Australian Commercial Radio Unveils Ad Buying Platform RadioMATRIX

The Australian commercial radio industry’s new industry-wide media briefing platform is now live and operational, ushering in a new and easier way to plan and buy radio advertising.

The briefing portal is a key part of the industry ad buying platform RadioMATRIX and allows media buyers to log in and brief multiple radio networks on their campaigns once through a single, cloud-based platform.

Commercial Radio Australia chief executive officer Joan Warner said the new module standardises the briefing process and allows advertisers to save time and get the best results for their radio campaigns.

“The radio industry has united and worked closely with media agencies to develop a world-leading solution that removes complexity, ramps up efficiencies and makes it easier for advertisers to consider radio for every campaign. We want radio to be a valuable innovation partner for marketers as the industry moves into recovery,” she said.

The rollout of the briefings module follows extensive collaboration with agencies including Carat, Dentsu, Havas Media, Ikon Communications, Initiative, MagnaGlobal, Mediacom, Mindshare, OMD, Orion, PHD, Rufus, Spark Foundry, Starcom, The Media Store, UM, Wavemaker and Zenith.

Sophie Madden, chief executive officer of media agency industry body the Media Federation of Australia, said: “It’s exciting to see this initiative come to fruition. It’s another big step forward in streamlining the radio media buying process and takes collaboration between agencies and the radio industry to a new level. Radio has shown a strong commitment to innovation that will allow agencies to work more efficiently and to ultimately deliver better results for advertisers.”

RadioMATRIX first launched in October 2017 with automated holdings and is in use by 200 media agencies to manage radio campaigns running across 370 stations. The first stage enabled buyers to shift from paper to online management of bookings. The platform has processed more than 1.5 billion items of radio inventory since launch.

Following the roll out of the briefings module, the next major stage of development of RadioMATRIX is the proposal module. This is now underway and will enable broadcasters to respond to briefs and submit and manage media proposals with individual or multiple media agencies concurrently. The proposals module is expected to roll out in the first quarter of 2021.

GfK radio survey data will be incorporated into the RadioMATRIX workflow, so that agencies and networks can test and estimate the audience, reach and frequency of each proposal while shaping the best campaign structure to achieve maximum results for clients.

Future stages of development will also enable large direct advertisers and smaller agencies to use the platform.

Michael Harvey, ARN’s chief operating officer and chair of CRA’s Automation and Programmatic Committee, said: “This solution will be the first stage of simplification of the radio buying process and will enable more efficient communication between agencies and radio networks. The solution will ultimately enable agencies to plan and buy across the whole radio ecosystem in one place – broadcast, radio streaming, podcasting and more.”

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The Australian commercial radio industry