In an importance alliance between two power organizations — a podcast network and an ad-tech company — PodcastOne announced it has aligned with AdsWizz for dynamic audio advertising, sharp audience targeting, and programmatic buying.
“We’re a perfect fit,” said Norm Pattiz, Executive Chairman and founder of PodcastOne.
AdsWizz brings a suits of products and capabilities to PodcastOne’s portfolio of programs and ad inventory. Audio Ad Insertion (AIS) could be the lynchpin, as it enables advertisers to leap into archived shows produced in the past depending on who is listening, keeping that evergreen content available to advertisers in real-time.
Audience targeting is an important part of that example, and the whole deal — today’s announcement includes the phrase “one-to-one targeting abilities,” and states: “PodcastOne will now be able to provide advertisers with demographic and geographic targeting of 100% of its podcast listeners across all shows, regardless of which platform or device they are listening on.”
AdsWizz also brings PodWave to the table, which it calls the largest marketplace for podcast audio inventory, and a programmatic platform which it has been extending in a spate of recent deals.
All of this technology will be deployed against a startling metric included in today’s announcement: more than 400-million monthly impressions represented by PodcastOne.
This deal is an example of podcasting turning a corner, all the more so with early-mover PodcastOne throwing its weight behind automated audio advertising technology. Podcasting is historically a human-sold medium — an analog process applied to digital content. the human touch traditionally has extended through the creative end, which famously has featured host-spoken live reads of product pitches for direct-marketing companies.
That traditional template is being supplemented (some say invaded) by smart audience targeting that goes beyond targeting by show topicality, and realtime injection of ads at the moment podcasts are called from their servers. It’s a maturing of the genre, and an introduction of high-efficiency buying that advertisers increasingly expect in all their audio marketing.
“PodcastOne has been the leader in evangelizing the medium and understanding the needs of advertisers,” noted Alexis van de Wyer, CEO of AdsWizz. “We look forward to working with them to bring powerful new capabilities to the advertising community.”