Company Also Launches Customized Mobile Apps for NextMedia, Results Radio and Aritaur Radio Stations
CTIA WIRELESS CONFERENCE 2010, Las Vegas, NV (Business Wire) – March 23, 2009 – AirKast, the leader in digital content and advertising solutions, announced today the general availability of its AirBridge digital media delivery platform that now offers geolocation capabilities and support for Android mobile devices. In addition, the company launched branded and customized mobile applications for radio stations owned by NextMedia, Inc., Results Radio and Aritaur Communciations to deliver streaming live radio content to their listeners.
NextMedia (www.nextmediagroup.com) owns and operates 42 radio stations in 12 rated and suburban markets along with outdoor advertising properties in large and mid-sized markets throughout the U.S. “We chose AirBridge because its interactive capabilities allow us to capture and maintain audience interest using each station’s unique content,” said Brian Foster, vice president of new media for NextMedia. “Since AirKast handles all of the hosting and technical details, we can remain focused on our business objectives.”
Applications powered by AirBridge are reliable, secure and scalable so companies can target large audiences via mobile and consumer devices. AirBridge is a hosted environment comprised of a broad set of built-in interactive capabilities that allows branded applications to be brought to market quickly, so companies can focus on developing competitive advantages instead of technical and infrastructure issues. AirBridge currently supports market-leading mobile devices, including iPhone, BlackBerry (all models including Storm) and now Android. For the radio broadcasting industry, AirBridge is fully integrated with leading ad insertion and metric measurement firms and digital services providers, such as Ando Media, Triton Digital Media, StreamTheWorld and Liquid Compass.
“I’ve worked with many application developers over the years and my interaction with AirKast was the easiest ever,” said Gary Guthrie, CMO for Aritaur Communications Inc. and mvyradio.com. “The clarity of purpose coupled with their intuition for the opportunity were spot-on. One of the best advantages is the snap-second customization available for creating message graphics. Within 10 minutes, we’re designing opening screens and banners to distribute our message to thousands of listeners who might not otherwise see them without visiting our website.” Aritaur Communications owns mvyradio, an alternative-style Internet radio station.
The branded radio mobile applications, containing real-time digital media and online content, were developed using TuneKast, a mobile application framework designed for terrestrial and Internet-based radio stations. TuneKast, together with AirBridge, gives radio stations numerous opportunities to increase the distribution of their content in order to attract sponsors and advertisers. Each TuneKast application is “dynamically brand-able” which means that stations can change sponsor information as well as the application’s look-and-feel in real-time without performing application updates. Additionally, stations can give advertisers and sponsors access to value-added services and capabilities, such as location-based targeting, pre-roll video capabilities and clickable ads to continually interest audiences.
“Two months with AirKast and we’re delighted,” said Dave Shakes, chief programming officer for Results Radio, LLC. “In this short time, our Adult Hits (Bob-FM Chico) and Active Rock (ZRock Chico) iPhone and Blackberry apps have been downloaded by a number that is equivalent to nearly 20% of their Arbitron cume listenerships! In addition, those station session-starts increased nearly 50% from when the stream was only available online.”
Used by more than 850 of the nation’s most popular terrestrial radio stations, TuneKast offers many ways to encourage active listener participation, such as loyalty programs and premium content features. TuneKast applications are seamlessly integrated with Ando Media’s market-leading ad trafficking and metrics measurement system. This combination gives stations the power to monetize their digital media and online content for mobile devices, while monitoring and measuring in real-time audience and ad campaign performances from numerous forms of advertising and sponsorships.
AirKast now offers geolocation-based in-app advertising capabilities for advertisers and brands through the AirBridge platform. AirKast is the only company to offer advertisers and brands a choreographed combination of audio and rich media ads based on a user’s location. For example, a man is walking near a brick-and-mortar REI store while listening to his favorite radio station on his mobile device. The listener can hear an audio ad for REI and, at the same time, receive a multimedia-rich video or interactive graphical ad for REI, both via his mobile device. This geolocation-targeting provides broadcasting advertisers with additional opportunities to attract customers.
About AirKast, Inc.
AirKast, Inc. is a leading provider of digital content and advertising enterprise-class solutions that extend and enhance real-time digital media and online content to mobile and consumer electronic (CE) devices. AirKast customers include ABC as well as popular terrestrial stations from Greater Media, Alpha Broadcasting, Citadel Broadcasting and NextMedia, Inc. AirKast is headquartered in the heart of Silicon Valley with an office strategically located in New York City. For more information about AirKast and its solutions, visit www.airkast.com.
