• by Tobi Elkin  @tobielkin, April 7, 2016

Jelli, a provider of programmatic platforms for the $40 billion radio industry, on Thursday announced the launch of SpotPlan for Advertisers, a cloud-based demand-side platform (DSP) for broadcast radio advertising. Jelli said its offering is the first DSP for broadcast radio advertising.

SpotPlan for Advertisers offers access to programmatic ad buying platforms including iHeartMedia’s Private Network and Expressway from Katz, industry-wide programmatic buying ad exchanges for the radio industry.

Jelli created SpotPlan, a 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.

Customers involved in the launch include agencies Starcom, Mediavest | Spark, Dentsu Aegis Network, Horizon Media, Havas Media, IPG Mediabrands and Varick Media Management. Collectively, these agencies represent approximately $1 billion of radio ad spending in the United States annually.

Mike Dougherty, co-founder and CEO of Jelli, said the programmatic buying process will generate datasets that can be used in audience targeting.  “It allows agencies to think about targeting consumers at scale like they would on Facebook and Google,” Dougherty said.

Radio is a $40 billion global advertising medium, reaching hundreds of millions of people and representing approximately 1 in 10 advertising dollars.  Typically, radio inventory has been sold manually via a cumbersome request for proposal (RFP) process.  

By contrast, programmatic buying delivers efficiencies and the ability to use real-time data to inform media plans. 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.

Karsen Weide, IDC's program vice president, media & entertainment, projects that programmatic radio in the U.S. will reach $186 million this year, and $663 million in 2017 -- a jump largely due to the fact that many of the major media agencies that buy radio inventory will be seguing to programmatic.

Over the last year, two of the largest ad exchanges were built with investments from IHeartRadio and Katz: The ad exchanges allow the sellers to put into the marketplaces inventory that can be bought programmatically.

“Today’s news is that this is being connected with the largest agencies that buy radio in the U.S.,” said Dougherty. Those agencies buy $1 billion a year in radio in the U.S. Programmatic specialist Cadreon, part of IPG Mediabrands, and Varick Media, is  also part of the equation.

“This partnership is a big milestone for the radio industry," stated 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.”