Pandora’s box of Net radio brand opps
By Simon Fuller. Brand tuning. We hear enough noise about the benefits music can give to brands. But what can an Internet radio station offer?
US-based Pandora, which describes itself as a personalised music-discovery service, started up back in 2000 and is based on something the outfit tags the ‘Music Genome Project’. In short, that means a raft of artists and songs are analysed by a team of experts, with the end result that site’s users can type in a band name and Pandora comes up with other acts that might appeal.
But its Pandora’s potential as an ad platform that should excite brands. The site has over 32 million registered users and has already hosted campaigns for the likes of Brita, which sponsored the exclusive streaming of the latest Dave Matthews Band album, and Vitaminwater, which stumped up for three channels on the Nat-radio platform.
“Brand advertisers want to build experiences that add value, tell a story, entertain, delight and hopefully surprise their potential audiences in new and compelling ways,” says Cheryl Lucanegro, the company’s SVP for advertising sales. “Pandora’s custom marketing programs allow brand advertisers to connect with the exact target audiences, and to stand out and get noticed. We allow all advertisers to take advantage of our deep connection with users and leverage multiple touch-points – online, audio, video and much more.
“Through the use of skins, branded stations, [and] video, we also allow advertisers to surround the user, giving them sole ownership of [the] experience in an uncluttered and happy environment,” she adds. “With no other distractions, the advertiser becomes [a] key visual point that is available to the user to engage with… like a page in a magazine, advertisers get to own half the page to tell their story and engage potential customers, resulting in dramatic results for the advertisers. Advertisers on Pandora get to be in the spotlight in a user’s personal musical journey.”
Pandora are working with multiple music labels this year in order to roll out launches in various genres, with many artists looking to prelaunch via the site. Brands should look to get a front row seat at this gig while they can, it seems. “[These deals] will offer advertisers the opportunities to bring these exclusive launches to legions of their best customers across their target audiences,” Lucanegro says.
