Cumulus-owned Westwood One has announced a partnership with ad tech company XAPPmedia to jointly create, launch, and promote smart-speaker experiences for national brands. The announcement was made by Suzanne Grimes (President, Westwood One) at an Advertising Week panel in New York yesterday.
The value of this to brands can be likened to branded podcasts, but the execution involves a wholly different type of listening experience for the interactive voice platform.
The idea here is to combine Westwood One’s content creation expertise with XAPP’s experience building and developing smart-speaker apps. Westwood One also promises to leverage the distribution power of Cumulus Media’s national radio group to promote the experiences.
“Emerging audio platforms are among the greatest opportunities for brands and publishers to engage with consumers. Voice will be the easiest way to directly reach and interact with consumers — and it will be on their terms,” Grimes said. “It’s important to understand how this new marketplace dynamic redefines commerce and advertising strategy. Now is the time to build a sound strategy, and we have the experience, tools, and audience to help brands achieve success.”
Pat Higbie, CEO of XAPPmedia, said: “This digital touchpoint not only extends a brand’s marketing messages, it also establishes a voice presence to engage consumers, drive seamless conversions, learn, and optimize their omni-channel strategy.”