Major ad agencies to pilot RadioMATRIX buying platform

Australian radio broadcasters are working with media agencies on the development of a virtual workspace, a key component of the industry-wide ad-buying platform RadioMATRIX.

Commercial Radio Australia revealed 19 agencies – including Carat, Mindshare and OMD – will participate in the pilot, offering a single interface to connect with 370 stations.

Networks and buyers will be able to collaborate on 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,” CRA 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.

Phase one of RadioMATRIX was launched in 2017. It digitised and streamlined 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.