iHeartMedia Buys Tech Firm Behind Its Ad Buying Platform
iHeartMedia has acquired cloud-based radio technology firm Jelli, which already powers its SoundPoint platform for programmatic and automated ad buying.
iHeartMedia has acquired cloud-based radio technology firm Jelli, which already powers its SoundPoint platform for programmatic and automated ad buying. The SoundPoint platform allows advertisers and agencies to leverage iHeartMedia’s large stable of broadcast stations through both its radio and digital orgs, delivering digital compatible analytics.
“At iHeart we believe marketing is both math and magic. The math is our rich data and insights about our users and how they relate to our partners’ products and services — and the magic is the incredible creative ideas we bring to our partners, such as our iconic music events, award shows, influencers, podcasts, social reach and our unique on air promotions,” said Bob Pittman, chairman and CEO of iHeartMedia. “Jelli allows us to do something no other company can do — advertisers can now buy and use our broadcast assets, reach and impact just as they use the major digital players. We now offer heavy data and heavy creative innovation all in one place.”
As part of the acquisition, Jelli will continue to operate as a company within iHeartMedia, Inc. led by president and CEO Michael Dougherty and his team. The Jelli division will remain in Silicon Valley and become iHeartMedia’s primary ad technology operation. “By pairing iHeartMedia’s reach and multiplatform assets with our cloud-based advertising technology, we are positioned to provide a single platform for advertisers to reach all audiences, no matter where they are consuming audio,” said Dougherty.