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Pandora – it’s a music provider, not a media channel

Posted by Brenna Hanly on 05/11/10
tags: ,

Timberland's Pandora creative-media integration

As “media professionals,” it is tempting to look at a platform and want to categorize it.  Is it digital? Is it mobile?  Is it TV? How should it be bucketed?  This makes our jobs easier and less complicated. Yet, in today’s environment, these conventional labels are becoming obsolete.  A perfect illustration of this conundrum is Pandora, an entity with tremendous momentum.

To start, here are some facts that you may or may not already know about Pandora:

  • Pandora is among the top 3 local radio stations in all the top DMAs.
  • Pandora is being built directly into Ford automobiles.
  • The Pandora iphone app is the number two most downloaded application (behind only Facebook).
  • The Pandora iPad app is number 20 and gaining ground quickly.
  • The service has reached 50 million registered users.
  • Pandora is building out applications for the Droid.
  • VUDU is bringing the Pandora app to connected TV’s like LG and Mitsubishi.

As you can see, it is difficult to categorize Pandora in conventional terms.  Is it a website? Mobile application? Radio station? TV platform?

Really, it’s all of the above.

As marketers, we need to stop thinking in terms of prescribing media vehicles to target audiences.  Instead, we need to find the right people, find out what they really care about, identify what devices they are using and then meet them there to provide something of value.  We need to rely on consumer information to guide our media practices.  Instead of creating flowcharts with line items for TV, print, or digital, we should make flowcharts with line items for various consumer passion points (i.e. music, the outdoors or travel) and build media or better yet “experiences” around them.

It doesn’t matter if we consider Pandora to be a digital entity, a mobile application, or a radio station, but rather if our consumers are passionate about listening to music.  If they are, we should strive to bring this experience to them via Pandora across various platforms, so consumers can interact with our brands on their own terms and find value in them.

  • http://bournesocial.com bournesocial

    The most promising thing about Pandora and the source of its success is the model of consumer customization of content. Don't listen to what others want you to hear, listen to what you want to hear based on what you already like (and tolerate commercial interruption from time to time for that benefit). Time and again, as a Pandora user, I am inspired to try something new. Marketers who take this approach will find success: free service + customization + mobility = commerce. Anyone attempting to charge for a service that isn't customizable and doesn't provide a great mobile experience will not have the success of Pandora. It took Pandora years to find success, but their current model is working great. And I love my Roku that delivers not only Pandora but also Netflix, Facebook and a host of content that I want when I want it, for almost free.

  • http://www.thoughtgadgets.com Ben Kunz

    This is very insightful. I'm not sure it's really an either-or proposition in terms of how to organize communications, however: Your idea of organizing the flow around “consumer passion points” instead of “media channels” feels god, but both systems can be beneficial. The idea of a channel has not gone away — media channels are still the conduit by which we reach consumers.

    The deeper issue you touch on (and I agree) is that communication channels are fragmenting and taking on new aspects. Pandora, for instance, includes both a media channel (music and advertising), devices (integration into vehicles), social media (support of a community), and database (collection of preferences that could be used for personalization, targeted advertising; and other data integration with Facebook). So the challenge in my view is what used to be a simple “channel” for consideration on a flowchart in alignment with a target customer demo is now MUCH more than a pipe — it's a community, gadget, and database at the same time!

    Perhaps the answer is to build a hybrid media model in which we frame a series of consumer modalities — listening to music being one — and then align the various media channels with them. Perhaps media plans then need to include more than impressions but also the other aspects they can build — WOM, network nodes, data collection.

    It is getting much more difficult to isolate media channels as simple conduits. I don't have the answer, but it's fun watching this develop.

    Excellent post — very nice to meet you and your blog.

  • Jim Gay

    Good post!

  • Jim Gay

    Good post!

  • Jim Gay

    Good post!

  • Jim Gay

    Good post!

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