Dentsu Aegis Network-owned media agency Amplifi has entered into a strategic partnership with Spotify to launch a new media planning tool, designed specifically for the audio streaming platform.
The Audio Stack, which Amplifi claims is a first-of-its-kind offering, will be made available across Australia this month, allowing clients and brands more targeted opportunities to engage with users during higher listening periods.
The platform will also tap into into Denstu's recently launched “true people-based digital advertising” offering, M1.
DAN describes M1 as a people-based planning and activation platform its agency brands can access on behalf of their clients to help with insight, planning, activation and measurement.
The Audio Stack has the capability to calibrate M1’s panel survey data and Spotify’s first party listening data to provide deeper consumer insights.
The platform then combines the data sets to plan and optismise client investment across radio and digital audio, while also eliminating duplication.
Last year, Dentsu Aegis UK beta-tested the Audio Stack tool with FMCG and travel clients. Subsequently, the UK network has seen digital audio spend grow by 375%, with 79% of clients testing the platform.
"We need to shift our focus back to being ‘audience first’ instead of ‘radio first’," Amplifi APAC president Sunil Yadav says.
"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."
In July, Spotify revealed a new strategy for its ad-supported free subscription service, for the first time allowing users to skip ads they are not interested in.
Spotify’s free users in Australia now receive an interactive video and audio ad experience, called Active Media, allowing them to choose whether they want to hear, see or skip an ad.
Under the new strategy, advertisers only pay for completed listens/views.
The decision followed research which revealed that screenless listening, globally, continues to grow at a fast pace, with multi-device listeners spending 2.5 plus hours streaming on Spotify.
This company stated the move was "especially important", given users’ ongoing shift away from screen time.
"The Audio Stack tool will allow us to make our inventory and data available in a secure environment, giving advertisers the ability to deliver ads in real-time to registered Spotify users during key moments of their day or when they consume audio content on Spotify," Spotify VP advertising APAC Sunita Kaur says.
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