• Developing new customers is the main objective
  • Westfunk broadcasters are pioneers in AI-supported spot production
  • Cooperation with Hamburg-based company aireal

FUNKE's radio stations are launching a new tool for potential new customers: With "ad.creator", you can create your own spots in just a few minutes and request an online audio campaign in the radio station's pre-stream. Both the creation of the advertising text and the soundtrack are completely AI-supported. The FUNKE stations are the first in North Rhine-Westphalia to implement such a tool for audio advertising. Their partner is the Hamburg-based company aireal, whose team developed the AI tool.

And this is how it works: The advertising customers describe their company and the specific offer to be advertised in a short text - or even just in keywords. The AI then generates the text for the commercial. Once this text has been approved, various speakers and different moods can be selected - text becomes speech, accompanied by music if desired. All the information is then bundled and sent to the FUNKE MediaSales team, which then clarifies all further details regarding the booking.

"With ad.creator, we want to attract new target groups for audio advertising for our ten local radio brands," says Westfunk Managing Director Axel Schindler. "I am delighted that we are one of the pioneers to launch this service."

The offer is aimed at customers for whom audio or radio advertising has not previously been the focus of their advertising expenditure. The AI-generated spots are played exclusively as pre-stream ads in the broadcasters' web streams. Only spots created by agencies and other professional producers will continue to be played on FM. "With our new AI offering, we now offer the opportunity to enter the world of audio advertising quickly and easily," says Jens Berndsen, Head of Audio Sales at FUNKE MediaSales. "We have noticed that ad creation processes and booking behavior are changing rapidly with the influence of AI. We see great potential here to win new customer groups for audio."

The technology and the entire infrastructure were developed by the Hamburg-based company aireal and its technology partner AudioStack. "Developing ad.creator together with my fantastic team gives me enormous pleasure. The capabilities of AI open up completely new horizons for us. It's great that we can now launch this innovative tool on the market as pioneers together with Westfunk," says Anna-Lena Emke, Product Owner at aireal and responsible for the development of ad.creator. "It not only underlines the fascinating development of AI, but also marks the start of a journey full of innovations and pioneering technologies."