Fox and iHeartMedia Partner to Take on Digital Advertising

The latest in media marriages is bringing together Fox Networks Group and iHeartMedia in a partnership that will help advertisers target audiences across video and audio. In an effort to take on the likes of Facebook and Google, which are called a duopoly online and are luring traditional media dollars there way as well, media companies have been increasingly working together to combine their data capabilities and other resources for better targeted advertising products. Fox and iHeartMedia will let marketers identify consumer segments such as football fans or hip-hop fans and then reach those audiences across Fox's TV and digital properties and iHeart's radio and streaming platforms. Using iHeartMedia listener data and Fox viewer data, marketers would be able to identify football fans, for example, who listen to Z100 on the radio and watch "Empire." Dubbed Smart A/V, Fox and iHeart's ad products will include prepared custom segments that take into account media preferences, purchase intent and interests, as well as the ability for marketers to customize their own audience segments. Brands will also be able to deliver more compelling creative across platforms by tapping into local data and other triggers like weather, sports scores and stock market performance, said Gayle Troberman, exec VP and chief marketing officer, iHeartMedia. And the ad products will allow for real-time, or close-to-real-time analysis, to allow marketers to optimize their campaigns, said Ed Davis, chief product officer-ad sales, Fox Networks Group. This is the latest in traditional media collaboration over the past several months to attempt to deliver very specific audiences at a large scale to take on digital powerhouses. Fox, Turner and Viacom partnered in the spring on a consortium whose goal is to standardize audience buying on TV, and NBC Universal is working with Conde Nast and Vox Media to sell ads across their platforms targeting specific audiences. iHeartMedia and Fox will share data, but marketers will still execute ad buys with each company separately.

Fox and iHeartMedia Partner to Take on Digital Advertising

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