I'm prone to losing my cell phone (really I'm prone to losing everything), so I have stuck with a "go-phone" through most of college. I must say, when I finally got an iPhone just a few months ago, I was really only interested in getting the Facebook app. I was excited for the simple things: checking my e-mail, GPS, weather updates, etc. As anyone with an iPhone knows, it quickly became a much bigger obsession. Suddenly every chance I had, I was playing "Words with Friends". However, the real infatuation began when I added the Pandora App.
For those of you who don't know,
Pandora is a free, mobile, digital radio station that uses a genome to create a playlist around an artist or song of your choice. This is what the App looks like on the iPhone:
I have researched a number of websites and learned that I'm not alone in my love for this App. According to a report released this Tuesday by the Pew Research Center and Nielsen, the most popular apps on all platforms are those made by Facebook, the Weather Channel, Google Maps and Pandora — all mobile versions of well-traveled Web services and sites. When Pandora first unveiled their App in 2008, it gained a new listener every 2 seconds. More than 36 million people listen on smartphones, 19 million in cars, 1.5 million on CE devices, 1 million on TVs/DVRs/Blu-ray players and 39 million on computers. This chart was released in June:
Pandora has capitalized on the success of this App through a marketing strategy called "hypertargeting". When you sign up for Pandora, you fill out your general information, including your gender, age, etc. This allows the advertisements to reach the right person, at the right time, without waste. The ads are based on age, day, gender, location, mobile platform, time and type of music. For example, an advertisement I might hear would be about a sale going on at Target that week or a discount on a restaurant opening in Nashville. This location-based use of social media marketing is one of the best I can think of. Pandora only plays 3 ads an hour, and never when the phone is locked or dimmed in order to make sure the ad gets full consumer attention. I can't really say I ever get annoyed by these commercial breaks so that must mean they are doing something right!
That is a very smart marketing strategy. Pandora is able to gather demographic information about their users, giving their advertisers the specific target market they are trying to reach. This is similar to facebook advertising in that sense.
ReplyDeletePandora also has the advantage over standard radio, because they have only those few short commercials. While radio is split about 50/50 between music and ads. Very smart strategy.
Very interesting article! I love Pandora and if I had an iPhone I would definitely have this app. That is very smart of them to only play 3 commercials per hour because when you listen online it's a commercial every 3 songs it seems like! Plus the fact that they are geotargeting their advertisements, you obviously won't get annoyed with the ads! Great job!
ReplyDeleteI wonder what this app does to the market for itunes and mp3s, if anything?
ReplyDeleteThats awesome!! I listen to Pandora a lot and I knew that they linked the ads to the demographic, but I didn't really stop to think that it would be this big in terms of marketing. I like how they will only play the ads if the phone is active. I wonder if they are still making enough money off of the 3 ads per hour, mainly because Pandora is free.
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