Earlier this month Instreamatic.ai, a digital voice-activated advertising platform based in San Francisco, but with Russian roots, launched an advanced programmatic buying product. Its core feature is the ability to engage with users in the form of a dialogue.
What’s more, Insteamatic.ai’s technology connects publishers to the fast-emerging market of voice-controlled devices and services. The platform also allows users to ask for more details, to immediately buy goods, to add an event to a calendar, to skip, or to call a company, according to the company.
“Voice assistant technology is ready for prime time and the impressive sales of voice-equipped devices are creating a huge hands-free market for publishers,” said Stas Tushinskiy, Instreamatic.ai founder and CEO. “Voice response ad technology is the only monetization tool that’s designed for hands-free, voice-activated content consumption.”
No accidental clicks
Insteamatic.ai claims that there are no accidental clicks – which are a serious issue in the video ads market.
The company is signing up clients such as publishers, skill developers, and media buying agencies. These include Live365, a broadcasting and listening network where users create online radio stations.
Insteamatic started the digital-audio ad market in Russia with Unisound, the first audio ad focused ad agency. Its journey to America started late in 2015 when Tushinskiy was traveling back and forth between San Francisco and Moscow, finally relocating full time to Silicon Valley in May 2016.
“When we spoke with potential clients in Europe we were asked over and over again – ‘how is this, or something similar, performing in the US?’ The US market is a starting point for the rest of the world, a place where people are willing to take risks in order to make money. In the Old World people are waiting to see what will work in the US before adopting/cloning,” said Tushinskiy.
Insteamatic.ai now has a staff of 13, but 10 are still in Russia, mostly working in R&D.
The company has secured over $700,000 investment to date, provided by both Run Capital – a fund launched in 2014 by Russian businessmen, but often investing abroad – and the startup’s founders.
Insteamatic.ai is now wrapping up a $1 million convertible note.
Tech disruption by voice?
Interactive voice advertising could be a game-changer for the digital advertising industry because it solves the ‘click problem’. When there’s no click, there’s no engagement, no interest from ad buyers, and low prices of ads. Voice response solves this ‘click problem’ and makes an ad’s efficiency transparent.
“Good old 30-60 second audio ads offer less and less engagement with targeted audiences because people ignore and filter them. Using a teaser to see if users are interested and then provide all offer details is the way to go,” said Tushinskiy.
Voice-first devices like Amazon Echo and Google Home are experiencing exponential sales growth, and Strategy Analytics estimates that a total of 88 million devices with voice-activated functionality will be shipped this year, and that by 2020 some 970 million will be in use around the world.
