INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Pandora announced three new capabilities for advertisers today — the ability to dynamically assemble different audio ads for different
listeners, the ability to sequentially target ads so that they fit together into a larger strategy and shorter ad formats that range from
four to 10 seconds in length.
Claire Fanning, Pandora vice president of ad strategy, told me via email that the company is announcing these
capabilities at the same time because ''they work together in really powerful ways.
For example, she also sent along campaign mock-ups that
showed how ads could be tailored to include both the day of the week and a call-to-action tied to the listener location, and how the ads
could be also specifically sequenced so that listeners start with the longer message, then hear shorter and shorter spots.
We believe that
an advertiser personalized audio strategy will not only be unique to that advertiser, but also unique to each campaign,& Fanning said
&In some cases, leveraging one capability may be best (short form, dynamic, sequential) — and in other cases, leveraging 2 or 3 may be
It really dependent on the advertiser creative strategy and which solution, or solutions, will support that strategy best.
While Pandora
launched its own on-demand music service last year, advertising remains the main way the company monetizes its 72.3 million active listeners
Itsays it the first company to make these features available in a large-scale way, and it already been testing them with 20 advertisers,
enlistingVeritonic to measure the results
For one thing, it says that Lay found short-form audio had a 56 percent higher return on ad spend.
As the company looks to deliver more
personalized advertising, it may face more questions about privacy, but Fanning said Pandora doesn''t collect any personally identifiable
information about users except for their email addresses.
We use industry-standard security practices to protect our data and have developed
internal tools and processes to ensure compliance with our privacy commitment,& Fanning added
&We&ll continue to fortify this by tightening certain contractual language, auditing existing 3rd-party data partners, and evaluating future
partnerships with enhanced rigor.
