Pandora Media, the top online personalized radio service provider, and Katz 360 Sales’ Katz Online Network announced Katz will start selling audio ads for Pandora, adding to Pandora’s in-house team of 18 digital sales execs and five audio sellers. Pandora comes to Katz 360 with ad revenue doubling year after year and, most recently, audio ad sales have been a key contribution in the upsurge.
Pandora generates playlists based on users’ musical preferences, is the largest online music site based on monthly unique visitors, now over 11 million. Headquartered in Oakland, California, the service has a growing user base of more than 30 million registered listeners, a database of over 600,000 songs, and national advertisers such as HP, Microsoft, Honda, Procter & Gamble and Nike. Because of its recent and remarkably successful foray into audio advertising, Pandora saw Katz as the perfect fit for representing its uncovered territories.
“As a result of the high interest on the radio ad sales front since launching only six months ago, we’ve engaged Katz 360 to represent us in our uncovered territories,” said Doug Sterne, director of audio sales at Pandora. “Interest in Pandora’s unique ad platform certainly extends beyond those key markets such as New York and Los Angeles, so bringing the Katz 360 team onboard allows us to engage a wider array of radio advertisers. We’re looking forward to a highly collaborative and productive working relationship.”
In turn, the addition of the rapidly-growing Pandora will play a significant role in enhancing the Katz Online Network’s scale, allowing the Katz Online team to customize content selections for its national radio advertisers in the markets they will represent for Pandora. Pandora’s audio ad product will now be represented by more than 200 Katz account managers across the country. With its reach and background, Katz will be offering Pandora’s audio ad products to radio media buyers in areas exclusive of New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Boston. Sterne’s in-house team will handle those already-established markets as well as calling on interactive buyers in all markets.
