Now Pandora is helping radio’s competitors in local markets: The personalized music discovery service announced a program that allows local media companies to sell Pandora inventory bundled with their own advertising products in an effort to help local advertisers utilize mobile advertising to reach on-the-go consumers.
The Pandora Local Reseller Program is an extension of the company’s broader local sales strategy to extend its reach to secondary and tertiary markets. The local advertising strategy has resulted in more than 800 local advertising campaigns scheduled to run this year, a 100% increase from two months ago.
Some of the media companies maximizing their reach through the Pandora Local Reseller Program include: The Miami Herald (a McClatchy newspaper), The Salt Lake Tribune, The Tacoma News Tribune (a McClatchy newspaper), The Ventura County Star (an E.W. Scripps Company newspaper) and U-T San Diego.
Says Pandora Chief Revenue Officer John Trimble: “Consumers are increasingly mobile, and advertisers want to be where their consumers are. We have a clear advantage, both in our scale of more than 100 million people accessing Pandora on mobile, and our unique ability to help advertisers reach targeted audiences through both visual and audio ad formats.”
Adds McClatchy VP/Interactive Media Christian Hendricks: “Partnering with Pandora gives us a competitive-edge in growing our digital business, which opens up new revenue opportunities. We’re excited to complement our ad solutions with their innovative audio ad formats, which are particularly impactful in reaching mobile consumers.”
RBR-TVBR observation: It certainly accelerates Pandora’s local market advertising efforts. Having newspaper account execs already in place in different cities sell Pandora’s inventory may be a much quicker way to penetrate these markets than hiring from scratch. It saves office leases, benefits, etc. However, while this may seem like a big threat to radio, remember that newspapers are not doing so well these days with ad sales and this move may indicate that Pandora is having trouble getting local mom and pop advertisers to sign on the dotted line.
