Report: Programmatic A Ways Off For Radio Buyers

Many different media have pushed quickly into programmatic buying.

Magazine companies such as Time Inc. have set up exchanges to sell print inventory.

NBCUniversal recently rolled out an exchange to be used across its cable and broadcast networks. A handful of Super Bowl commercials have been purchased programmatically since 2015.

Out of home has experimented with automated buying, too.

And of course digital immediately embraced automation.

There’s one glaring absence from that list, though: Radio.

Radio would seem ideally suited to programmatic considering how much total volume of advertising is bought and how many local ad reps are needed to do it.  But radio has been very slow to embrace programmatic at the local level, which accounts for the bulk of radio advertising. In fact, Jon Mansell, vice president of marketplace innovation at Magna Global, says less than 1 percent of all radio buys are made programmatically.

Why so low?

Well, a major reason is lack of opportunity. As one agency contacted by Media Life pointed out, nearly all the existing programmatic options are for national radio buys.

“We’re hoping to test it locally once more options role out,” the agency noted.

Mansell agrees that radio options have been slow to develop.

Another hurdle: Disorganization.  There are dozens of vendors rolling out programmatic buying exchanges across different media. The industry is still so young that there isn’t any one brand that’s emerged as the industry standard, as Nielsen quickly became for TV ratings, for instance.

For radio, that’s complicated by the fact that individual stations then could choose any of those platforms. Buyers might have to deal with a dozen different exchanges for just one market.

But perhaps the most difficult thing to overcome will be the disdain for programmatic within some segments of the buying community.

“I would not buy programmatically, not even at the national level. Strategic radio planning requires actual conversations with a station’s seller, promotions director, and/or program director about what makes their station distinctive and how it’s a good fit (or not) for a particular client,” another buyer says.

Still, Magna’s Mansell says within a few years, more than half of radio buys will be handled programmatically. He says attribution will drive heavy adoption of the technology.