Pandora’s Video Plus Now Available for All Advertisers

Creating a great video ad is hard work for marketers--from landing the script to finding the right talent, a lot of thought goes into developing what’s best for the brand. It’s crucial, then, that marketers find quality video ad inventory that ensures customers will actually see and pay attention to their video.

Capturing consumer attention through high-quality video inventory is a tough nut to crack, and doing so authentically is even harder. Which is why we are happy to introduce Video Plus, our newest video ad product that allows marketers to pay on a 15-second cost-per-completed-view (CPCV) model, while unlocking features that are typically only available with a subscription to Pandora Plus, including skipping more songs or replaying tracks. Our waste-free cost model ensures that advertisers never have to pay for a video view less than 15-seconds long. Your video message will not only reach your intended audience, but will do so cost-effectively as well.

When we set out to create Video Plus, we wanted to be sure it aligned with our guiding principle that: “what’s good for the listener, is good for the advertiser”. So with Video Plus, your inventory will only serve when a listener actively opts in to watch a video ad in exchange skipping more songs or replaying tracks. The features were made available to Pandora users last year and now, Video Plus gives you the chance to exclusively buy inventory into these interactions, delivering you quality customer attention, every time.

We’re excited that a number of top brands, including T-Mobile, are adding Video Plus to their media plans starting today. “We’re always looking for new and innovative tactics to reach and engage with consumers in relevant ways,” said Kari Marshall, Vice President of Media at T-Mobile. “We’re excited to test Video Plus to deliver our Un-carrier message to Pandora’s very engaged user-base, and the meaningful brand connections we hope it drives as a result.”

Driving Audience Engagement

For the past few months, we’ve been hard at work testing and iterating on this offering, and early results on user behavior are extremely promising. In particular, we know how tough it is to market to younger generations who prefer on-demand and personalized content, so we’ve been excited see that Video Plus is particularly effective at reaching millennials. The majority of users engaging with Video Plus ads are between the ages of 18 and 34, with three times more users under the age of 24 opting into the premium inventory.

And that’s not all--since users actively opt into the product to unlock valuable listener features, we also see our most active and leaned-in listeners engaging with Video Plus ads. Beyond skipping and replaying songs, listeners who opt into these video ads spend more time engaging with Pandora overall. For example, these users are listening up to 57% more hours and thumbing 65% more tracks than the average listener, indicating that the experience of skipping and replaying ads go hand-in-hand with satisfied listeners.

Flexibility Across Cost Types

With the launch of Video Plus, marketers now have the flexibility to buy Pandora’s video suite across a full spectrum of cost types, depending on what’s best for achieving the campaign’s goals, including:

-CPM on Video Everywhere/Platform-Specific Video
-Cost-per-15-second-completed-view (CPCV) on Video Plus
-Cost-per-engagement (CPE) on Sponsored Listening

What's Next?

This is just the beginning. At Pandora, we’re committed to enabling more features for users, while simultaneously driving consumer attention for advertisers. Video Plus is available starting today, so contact us to discuss how to amplify your campaign by adding Pandora Video Plus.