Dive Brief:
- Spotify said it has brought in a third party, Katz Radio Group, as its exclusive representative for geotargeted audio ad sales in the U.S., according to Ad Exchanger.
- Katz Digital will handle Spotify’s DMA-targeted ad sales after demand outpaced what its internal team could handle.
- The move will allow Spotify’s team to focus on pursuing deals with large brands.
Dive Insight:
The deal gives Katz Radio Group’s digital division, Katz Digital, exclusive representation for Spotify’s DMA-targeted audio ad sales in the U.S. The deal frees up Spotify to focus on serving big brands and large holding companies. According to comScore, Spotify gets 44 million unique monthly users. Spotify has also been active in geotargeting its video ads.
“We are getting growing in-bound demand for geotargeted audio inventory from large, mid-sized and smaller agencies across the country," Les Hollander, Spotify’s global head of audio monetization, told Ad Exchanger. “Working on a 10-, 20-, 30-market buy for audio is probably two or three times more time-consuming than doing a cross-platform brand solution for a single brand. It’s a time-consuming part of our business, very labor intensive, so we are using some efficiencies in our resources by giving this off to Katz. They are an expert in this field.”
While geotargeted ads are not a huge part of Spotify's business, Hollander told Ad Exchanger that advertisers who want to use geotargeting “tend to use that data to drive higher CPMs, and are willing to pay higher CPMs based on that granular targeting."