In preparation for the launch of HarpoRadio.com on April 26, Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Radio has signed a unique ad sales and content agreement with TargetSpot, the largest Internet and mobile radio advertising network.

In addition to representing streaming radio ad inventory on HarpoRadio.com, the pact, announced Tuesday (March 23) gives TargetSpot access to archived Harpo Radio content to create sponsored vignettes for advertisers.

"Advertisers can wrap their message around compelling and relevant content while running an ad. It will sound very natural and blend with the content, making the advertising even more effective," said Eric Ronning, co-president of sales for TargetSpot."

Join Eric Ronning, Co-President of Sales for TargetSpot, at SXSW if you want to make a real connection with consumers. Tune into internet radio advertising and learn how this emerging medium combines the emotional impact of radio with the benefits of digital to create a powerhouse environment that attracts an audience you need to reach.

TargetSpot is the nation’s largest mobile and internet radio advertising network. TargetSpot connects top brands and local businesses to the online listener with interactive, network and spot radio advertising solutions. Advertisers can use TargetSpot’s self-service advertising platform or work with TargetSpot’s full-service account management team to create campaigns, target customers by geography, listening preferences and demographics, and deliver high-impact audio, display and pre-roll video advertising across thousands of online audio properties. TargetSpot has more than 75 distribution partners, including CBS RADIO, AOL Radio, Entercom, Live 365, Yahoo! Music, and MySpace Music. 

With more than 29 million unique monthly listeners, TargetSpot vaulted to the top of comScore's adjusted February expanded category report for the entertainment radio category. It was the first time TargetSpot was measured by comScore.

TargetSpot—which includes CBS Radio, AOL Radio, Yahoo Music and Live365, among its 75 network distribution partners—reaches more than 64 percent of listeners in the entertainment-radio category and 14 percent of the total Internet audience.

Westwood One's partner sites were ranked No. 2 with more than 27.4 million unique visitors, followed by ReplaceAds (18.6 million), Pandora.com (12.5 million), and Clear Channel Online (9.2 million).

TargetSpot's audience will be measured monthly by comScore.

"The Internet and mobile radio industry is growing rapidly and it is critical to advertisers, media companies and advertising networks to have an independent provider of audience measurement that covers both pure play and broadcast media," said Eyal Goldwerger, CEO of TargetSpot.

Ando Media, purchased last November by Triton Media Group also measures Internet radio.

Some media companies and buyers viewed the aquisition as controversial since the company that purchased the ratings firm also sells in-stream radio advertising.
 

Many of us grew up hearing ads on the radio, but those ads never knew where you were, what kind of radio you had, or your general demographic information.

TargetSpot, a CBS-backed venture that calls itself the nation’s largest internet-radio advertising network, announced deals this week with Slacker’s music-streaming service to bring “the first-ever targeted mobile audio ads to mobile radio listeners.” That’s different than the targeted display advertising that already appears in mobile apps.

Audio advertisements, which interrupt the free version of the service every so often with a 30-second spot, are partly responsible for Pandora’s success. But mobile offers a potentially more significant opportunity for advertisers as interactive radio migrates to the cellphone in addition to the computer.

TargetSpot, a leading Internet radio advertising network, is expanding into audio ad sales for digital audio content delivered to mobile devices, giving advertising clients access to much-sought-after listeners, including owners of iPhones and BlackBerry smartphones.

For the first time, in-stream audio advertisers will be able to target listeners to Internet radio on mobile devices. Slacker, a pure-play Internet radio service, has partnered with TargetSpot, its online radio ad network, to monetize the 50 percent of its listeners that tune-in via applications on iPhone, Android and BlackBerrys.

Advertisers relying exclusively on click-through rates may not be getting a complete picture of the effectiveness of their online audio ad buy. A new TargetSpot metric shows as much as half of audio ads' impact on consumers may be going undetected by media buyers. It may convince advertisers to rethink how they're assessing in-stream ads.

By some measures, streaming audio accounts for 7% of daily audio exposure but it still takes less than 2% of dollars placed in audio media.  Despite the gap, GroupM director of radio Kim Vasey doubts the sector make up the difference from on-air campaigns.

