Horizon Media First Agency to Activate Programmatic Radio for Upfronts Via Jelli

By PRNewswire On Nov 6, 2018

Following Industry-Leading Pilot Test, Horizon Expands Use of Jelli’s Spotplan for Upfront Audio Activations

Jelli, the leading programmatic platform for buying and selling audio advertising, announced that Horizon Media, a leader in the performance-driven application of data and marketing insights, has partnered with Jelli’s demand-side platform SpotPlan as the first media agency to power all of its programmatic radio ad buying operations for several of its clients agency-wide. A pioneer in the audio marketplace, Horizon Media has also extended its use of SpotPlan to activate audio upfronts on behalf of clients. Prior to this, Horizon has worked with Jelli as an early access partner on several product enhancements to move the audio industry forward, including the agency’s historic pilot test of the first-ever live programmatic transaction for spot radio on September 17, 2015.

“We continue to see significant value in SpotPlan’s planning and buying capabilities coupled with the opportunity to align our clients with relevant audience segments through iHeart’s Smart Audio marketplace,” said Lauren Russo, SVP, Managing Director Audio Investments and Promotions at Horizon Media. “The platform continues to evolve to include features that are essential in evaluating and optimizing media schedules. We are impressed with the company’s growing focus on supporting new channels of distribution in the audio space, which is critical as we migrate further into streaming, podcasting and voice.”

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Horizon Media, an early Jelli adopter and pioneer in programmatic buying, has been using SpotPlan to manage its national and local radio ad buying. Via SpotPlan, buyers have access to iHeartMedia and Katz Expressway marketplaces, representing 2,300 radio stations across the US, reaching more than 245 million listeners per month with premium radio inventory. With $2+ billion of ad inventory available, SpotPlan is the only platform that delivers the ability to buy radio programmatically at scale.

Jelli has collaborated with Horizon Media over the past year, leveraging the agency’s expertise and feedback to incorporate enhanced features into SpotPlan, including:

Project Creation & Management Tools – Buyers can now easily create Advertiser Project hierarchies that can manage multiple buys across marketplaces, data sources, spot lengths and markets. Users can easily configure templates and plan defaults that are automatically inherited by all plans within a Project.
What-if Scenarios & Revision Management – Users can now create “what-if” scenarios by altering specs, such as flight dates, dayparts, and station format to easily determine which plan delivers the optimal impressions / GRPs in a particular week, market or daypart – all made possible via Jelli’s algorithm.

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Plan Comparison & Project Analysis – Instantly gain insight into how media plans vary by marketplace, data segment, market and spot length to optimize booking behavior and to ensure individual plans contribute towards overall project goals. While Plan Comparison helps you identify the optimal version of a single plan, Project Analysis helps media buyers easily summarize a number of distinct plans as a composite buy.
RadioDash – Enhanced reporting and analytics dashboard providing buyers with real-time campaign performance, ad verification, spot checks and affidavits, delivering full transparency and accountability.

“Our work with Horizon underscores the major shift to programmatic happening in radio,” said Rich Knopke, CRO of Jelli. “And this is just the beginning with streaming and voice advertising on the rise. We’re excited to be working with a world-class agency like Horizon to bring programmatic radio ad buying to brands nationwide.”