Pandora Delivers Premium Audio Marketplace for Programmatic Ad Buying

Pandora (NYSE:P), the largest music streaming service in the U.S., announced today 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.”

Today, Pandora is the largest publisher of digital audio in the U.S. 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.”

The Volkswagen campaign was facilitated by PHD, an Omnicom Media Group (OMG) agency and Volkswagen’s media agency of record, as part of OMG’s exclusive collaboration with Pandora. The campaign will use demand-side platform (DSP) The Trade Desk. Pandora is making its audio inventory available through deals with The Trade Desk, AdsWizz’s AudioMatic and MediaMath during the pilot and will include additional DSPs in the future. The marketplace is powered by AdsWizz’s AudioMax audio programmatic platform.

This year, Pandora will continue to expand its suite of programmatic solutions and dynamic audio capabilities. The company also plans to allow automated and streamlined access to its premium inventory through direct sale, private marketplace and self-serve solutions, including a specialized private marketplace for broadcast radio buyers.

Pandora remains committed to driving the industry forward with brand-safe solutions through ongoing partnerships with leading third-party measurement providers, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and the Media Rating Council (MRC) to determine and deliver audio measurement to the market.

Read more in the blog post HERE.

About Pandora

Pandora is the world’s most powerful music discovery platform – a place where artists find their fans and listeners find music they love. We are driven by a single purpose: unleashing the infinite power of music by connecting artists and fans, whether through earbuds, car speakers, live on stage or anywhere fans want to experience it. Our team of highly trained musicologists analyzes hundreds of attributes for each recording which powers our proprietary Music Genome Project®, delivering billions of hours of personalized music tailored to the tastes of each music listener, full of discovery, making artist / fan connections at unprecedented scale. Founded by musicians, Pandora empowers artists with valuable data and tools to help grow their careers and connect with their fans.

www.pandora.com | @pandoramusic | www.pandoraforbrands.com | @PandoraBrands | amp.pandora.com

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