Adobe Advertising Cloud Set to Transform Digital Audio Ads Targeting on Smart Speakers

By Sudipto Ghosh On Jun 26, 2018

Adobe Advertising Cloud Is Now Also Able to Target Digital Audio Ads on Smart Speakers Across Hundreds of TuneIn’s Owned-And-Operated Stations

In the Americas: Facebook is on a decline. But, radio on smart speakers is on the rise. There has been an astounding rise in the number of the monthly online radio audience, largely driven by the growth in Spotify, Apple Music, and Alexa-powered Amazon Music. According to the latest report, over 180 million Americans are streaming live music, live radio, and podcasts every month. Listening to live radio is rampant in smart cars, on smartphones, and to a surprisingly large extent- on smart speakers. With the growing market for digital audio, how could advertising be far!

Adobe Advertising Cloud’s DSP Provides a Holistic Cross-Channel Strategy for Audio Ads on Smart Speakers

In the latest update, Adobe Advertising Cloud has marked its presence, joining forces with TuneIn, the leading global streaming live audio service. Adobe Advertising Cloud’s DSP would enable digital audio advertisers “to plan, buy, and measure digital audio advertising in all of its forms and incorporate it into a holistic cross-channel strategy.”

Adobe Advertising Cloud’s DSP launched automated, data-driven buying of digital audio ads last year with TuneIn. Currently, TuneIn is used by over 75 million listeners to access live sports, up-to-the-minute news, curated music, millions of podcasts, and over 120,000 streaming radio stations.

At the time of this announcement, Billy Hartman, Vice President of Global Revenue and Partnerships at TuneIn, said, “Given the high caliber of our owned content and its popularity among users, we’re very strategic when it comes to ad integrations.”

Billy added, “Adobe Advertising Cloud’s independence, lack of media ownership, and continued innovation make them a key partner — which is why we selected them to be the first to test ads targeting smart speakers.”

At launch, contextual targeting is available by a device, station type, and multi-cultural segment. The ad format — 90-second audio ads, which run twice hourly on each station — enables advertisers to drive engagement in a less cluttered environment.

The latest partnership allows TuneIn to leverage Adobe Advertising Cloud’s On Demand marketplace. Here, advertisers can now automate ad buys across TuneIn’s diverse array of content streamed across devices.

Driven by the early success of the partnership, TuneIn and Adobe Advertising Cloud began testing new and emerging ad formats, like 15-seconds and 30-second digital video ads, earlier this year.

Through an official blog posted on Adobe, the company also confirmed that Adobe Advertising Cloud is now also able to target digital audio ads on smart speakers across hundreds of TuneIn’s owned-and-operated stations. Content on the hosted and curated stations ranges from genre-based music (i.e., “Country Roads”) to mood-based content (i.e., “Yoga” or “Poolside”) to 24/7 live streaming of top music festivals, like San Francisco’s Outside Lands.

AI and Personalization at the Core of Smart Speaker’s Rise

Adobe’s Sensei, where are you? Intriguing, because Adobe is yet to confirm if their AI platform will play a role in taking the collaboration with TuneIn to a different plane altogether.

Given the trends in digital audio and customer experiences, we see a definite improvement in technology and user experience, led by Adobe and other like-minded players in martech and adtech. Add to it the ever-growing bubble of ad fraud and need for transparency and brand safety. Audio sales studios could collaborate with leading adtech companies and smart speaker makers to further accelerate their marketing and sales aspirations in building the ’emotional-connect’ through audio ads.