Say It Now Confirmed as GroupM’s UK Voice Partner

Say It Now, the London-based, award-winning leader in voice commerce, has been selected by Group M, the world’s leading media investment company, to act as the group’s UK partner in voice.

The new partnership, secured after a competitive and thorough process, will see Say It Now explore collaborations, implement voice enabled marketing campaigns and develop strategies for Group M clients in this rapidly evolving space.

Group M and Xaxis, who ran the RFI, were impressed with how Say It Now had been able to simplify the use of Actionable Audio Advertising for their clients and package it in a media friendly way that complements the campaigns they are already planning for their client roster.

From interactive voice ads to proactive and responsive suggestions, voice commerce is quickly emerging as a real source of revenue for companies looking to prove ROI on their voice investments. Companies are exploring ways that voice commerce can drive the customer towards a purchase and facilitate payment transactions.

Today’s news follows the recent acquisition of North American voice tech platform GetStarted, a move that consolidates Say It Now’s market leading position by significantly increasing the capabilities of its technology, reducing operational costs, increasing speed of delivery and opening new markets and revenue streams. The acquisition builds on an impressive record of organic growth for Say It Now since its inception in 2018; the scale-up secured Diageo as a cornerstone client, established media partnerships with DAX from Global and Octave Audio, strategic relationships with A Million Ads and Hawk, and was selected by the Havas Start-up Program 2021.

Charlie Cadbury, CEO and Founder, Say It Now says: “We’re exceptionally pleased that GroupM has selected Say it Now as their voice partner in this dynamic and exciting space. Intelligent, imaginative and creative, the team at GroupM has realised the potential of voice commerce and has sought out dedicated partners that can deliver on those opportunities for their clients - many of the most trusted and successful brands in the world.”

“Emerging technologies such as voice commerce stand to shake up the traditional ways that brands speak with their customers. Executives looking to market their brands no longer have to rely on the ‘same old’ box of tricks to work with; actionable adverts, which can be adjusted in response to real time data, will breathe life into marketing brainstorms across the UK and beyond as teams realise the potential of this exciting new tool.”

Charlie Yeates, commercial trading partner, Mediacom UK, commented: “This is the next step in the ever-evolving UK and Global Audio market, in creating a genuine v-commerce marketplace. Say It Now demonstrated how and why they should be our preferred partner in this space as part of the competitive RFI process. We are looking forward to developing and opening up these new opportunities with our clients.”

Maria Cadbury, strategic partnerships director at Say It Now says: “We believe passionately that actionable audio advertising will play an increasingly important role in existing audio - and new media - campaigns. GroupM continually sets the gold standard by interrogating and evolving new-to-market propositions and this new partnership is validation for the technology that Say it Now has rapidly developed. At the start of this year we delivered a global media first with MediaCom, for Bayer’s Berocca Boost, and we’re thrilled to close 2021 as GroupM’s confirmed partner in voice.”

Say It Now’s trademarked advertising technology allows brands to create audio campaigns that listeners can engage directly with – by requesting more information about a product or service, or by purchasing directly through simple voice commands on smart speakers.

Say It Now is preparing for a series A round backed by Oberon Capital. This is with a view to consolidating the tech team and developing the North American business to digitally transform audio advertising and capture a proportion of a global voice transactions market expected to reach $164bn by 2025.