Pandora, the largest music streaming service in the U.S., announced this week that it has built a premium marketplace that will allow advertisers to purchase its audio inventory programmatically across mobile and desktop.
The pilot program is launching with Volkswagen and will expand to include additional advertisers and partners in the coming months.
“The launch of our programmatic audio marketplace will give advertisers the unique opportunity to efficiently reach Pandora’s audience—the largest set of listeners in the U.S.—in a targeted way, within a brand-safe environment,” said John Trimble, Chief Revenue Officer at Pandora. “With the rise of voice-activated devices, the demand for quality audio inventory is rapidly accelerating. This offering positions us for growth by meeting the needs of our current buying partners and unlocking market opportunities in the near future.”
As the pilot moves towards general availability, audio will join Pandora’s existing display and video inventory available for purchase programmatically, giving media buyers the opportunity to:
- Reach over 73 million monthly active listeners in an efficient and targeted way, by leveraging Pandora’s first-party data and over 2,000 proprietary targeting segments, while also allowing advertisers the option to apply their own data-sets.
- Effectively bid on premium inventory across Pandora’s audio, video and display ads through a private marketplace.
“Cars and music both have a way of eliciting an emotional connection. At Volkswagen we’re always looking to effectively reach drivers consumers in ways that move them while maintaining scale in a brand-safe environment,” said Jim Zabel, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Volkswagen. “By working with Pandora for its programmatic audio pilot we’ll now have the opportunity to efficiently reach a large base of listeners with the quality first-party data that our campaigns require.”
