What: Spotify has revealed it has partenered with Katz Radio Group for sales representation.
Why it matters: Katz will exclusively represent Spotify’s geo-targeted audio inventory throughout the U.S., starting immediately.
Spotify anounced it has partenered with Katz Radio Group for sales representation. Katz will exclusively represent Spotify’s geo-targeted audio inventory throughout the U.S., starting immediately.
The radio representation company’s digital division, Katz Digital, will oversee Spotify’s DMA-targeted audio solutions, allowing the streaming service to focus on broader brand offerings across the platform.
The addition of Katz’s digital audio network to the Spotify free monetization effort, will help drive incremental audio revenue and allow Spotify direct sales team to focus efforts on brand partnerships, network audio and the digital ad community.Katz Radio Group is the self-proclaimed largest aggregator of audio streams in the market, reaching a reported 130-million monthly unique listeners.
Spotify announced the creation of its geo-targeted ad platform, in partnership with Triton Digital, last December.So this partnership with Katz Digital, comes back by metrics as Spotify cites 44-million monthly unique users (in comScore metrics), and notes that its free ad-supported service tier continues to grow in the U.S.
Spotify had already been active in selling ads targeted using DMA and Metro Survey Areas, but it has seen increasing demand beyond what its in-house team prefers to handle.
“We are getting growing in-bound demand for geotargeted audio inventory from large, mid-sized and smaller agencies across the country,” said Les Hollander, global head of audio monetization at Spotify.
By outsourcing its geotargeting to Katz, Spotify is looking to let a specialist take over, allowing the streaming service to focus on serving large holding companies and big brands. Still, geotargeted ads is a small part of Spotify’s business. Advertisers who buy geotargeted campaigns tend to use that data to drive higher CPMs, and are willing to pay higher CPMs based on that granular targeting,which drives up its value for Spotify.
The streaming company is also incorporating this geotargeting into its growing video advertising, launched last year.
Brian Benedik, Global Head of Ad Sales at Spotify, emphasized not only the direct monetization effort, but also an efficiency gain in resource management. “Katz is the most respected national representation firm in the media business with leadership, audio expertise and access second to none,” Benedik said. The addition of Katz’s digital audio network to the Spotify free monetization effort, will help drive incremental audio revenue and allow our Spotify direct sales team to focus efforts on brand partnerships, network audio and the digital ad community.”
Hollander described the partnership as the move of a growing company in an evolving sector of the ad world.
