Pandora kicks off campaign with DJ Khaled (Score 52)

Pandora has a new brand campaign starring DJ Khaled. It will be supported by three documentary-style video ads that will be released onto cable TV during BET's 2021 Soul Train Music Awards. The ads will also run across connected TV, online, social media, audio and OOH. Pandora worked with creative shop Translation on this push. 

According to Pathmatics, Pandora earned 1.3b impressions YTD through Facebook ads (45%), Instagram ads (27%), desktop display ads (9%), desktop video ads (8%), mobile display ads (6%) and Twitter ads (4%). It placed the majority (94%) of these ads site direct onto sites such as facebook.com, instagram.com, youtube.com, espn.com and twitter.com. It placed the remainder (6%) through a variety of indirect channels onto sites such as nextdoor.com, accuweather.com, hometalk.com, cargurus.com and latimes.com. It spent around $11m on digital display ads YTD, just 30% of the $34.8m spent in this channel during the same time period of 2020. Full-year spend jumped from $21.2m in 2019 to $36.4m in 2020. 

Magellan reports Pandora placed about 30 podcast ads over the last year. 

Per iSpot, Pandora spent around $13.5k on national TV ads YTD during programming such as "College Football" and "SportsCenter." It spent about $11.4m in 2020, all during Q4, after spending $2.4m in 2019. 

Sellers-- Pandora has a broad target audience, but I believe it is primarily targeting millennials and Gen-Xers. It reaches these demographics mainly through digital display ads. The company increased spend dramatically in 2020, which I believe was most likely an attempt to capture new listeners while consumers were stuck at home during the beginning of the pandemic. It also invests in OOH, print and local broadcast TV ads, per Kantar. Spend is beginning to pick back up, so reach out to this company soon to see if you can score some of these extra campaign ad dollars. 

Agency & martech readers-- Pandora uses Digitas for media buying and planning, with Horizon Media helping on digital. It worked with Translation on the new campaign, but I am not sure if this a project-based or a permanent relationship. You can try reaching out to see if Pandora needs any more assistance.