New company offers programmatic buying for voice-activated ads

Digital voice-activated advertising platform Instreamatic.ai announced its formal launch this week. The service now offers programmatic buying for voice-activated ads that would run on smart home speaker systems and related technology. The technology seems designed around the types of interactions smart speaker owners would have. Users can ask to hear details, immediately buy goods, add an event to a calendar, skip, or call a company. Instreamatic.ai supports mobile platforms and the Amazon Echo.

The press release highlighted how interactive ads could improve the quality of engagement for an ad. “Good old 30-60 second audio ads provide less and less engagement with targeted audiences because people ignore and filter them,” Founder and CEO Stas Tushinskiy said. “Using a teaser to see if users are interested and then provide all offer details is the way to go.”

The outlook for advertisements on voice-activated speakers such as the Echo, or the newer Google Home or Apple HomePod, is still uncertain. Google Home made an initial foray with a not-quite-ad earlier this year that was generally met with displeasure and confusion. It seems likely, if not certain, that there is potential for this space to develop an advertising model, but striking a balance between successful pitches and happy device owners could prove challenging.

Anna Washenko