Dentsu to offer programmatic audio service in Japan

The move is positioned as promoting programmatic digital advertising, a fast-growing but still under-developed area in Japan.

The service will use a2x, a programmatic audio advertising exchange owned by Triton Digital2, an audio industry supplier. According to Dentsu, it will enable “advertisers to deliver targeted, contextual and behavioural audio ads in real-time”.

Dentsu will package the new service in The Dentsu Private Marketplace, which it describes as a large-scale invitation-only marketplace that facilitates automated transactions between publishers and buyers. Around 230 publishers are involved, Dentsu said.

In a statement, Dentsu notes that online radio and music-streaming services are gaining popularity. Spotify is expected to launch in Japan this year.

At the same time, “the Japanese market remains nascent, with no single established or widely accepted method to serve digital audio ads”.

The launch follows that of an equivalent for online video, the Premium Video Series.