Global to extend Digital Audio Exchange to offer advertisers 60m strong audience
Global is set to create an even more attractive offer for advertisers as it extends its year-old Digital Audio Exchange (DAX) across 18 countries to reach an audience of 60 million from early 2016.
The move will create the single biggest audio platform across Europe with advertisers able to access a huge number of people consuming digital radio, music streaming services and podcasts with both direct and programmatic buying options.
Growth in listening and demand from clients has driven the expansion plan, which will see Global set up its first international sales team, grow a digital account management team and recruit a network of creatives to develop pan-European campaigns.
The network of creatives will write and produce ads in different languages for clients, reporting into Jo McCrostie, creative director at Global.
Mike Gordon, chief commercial officer at Global said the ambition for DAX is to recreate the multi-billion US digital audio market in Europe. He unveiled the strategy at Global's Digital Upfront this evening (19 October), marking the first year a tradiitonal radio broadcaster has taken part in the event, a move emblematic of audio's growth in the wake of the proliferation of mobile media.
"We created DAX to give brands access to the digital audio market in one single buy," Gordon added.
"The growth we’ve experienced in just over a year has defied our expectations. In that period, we’ve signed up more than 140 digital audio publishers, 250 forward-thinking advertisers, grown our audience from zero to seven million and demonstrated the power of digital audio to deliver brand messages and help drive traffic to brands’ websites and apps through research among 400,000 smartphone users.”
It’s Global’s latest attempt to push audio media inventory further up media plans, with DAX positioned as a platform devoid of the issues hampering digital’s development elsewhere such as viewabilty and brand safety.
In the UK, DAX gives advertisers a single buying point for more than 140 digital audio platforms including Rdio, Musicovery, audioBoom, Ministry of Sound, Global’s radio brands including Capital, Heart, Radio X, Classic FM and LBC, and Bauer’s Absolute Radio network.