Brief:
- Fox Sports partnered with audio streaming platform Pandora on a series of customized ads to promote upcoming broadcasts of the NFL's "Thursday Night Football" and college football games, per an announcement shared with Mobile Marketer.
- For the first time, Pandora is integrating its 3D audio technology, which provides an immersive soundscape, with its Dynamic Audio Ad format. The dynamic format strings together different pieces of audio to customize the ad messages for highly targeted groups of listeners.
- For Fox Sports, that means creating audio spots that tout team matchups by a listener's geographic location. The ads also will be customized by time zone, including an hourly countdown clock to let listeners know when to tune in.
Insight:
Fox Sports is the latest advertiser to use Pandora's personalized ad format, which the streaming platform introduced last year. Unlike traditional radio spots that blanket designated market areas, the dynamic audio ads can be highly customized in thousands of combinations to personalize the message for each Pandora listener. Such customization likely will help Fox Sports to cut through ad clutter by delivering more relevant ads to listeners based on their location and time of day.
For Pandora, the Fox Sports campaign is a sign that the audio streaming company is leveraging its recently formed Studio Resonate to create innovative audio ad campaigns. Pandora in June created the in-house studio to help brands with their audio marketing strategies by collaborating on creative planning, media production and web and mobile experiences. Ashley HomeStore was a pilot partner for the studio.
The Fox Sports campaign comes as people shift their audio consumption to mobile devices and smart speakers. U.S. smart speaker ownership is forecast to rise 15% this year to 74.2 million, eMarketer estimates. Podcast listenership is also surging. One-third of consumers report having listened to a podcast in the past month, up from a quarter last year, Edison research found.
"Thursday Night Football" has seen previous innovation on digital platforms. For its streaming of seven "Thursday Night Football" games last season, Amazon saw a total combined viewership of 14.7 million, a 22% increase over the year prior. Overall, 58% of surveyed adult viewers reported watching at least one game via a paid streaming service or app during the opening week of the NFL season.
