HT Media partners AdsWizz to bring India’s first programmatic podcast marketplace

Indian podcasts are available in Hindi, English, Telugu, Tamil, Bengali, Kannada, Gujarati, Marathi, and other vernacular languages. This diversity increases engagement and promotes a larger attention span in podcasts. This learning is not only beneficial for advertisers, but for podcasters in India who are looking to create monetizable content.

Patrick Roger, VP of New Markets, AdsWizz said, “Our technology combines the power of programmatic advertising with the power of podcasts, enabling advertisers’ easy access to a highly engaged audience. Additionally, with our AI Transcription Technology, advertisers can ensure brand safety by only serving ads to podcast shows or episodes that have specific topics as a central theme.”

“This relationship will automate real-time buying, targeting, optimization, and reporting of podcast ad inventory. Advertisers will be able to choose their geography, time, and demographics as the content increases. What is more exciting is the fact that one of the biggest reasons why podcasts are making their space into the heart of the Indians is because the content is present in numerous languages. Local advertising too can be enabled via this platform,” added Roger.

It is estimated that the number of listeners will rise to 170.6 million by 2023, and India’s music, radio and podcast market will double itself by 2023. The advent of programmatic advertising in podcasts opens doors to more brand communications spend towards the format as the audience grows.

“It is an exciting time for us and a proud moment, to make advertisers experience the power of an immersive medium like Podcasts,” said Ramesh Menon, CEO, Fever Network and Next Radio Ltd.

Podcasting is an independent, free-flowing medium but what it lacks, is a single channel of promotion that can give a podcast publisher, visibility, and monetary benefit. Understanding genre and response, demand for specific topics, and gauging interest is a discovery process that will be powered by the use of this platform.

HT Media plans to be for podcasters, what YouTube is to video creators. It believes that there is a podcaster hidden in every Indian that has a story to tell. It is enabling them with their podcast content-generating company HT Smartcast and partner companies like HubHopper. By the virtue of its legacy is enabling another medium of sharing voice.

Gautam Anand, Founder and CEO, HubHopper said, “This recent integration with HT Media and Adswizz marks the inclusion of yet another integral and elusive piece of this puzzle by bringing programmatic advertising capability to all who choose to create via hubhopper.”

This move welcomes audio content creators to join the bandwagon and utilize the relationship to their advantage. Platforms with original content or hosting and distribution platforms too can avail benefits by adding to the vast and diverse inventory.