directly into the hands of marketers, achieving ROI that is unmatched in other media. We are proud to integrate Jelli's exciting new technology into our leading programmatic platforms and innovate with the largest agencies to transform the way radio is bought and sold," said Bob Pittman, Chairman and CEO of iHeartMedia, Inc.

With SpotPlan for Advertisers, customers will increase efficiency by eliminating the manual steps and delays of the traditional RFP model and utilizing advanced audience targeting and real-time reporting, which enable increased ROI from radio advertising.  Customers involved in the launch include the top agencies Starcom, Mediavest | Spark,  Dentsu Aegis Network, Horizon Media, Havas Media, IPG Mediabrands and Varick Media Management, collectively representing approximately $1 billion of radio ad spend in the United States every year.

"Jelli's mission is to create the fastest and easiest way to buy radio ads, and with this first-of-its-kind demand-side platform we can now accelerate radio buying to the speed of digital through self-service, data-enhanced audience buying models," said Mike Dougherty, co-founder and CEO of Jelli.

"Due to the overwhelming demand for the product, we created a strategic Early Access Program to allow the largest global advertising agencies, representing a billion dollars in radio ad spend, the opportunity to partner closely with us in developing SpotPlan for Advertisers," said Dougherty. "This collaboration enables these strategic agency partners to be on the cutting edge, driving innovation to move the radio market forward."

Early Access Program Partners Testimonials

"Radio has always been a powerful vehicle to engage people – it's music and news on your commute into work and an entertaining escape on a long car trip.  We've been actively working to bring the speed, precision and data-driven insights of programmatic into this space," said Stephan Beringer, Global Practice Lead for Data, Technology and Innovation at Publicis Media. "iHeartRadio and Jelli are two pioneers that we are lucky to call our partners and we look forward to rolling out new solutions that take programmatic radio to the next level."

"This partnership is a big milestone for the radio industry," said Lauren Russo, SVP Managing Director of Horizon Media.  "Radio has always provided unmatched value, and now we can bring today's data sources, targeting and the speed, ease and precision of programmatic buying to our advertising partners."

"We continue to be passionate about the advancements of programmatic outside of just the digital space. It's great to see strategic partners such as iHeart investing in that evolution with tech partners like Jelli," said Justine Watkins, Managing Director at Dentsu Aegis Network's Amnet. "Using insight and data in a space where precision targeting is limited is what is exciting about this opportunity for both us and our clients."

"We're excited to be a first mover on Jelli's SpotPlan platform, allowing us to bring a real-time data-driven audio offering to our clients," said Melissa Colon, VP Group Account Director for Havas Media Group. "We're constantly striving to maximize client ROI and SpotPlan combined with the premium inventory allows the medium to be an even stronger part of the marketing mix."

"At Cadreon we believe in leveraging best-in-class technology to deliver the most comprehensive, highest-performing programmatic solutions on the market," said Ian Johnson EVP, Managing Director Global Product at Cadreon. "The Jelli technology platform integrated with IPG Mediabrands' Audience Measurement Platform (AMP) will allow us to add broadcast radio to our programmatic solution set and efficiently reach our client's intended audience programmatically."

"We believe in data science to drive campaign results," said Paul Rostkowski, President at Varick Media.  "We are enthusiastic to add broadcast audio to the programmatic media mix which we can now buy based on the same audiences we buy today across other channels, at the scale of broadcast radio."

How SpotPlan for Advertisers Works

SpotPlan for Advertisers is a self-service tool which allows buyers to manage the complete lifecycle of the radio buying process with the iHeartRadio Programmatic Private Network and Expressway from Katz exchange and introduces new automated methods to buy and deliver radio advertising for the first time anywhere.   SpotPlan for Advertisers leverages highly efficient proprietary algorithms to match premium guaranteed inventory with the campaign goals of advertisers and optimizes the value.

Some of the benefits of using SpotPlan for Advertisers include:

• Transparency and direct access to purchase inventory across multiple participating exchanges.
• Data driven targeting powered by 1^st and 3^rd party data sets.
• Automated buying of premium guaranteed inventory, across date, daypart, market and other criteria.
• Powerful dashboard enabling real-time campaign optimization and reporting.
• Streamlined workflow supporting both audience and spot buying models.

Availability of SpotPlan for Advertisers

SpotPlan for Advertisers is available immediately for strategic Early Access Partners in the United States.  SpotPlan for Advertisers is currently only available to Early Access Partners, with broad general release in the United States anticipated later in 2016.

If you're interested in learning more about SpotPlan for Advertisers please contact [email protected].

For more information about Jelli's SpotPlan for Advertisers please visit http://www.jelli.com.

About Jelli

Jelli is the largest technology platform for the $40 billion global audio advertising market. Our mission is to create the easiest and fastest way to buy and run audio advertising. We've developed a cloud platform that transforms audio advertising, enabling advertisers and publishers to buy and sell audio advertising programmatically through a suite of demand-side and supply-side services. Jelli's patented platform is used by some of the largest broadcasters and advertisers in the audio marketplace, reaching hundreds of millions of people monthly and serving billions of audio ads.

Launched in 2009, we are based in San Mateo, California. Our investors include Relay Ventures, Intel Capital, First Round Capital, iHeartMedia, Universal Music Group and several prominent angel investors.

SOURCE Jelli

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