Amplifi and Spotify seek to end ‘disconnect’ of audio ad spend
Dentsu Aegis has struck a deal with Spotify which it says will help brands in Asia Pacific target consumers on audio platforms and end the “disconnect” between where ad money is spent and where people are listening.
Sunil Yadav: There is a disconnect on where we spend our audio budget
The partnership has seen Dentsu’s media investment arm, Amplifi, join forces with the music streaming firm to launch The Audio Stack. The companies claim it is a first in the region.
Data mined by Spotify and Dentsu’s planning and activation platform, M1 will, they say, allow brands to more accurately plan their media spend.
It will be rolled out in Singapore and Australia this month, before expanding to Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam in 2019.
Describing it as platform agnostic, the announcement said Audio Stack will find consumers across radio and digital audio and whether they are online or offline.
“The audio landscape is evolving rapidly and there is a disconnect on where we spend our audio budget versus where we spend our time listening,” Amplifi Asia Pacific president Sunil Yadav said. “We need to shift our focus back to being ‘audience first’ instead of ‘radio first’.
“Putting this into play, we partnered with Spotify to develop The Audio Stack, to ensure effective targeting through a close study of audience behavioural patterns.”
Spotify Asia Pacific vice president of advertising, Sunita Kaur, said it will enable advertisers to deliver ads in real-time to registered Spotify users “during key moments of their day or when they consume audio content on Spotify”.
The Audio Stack tool has been trialled in the UK since 2017 with Dentsu claiming digital audio spend has climbed 375%. Nearly 80% of clients tested the platform, the agency network said.
In a further move, Dentsu said it will be the first agency in Asia Pacific to develop a strategic creative offering with voice technology and Spotify 3D audio.
It said the creative capability will leverage its iProspect VoiceLab – developed in partnership with Google, to demonstrate the impact of audio creative for clients.
In an age where audio, voice, artificial intelligence and machine learning are prevalent, Yadav said it was “crucial” to “unlock the potential of voice and audio creative to future proof brands”.
Steve Jones is regular contributor to Mumbrella in Australia and Asia having held the title of chief reporter for several years. He is a journalist with more than 30 years experience and has worked for a number of consumer and trade titles in the UK and Australia
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