Global is expanding Dax, the digital audio exchange across Europe, offering the audio ad platform to 18 new countries and growing its potential audience from 7m consumers in the UK to 60m across the continent.

Dax enables advertisers to access the growing number of people consuming digital radio, music streaming services and podcasts, and is the single biggest audio platform across the continent, offering both direct and programmatic buying options.

The announcement of the expansion was made at the IAB Upfronts event at Londons Ministry of Sound, with Oliver Deane, commercial digital director at Global, citing growth in listening and demand from clients as the reason for the move.

Global will be establishing its first international sales team, growing its digital account management team and recruiting a network of creatives to develop pan-European campaigns, and a number of local and pan-European music streaming services, digital radio stations and podcasting platforms have already signed up to Dax.

“We created Dax to give brands access to the digital audio market in one single buy,” said Mike Gordon, chief commercial officer at Global. “The growth weve experienced in just over a year has defied our expectations.

“In that period, weve signed up more than 140 digital audio publishers, 250 forward-thinking advertisers, grown our audience from zero to 7m and demonstrated the power of digital audio to deliver brand messages and help drive traffic to brands websites and apps through research among 400,000 smartphone users.”