 “It’s more about how to build something that’s integrated and builds from one to the other,” says Vasey, explaining they consider factors such as demo and creative.  Online radio offers more data, but Vasey thinks some questions remain unanswered. “When we’re looking across the entire media plan, it’s very difficult to know what part of the campaign is the diving success.”  Advertisers seem to be hedging their bets.  One GroupM financial services client was so happy with their success with online radio, they turned around and put more dollars — into on-air buys.

“We are also encouraging our clients to take a step back from just taking the traditional commercial copy that they’re running on the terrestrial radio station and changing it to a more direct call to action because you have the consumer sitting there listening,” she says.  But unlike a few years ago, Vasey feels there’s a lot less explaining required.  “Advertisers, agencies and clients are embracing this space.”

TargetSpot president of sales Eric Ronning believes in-stream audio ads have reached a “tipping point” in 2010 telling a company-sponsored webinar they’ve seen “a lot of action” in the entertainment, finance, insurance and fast food categories for the coming year.
 

Internet radio advertising came back from the Thanksgiving holiday as busy as ever with the announcement of new affiliates joining the TargetSpot online ad network.

New members joining the TargetSpot ad network include Emmis Radio, Tribune Broadcasting, Inner City Broadcast Corporation's ICBC Broadcast Holdings and Lincoln Financial Media.

Their addition brings the total number of partners in TargetSpot's network to over 75 radio groups and pure-play online broadcasters, which together operate thousands of streaming music and radio channels.

In today’s economic climate, buying radio ads in a market such as New York is out of reach for many businesses. However, instead of paying to blanket a region with a message, imagine if it was possible to keep costs down while targeting listeners in specific zip codes, across both traditional and Web-only radio stations. This new wave of advertising is reality, thanks, in part, to the efforts of a Binghamton University alumnus.

Andrew Eisele ’86 is COO/CFO of TargetSpot, a New York-based Internet radio advertising firm. Eisele joined the company in 2007, shortly after its launch by co-founder Doug Perlson, a colleague from his days at the online content pioneer now known as About.com. CBS Radio was one of the first investors to buy into this concept, seeking an advertising partner for its Web streams.

“That was a big deal, because it gave us credibility from day one,” Eisele says. “[CBS] got us on all their stations. So, right from the start, I felt like we were in the right place at the right time.”

TargetSpot added to its Internet radio advertising network Wednesday (Sept. 23), signing Goom Radio, a newly launched Internet radio company, to an exclusive sales representation agreement. Goom joins a number of other big pure-play Internet radio companies represented by TargetSpot including AOL Radio, Live 365 and Yahoo LAUNCHcast, as well as traditional radio groups such as CBS Radio and Entercom Communications.

The deal solidifies TargetSpot’s position as the largest Internet radio advertising network reaching 15.3 million unique listeners per month. With Goom Radio, TargetSpot could expand the reach of its network by as many as 1 million monthly listeners, the number of listeners Goom attracted in September, the first month of the service’s operations.

“This deal is a substantial addition to our network and gives us access to unique inventory,” said Eyal Goldwerger, CEO of TargetSpot, referring to Goom Radio’s use of online DJs. “This isn’t just about the numbers but the type of properties we associate with, which attracts a high caliber of advertisers.”

-By Katy Bachman

TargetSpot is taking accountability in Internet radio campaigns to a new level. Following months of development, TargetSpot launched Wednesday (Sept. 16) TargetSpot Analytics, the first tracking and reporting system that can measure listener behavior after they hear an Internet radio ad, whether the listener clicked on the ad’s banner or not.

While other performance systems provide advertisers with schedule verification and click-through counts, TargetSpot Analytics goes a step further to connect the streaming audio ad heard by the listener to any other activity related to the advertiser’s message.

“There’s a good portion of the streaming audio audience that were exposed to audio ads but responded later, via a different path [other than the banner click],” said Eric Ronning, co-president of sales for TargetSpot.

