Content meets technology: Global’s DAX acquires AudioHQ

Global’s acquisition this week of content aggregator AudioHQ gives its digital audio ad sales platform DAX (Digital Audio Exchange) a huge boost as it expands its operation into the United States.

By marrying DAX’s easy-to-use, programmatic platform to AudioHQ’s robust slate of publishers, Global has created what they are calling “the world’s largest audio advertising program.” The move is expected to grow the newly expanded company’s audience from 130 million to 160 million and give agencies and media buyers more options than ever before.

The acquisition brings together the best of the two companies, according to Matt Cutair, AudioHQ CEO and co-founder.

“We both started around the same time but focused on different things. We were starting similar businesses; on parallel paths but for different markets,” Cutair said.

Since its inception in 2014, New York-based AudioHQ has provided a traditional supply-side ad platform (SSP) selling ads on a variety of digital audio services, including radio streams, online-only platforms and podcast content. Its broad slate of publishers, including Major League Baseball and SoundCloud, help make it one of the biggest aggregators of digital audio inventory in the US.

Global launched DAX at about the same time, building a demand-side platform (DSP) that advanced programmatic ad buying and developing a suite of market-leading technical capabilities, including Listener Insight ID, a listening technology that allows advertisers to measure and track the impact of their campaigns in ways that were unmeasurable before, according to Oliver Deane, commercial digital director for Global.

With their combined capabilities, DAX is poised to offer a more technologically advanced audio buying experience with a huge publisher inventory.

“From an advertiser’s standpoint, the majority of value is going to come from continuing to work with our large-scale network and team, but with enhanced abilities and technology,” Cutair said.