Dive Brief:
- Sponsored Listening, a Pandora feature where users of the free ad-supported version could engage with a brand for an hour of ad-free service, is now open for all advertisers.
- The feature had been in beta since last September for a limited group of brands.
- The streaming music service also recently created a private ad exchange to auction targeted in-app banner ads.
Dive Insight:
Online streaming music pioneer Pandora released its Sponsored Listening option in beta ten months ago and now has opened up the advertising opportunity to all brands. The option allows users of the ad-supported free version of Pandora to engage with an advertiser by watching a video or clicking through to a website in exchange for an hour of ad-free service. Lead Sponsored Listening Developer Jonathan Eccles told AdExchanger, “Advertisers are hungry for a model that lets them buy attention and we’ve seen really great interest from the market.”
He added, “What really surprised us when we started this product in beta is that people were continually tweeting about it. We actually are seeing people listen more to Pandora and become more loyal.”
Pandora also recently rolled out a private ad exchange to auction in-app banner ads to brands. The ads auctioned via this exchange are highly targeted and are based on data collected by Pandora on its users at sign-up such as age, gender and zip code.