In this episode of The Deal's Behind the Money online video show, Eyal Goldwerger, who took the CEO job at TargetSpot Inc. earlier this month, talks about online audio advertising and why his investors, including Union Square Ventures co-founder Fred Wilson, think this is a market that is "just about to take off."

Watch the video >>>

AdExchanger.com interviews Eyal Goldwerger, CEO of TargetSpot, an Internet radio advertising network.

TargetSpot, the nation's largest Internet radio advertising network, has named Eyal Goldwerger as its new chief executive officer.

Goldwerger succeeds Doug Perlson, who has led the company as CEO since 2007.

Most recently CEO of marketing software company XMPie, Goldwerger led the growth of the company, overseeing its acquisition by Xerox in 2006. Prior to XMPie, Goldwerger held various management and executive positions at online advertising and e-commerce companies.

"Eyal has a successful track record of taking start-up companies and building them into market leaders," said Fred Wilson, partner at Union Square Ventures. "He has the proven ability to lead organizations through growth and has increased value for investors, employees and partners alike. He is an excellent choice to lead TargetSpot into its next phase of expansion."

Since its inception, TargetSpot's ad network has grown to reach more than 15.3 million unique listeners per month through distribution partners such as CBS Radio, Fox News, Yahoo Launchcast and AOL Radio.

Streaming radio, with its strong appeal to the key 25-to-54 demographic, is becoming a popular medium with both online-only marketers including LendingTree, Match.com and Orbitz, as well as traditional ones, such as Wal-Mart, Ace Hardware and Procter & Gamble.

While movie studios are well known for big budget TV ad buys, surveys are showing that their best customers might be available on a much different medium – internet radio.

A Mediamark Research & Intelligence Survey has shown that internet radio listeners far outpace any other audience measurement group in terms of movie-going habits. Online radio users are 37% more likely than an average TV watcher, and 32% more likely than an average internet user to go to at least one movie per week.

“Online radio, led by TargetSpot, allows the film industry to market their single product, namely the movie, at every appropriate stage of its life span, from pumping up the opening weekend and box office numbers, to expanding its post-theater offerings in Video On-Demand, DVD purchases and rentals, as well as reminding users to buy it as a gift at the holidays. This 360 degree approach is completely unique to the online radio medium. TargetSpot has found that studios are increasingly recognizing the importance of using online radio at every stage of messaging for their product,” said Andy Lipset, co-President for sales at TargetSpot.

Michael Jackson’s death continues to resonate in the world of online music as fans flock to the Web to purchase his music—and stream tons of it for free, often without many ads.

That surge is seen as a boost to the fast-growing Web music sector (95 million unique users, per comScore). But it has also cast light on the segment’s nascent business model.

On one end of the spectrum is the more established Internet radio format—which is built on radio-like audio ads. At the other end are the growing number of on-demand music sites, such as MySpace and Imeem, which offer users the ability to stream free playlists. That often happens while their eyes are focused on something other than a Web page—a potential problem for businesses built on visual display ads.

“The behavior of listening to music, at the end of the day, is almost entirely audio driven,” said Eric Ronning, co-president, sales of the Internet Radio firm TargetSpot. But many music playlist sites have been hesitant to push audio ads, instead building their ad business around display advertising and sponsorships. Ronning predicts that may change as these businesses evolve. “You can argue that playlists are highly engaging, but they are also an iPod like. I don’t expect an ad so much in that experience…and almost none of that is visual.”

Deals in the online radio arena keep on coming, regardless of the sour economy, along with more good news about the medium's future. In the latest round, TargetSpot announced that it has added 10 new online networks to its list of partners, including the Web operations of several large broadcast radio groups.

The TargetSpot announcement comes not long after an SNL Kagan report forecasting continuing rapid growth in online radio revenues, and an Arbitron survey showing big increases in audience size.

The economy be damned. Online radio is still going strong, according to "Infinite Dial 2009," Arbitron's latest overview of the medium, due out later this week. The news follows a series of deals confirming that whatever happens in the economy at large, online radio is rapidly carving out a niche for itself in the digital media landscape.