Pandora Plots the Future of Podcast Advertising

quotWe saw a lot of home listeningquot says Pandora Vice President of Ad Innovation and Strategy Claire Fanning While fewer people were commuting more people were looking to safely create their own small moments of connection with someone outside their household to take a bit of a vacation from the outside world by diving into a podcastAnd some 24 percent of those people were listening through Pandora and its suite of podcast platformsYes quotsuitequot Pandora39s parent company SiriusXM acquired massive podcast network Stitcher in 2020 supercharging their podcast initiative which also includes podcasts on SiriusXM Now Pandora is looking to chart a path to monetizationquotWe have those heavyhitters like Freakonomics and My Favorite Murder but what about the thousands of other podcasts that have found engaged if slightly smaller audiencesquot Fanning says quotWe want those creators to be successfulquot These podcasts often have plenty of longtail listening which Pandora can now monetizeThere are a number of reasons why the podcast world has been growing exponentially over the last several years quotYou cannot multitask while listening to a podcastquot Fanning says quotWith a podcast you39re either listening to it or you39re not you may be folding the laundry but you are listeningquot This leanin attitude leads to parasocial relationships with hosts who are coming directly into your ears with smooth voices and interesting topics speaking it may seem directly to youThat makes for incredible messaging recall Podcast listeners index 44 times higher on recall than other media and 86 percent of Stitcher listeners say they39ve taken an action as a result of hearing an adWith so many podcasts and so many episodes on literally any topic you can think of the landscape can be a bit overwhelming for media planners who have to take into consideration categories and nogo topics and all sorts of other factors quotYou see these massive agency spreadsheets trying to keep track the complexities are just not sustainablequot Fanning says So Pandora is looking to make the ad buying process as easy and seamless as possible by doing all this work themselvesFanning39s other mandate is to ensure that the ad portion of the business never detracts from the listener experience quotWe have a saying at Pandora that what39s good for the listener is good for the advertiserquot she saysThey39re setting to this mandate with a will and with some serious science Pandora has commissioned and is about to release a number of stateoftheindustry research studies in addition to following where quotsonic sciencequot leads them Sonic science is key to the Pandora stable of ad announcers which are chosen based on optimal vocal characteristicsPandora39s podcast ad offerings go far beyond announcer reads though Host reads are common as well and Fanning says because Stitcher has such excellent relationships with them brands have better opportunities to work with hosts who are often much more game than you might expectThere39s room for more indepth integration and sponsorship too Fanning39s team can create whole segments that do not show up as quotadsquot per se For brands that aren39t sure they have the capability to produce creative inhouse there39s Pandora39s Studio Resonate which will handle the creative liftWhile Fanning39s goal is to make the podcast adbuying experience seamless she feels it39s imperative that brands don39t simply plunge into podcast advertising with no real consideration for the listener experience quotYou need to step into this space thoughtfullyquot Fanning says quotFor podcast listeners the experience is 39This is my special time with my special people39 We39re trying to preserve what makes it specialquotClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNetamp160

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Pandora Plots the Future of Podcast Advertising

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Oriana Schwindt

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Pandora Plots the Future of Podcast Advertising

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