Clip Interactive reveals products to update broadcast radio

BOULDER — Clip Interactive, a tech company that syncs digital media and marketing with radio broadcasts, is launching several new products.

Clip uses its technology to sync ads played on radio airwaves with digital media, pushing them to Twitter, Facebook and other sites listeners could be perusing while listening to the radio spot.

“If there’s an ad people have paid to have play, we know when the ad is played and can place it digitally through our own ad server to mobile apps owned and operated by the radio station,” said Jeff Thramann, founder and chairman. “We can also buy ads on various publishing platforms like Facebook and Twitter and sync those with what’s playing on air.”

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Now, Clip Interactive is looking to roll out new products to market in the near future. One of those products, currently called Magic, is commercial free local radio.

Thramann said it’s a way for local radio stations to compete against subscription-based services like Sirius XM. People who prefer to hear their local radio, rather than satellite radio, which Thramann said can get repetitive, can subscribe to Magic and get their local stations commercial-free. Thramann said a benefit of the service is that it can be tiered, with the top price point for commercial-free radio and lower price points for reduced commercials.

Clip plans to first launch Magic in Los Angeles as a test market later this year before eventually expanding.

The company is also working on a streaming service to compete with Pandora, that would play music online with unlimited skipping of songs. Thramann said the company is looking to launch it at a low subscription price, like $2 a month.

Clip is also working on a back-end database of mobile device identification numbers linked to known listeners of radio stations.

The goal, Thramann said, is to be able to track impressions on an ad that started when a person heard it on the radio. The benefit of digital media is that it can be tracked: If a person saw an ad on Facebook, clicked it and bought the product, then a company knows that ad worked. But until now, it’s been impossible to track the impact broadcast ads had. Thramann said by tracking these ads and linking them to device IDs, Clip can determine whether a person clicked on an ad Clip had synced to radio play and know that the radio spot was the reason the person sought out the product.

“The purpose of the database is for any time an ad plays and we can give the radio credit for the influence it has to driving a consumer’s purchase decision,” Thramann said. “We can see what made that person buy that product by seeing they opened a Facebook ad on this day. What you’re missing is did they hear a broadcast ad or see a TV ad about that. We can see IDs that are exposed and when and look back and see right before they clicked this ad they heard this spot.”

Thramann said it’s that work that Clip is doing that is the future for radio.

“Radio gets credit for driving the digital interaction and purchase of the product,” he said. “That’s the holy grail of advertising and finding what drives consumers.”

Correction: A previous version of this article said Jeff Thramann is the CEO of Clip Interactive. He is the chairman and founder. Michael Lawless is the CEO.