Africa’s first integrated Demand-Side Platform (DSP), which aims at empowering advertisers and businesses to manage, buy and optimise digital ad inventory across multiple ad exchanges, has been unveiled.
Powered by Intent.ai, Airtel Ads, created by Airtel Africa, is designed for media agencies and businesses, streamlining the process of purchasing advertising space. It enables advertisers to make informed ad placement decisions by combining various tools and functionalities within a single platform and offers a comprehensive solution for digital advertising management.
The platform will leverage Airtel Africa’s extensive customer base of over 150 million customers, utilising data from both telecommunications services and mobile wallets. This approach aims to not only target digitally engaged individuals but also include those traditionally excluded from the digital realm through its 2G and feature phone user base. Additionally, through the integrated Airtel Voice Reward Ads, the platform can reach consumers on various devices.
Understanding the current limitations in ad performance for organisations, the new technology aims to seamlessly merge all ad networks with Airtel Africa’s first-party telecommunications data. It will provide a unified advertising platform with precise audience segmentation, a dedicated marketing team, data analytics with post-campaign support in addition to both native language support and access to 260+ bidding parameters. The platform, powered by AI-based brand safety tools, will also accept payments in local African currencies.
Since its inception, the platform has achieved a weekly audience reach of 27 billion impressions, 23.5 million in-app daily impressions and over 200 million daily SMS notifications with end-of-SMS tag messaging potential.
Speaking at the launch in Lagos, Airtel Africa’s Chief Commercial Officer, Anthony Shiner said, “Advertising is evolving, and shifts in data policies are presenting new challenges. We are excited to introduce Airtel Ads in Africa. This innovative platform will support advertisers and businesses to gain unprecedented control over their marketing campaigns, leveraging Airtel Africa’s extensive customer base and world-class technology. Airtel Ads is a testament to our leadership in shaping the communications landscape in Africa, ensuring businesses are supported to achieve their objectives using data-first tools to inform their business decisions.”
The launch featured a lineup of esteemed speakers who discussed topics ranging from Artificial Intelligence, Chat GPT, programmatic buying, data science, to the evolution of mobile technology from 2G, 3G and 4G to the current 5G technology.
Hosting a panel discussion that spoke on Exploring AI in Digital Advertising, panel members, Sheriff Adekoya (Group Head of Strategy, Ogilvy Nigeria; Abisoye Oruye (Media Manager Friesland Campina, Sub-saharan Africa); Emmanuel Agu (Faculty Member, Rome Business School); Osisiye Tafa (Author, Journalist and Digital Contributor); Danice King’ori (Media Investment Lead, Airtel Africa) and Omobolanle Osotule (GM, Head of Brand, Airtel Nigeria) discussed Artificial Intelligence in advertising, scaling the hurdles of bias, Chat GPT, programmatic buying, data science and the evolution of mobile technology from 2G to the current 5G technology and what it means for the future of advertising.
