Catalina, a leader in shopper intelligence and omni-channel media solutions that personalize the shopper journey, has formed a groundbreaking partnership with leading audio company and the No. 1 podcast publisher iHeartMedia, to measure and attribute the impact of podcast advertising on offline sales in physical stores, which continue to represent the majority of CPG purchases.

To date, podcast measurement capabilities have helped advertisers understand the impact of an ad campaign on brand lift metrics like purchase intent or message recall, as well as attribution of digital user activity such as website visits from those listeners exposed to that campaign. Now, CPG partners will also gain visibility into the true offline sales impact of their marketing dollars within podcasting.

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In addition, as part of this data partnership Catalina will provide iHeartMedia with audiences and measurement services within iHeartMedia’s SmartAudio platform, for CPG ad campaigns that air on the latter’s linear and streaming radio programming.

“Podcast listening continues to skyrocket, with more than 115 million people in the U.S. anticipated to listen to podcasts this year – and podcast advertising expected to double over the next five years,” said Brian Dunphy, SVP of Catalina’s Strategic Partnerships and Channel Sales. “As the medium continues to rapidly grow, Catalina’s multi-path identity resolution capabilities combined with iHeartMedia’s unique multiplatform audiences at scale enable us to match deterministic shopper households across a variety of identity paths helping advertisers measure the effectiveness and success of their podcast campaigns.”

To accomplish this, data & analytic teams at Catalina and iHeartMedia have worked together over the past year to test the feasibility of applying Catalina audiences and measurement capabilities to enhance the effectiveness of CPG ads running on iHeartMedia’s multiplatform audio properties. The teams have since successfully completed pilot tests for measurement and audience targets across a range of iHeart’s audio properties, including podcasts.

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“We have been impressed with Catalina’s ability to deliver highly-scaled, extensive data and insights for CPG advertisers, enabling them to measure the effectiveness of their brand messaging on in-store sales,” said David Shiffman, EVP of National Research at iHeartMedia. “We continue to focus on cross-platform measurement and attribution capabilities for advertisers and now in partnership with Catalina we can provide CPG advertisers tools to maximize their podcast campaigns’ ROI, with measurement and attribution solutions to more effectively plan and execute their multi-platform audio campaigns.”

Catalina’s Dunphy added, “As consumer-directed media consumption grows, it is critical for marketers to have a partner to help them effectively measure across channels. Thanks to our new partnership with iHeartMedia, we are excited to be unlocking and adding radio, streaming audio and podcasts to Catalina’s now comprehensive omni-channel platform capabilities that also includes TV, Out of Home, Digital Advertising and In-Store campaigns. We have the capacity to reach shoppers with personalized messages at every step of the consumer journey, measure their impact, and even make adjustments in real time to drive sales.”

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