Australian radio broadcasters are working with major media agencies on the development of a world-leading virtual workspace that will be a key component of the industry-wide ad buying platform, RadioMATRIX.
Nineteen agencies will participate in the pilot program, which provides them with a single interface to connect with 370 Australian radio stations and collaborate on media campaigns in real-time, from any location.
“We are excited to start work with agencies on the next phase of RadioMATRIX, which will transform the audio buying process and make it much easier for advertisers to invest in radio and podcast advertising,” Commercial Radio Australia chief executive officer Joan Warner said.
“We are replacing the traditional manual and email-based approach with a virtual workspace that meets media buyers’ evolving needs. Online collaboration will become an increasingly important feature of the future workplace, and this has only been accelerated by the emergence of COVID-19 and the need to leverage technology to work securely, remotely and effectively across borders.”
The agencies participating in the initiative are Carat, Dentsu, Havas Media, Ikon Communications, Initiative, MagnaGlobal, Mediacom, Mindshare, OMD, Orion, PHD, Rufus, Spark Foundry, Starcom, The Media Store, UM, Wavemaker and Zenith.
Media buyers will have access to purpose-built tools to create and send out briefs, receive proposals from networks and undertake modelling. The cloud-based solution will be powered by GfK radio surveys data so agencies can check audience reach, frequency and cost against real-time availability.
Jo Dick, head of partnerships, outdoor and audio at Omnicon, said: “As a major user of radio, Omnicon agencies are delighted to contribute to the pilot program because the real-time tools and insights that RadioMATRIX will bring will be enormously beneficial to facilitating a more streamlined briefing process.”
Jenny Rowsell, business systems director at Publicis Media, said: “Publicis are very pleased to have the opportunity to be part of the pilot. The introduction of holdings was a major first step and now the development of the platform will be hugely beneficial to our buyers. Exciting times ahead!”
The first phase of RadioMATRIX was launched in October 2017 and digitised and streamlined the management of ad bookings. The platform is currently being used by 200 media agencies and has processed more than 1.5 billion items of radio inventory.
RadioMATRIX is being developed by AudioNET, with the virtual workspace, briefings and proposals module scheduled for completion in October.
Dave Cox, chief executive officer of AudioNET, said: “We believe RadioMATRIX will be the first whole-of-media sector briefing and buying platform in the world and we are delighted to work with agencies and the radio broadcasting industry to build a solution that is attractive, easy to use and meets the needs of the market into the future.”