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Saavn launches programmatic audio advertising in India
The move will allow brands to automate real-time buying and selling of ad inventory
Credits: Joshua Navalkar
Indian music streaming service Saavn (South Asian Audio Video Network) on Thursday announced the launch of programmatic audio advertising in India in partnership with AdsWizz, a technology provider of advertising solutions for the digital audio industry, and Omnicom Media Group, the media services division of Omnicom Group Inc. This will enable brands, including Saavn’s current base of 250 advertisers, to automate real-time buying, targeting, optimisation, and reporting of audio ad inventory in a few simple steps.
“Digital audio advertising represents one of the largest untapped opportunities for brands to generate new demand and grow their businesses. We had over 1.8 billion real ad impressions in Q4 and each one of them is unmatched in terms of sophisticated targeting capabilities and helping deliver insights for brands. Our programmatic solution can simplify the otherwise complex process of planning, executing and reporting dynamic digital audio campaign on mobile devices,” says Gaurav Kaushik, vice president advertising platform, Saavn. Co-founded by Vinodh Bhat, Rishi Malhotra and Paramdeep Singh in 2007, Saavn today has over 20 million listeners globally.
Under this partnership, Omnicom Media Group and its clients will access Saavn’s digital audio advertising inventory without wasting time in a lengthy direct sales process, negotiation, and campaign setup. It also gives brands invaluable data insights on listener engagement across the country. Each stream provides details like the time-of-day, location, device brand/model, mobile operator, genre, age and gender, among others. These parameters will be available in a simple console accessible to media buyers on their laptops and desktops and will ensure that the right audio message reaches the right listener.
“The future of media buying is programmatic because it helps us focus our time, energy and resources on creativity and messaging for people who will find our products most useful. Audio ads literally allow us to speak with our target customers in a high engagement environment on Saavn,” says Amit Singla, head of digital marketing, HP India. HP was the first brand advertiser in India to run digital audio buys programmatically on Saavn.
Industry experts agree. The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and KPMG India report released earlier this month states that ‘Programmatic advertising’ is the future of digital advertising and will soon command a big share of the pie with traditional advertisers realising its benefits’.
“While digital audio advertising is a compelling way to change consumer mindsets, its delivery in a closed system also eliminates nagging issues like fraud, viewability and ad blocking in digital advertising,” says Anil Pandit, associate vice president, Omnicom Media Group.
