Wednesday, August 14, 2013 - 1:20pm
In local sales efforts, leading webcaster Pandora is positioning itself as the number-two radio station in the Minneapolis market (like it does in several others). Pandora regional VP Gabe Tartaglia discussed some of the webcaster's competitive strategies with Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal's John Vomhof.
But it's more than the sheer number of listeners that gives the webcaster a foothold locally, Tartaglia contends. It's its ability to target advertising not by station format, but to the listener herself.
"We've got over 700,000 listeners in the Minneapolis DMA every month, and every week, if you take a demographic like adults between 25 and 54, we have about 400,000 listeners," Tartaglia, who's based in Chicago, said.
He characterized their ad rates as "pretty competitive," with the big value coming in targetability. Pandora registration requires the listener's age, gender, and ZIP code. This means Pandora can track users across channels.
"So, if a local advertiser wants a very custom geography or wants to reach an exact age or gender, we can provide that exact demographic with 100 percent guaranteed delivery and zero waste," Tartaglia explained.
"Think about it in terms of the individual listener, not the genre of music they're listening to or a particular artist. Most advertisers want the person. They want the consumer who can hopefully become a potential customer," he continued. "So, if a person is listening to a rock station and then changes to a country station, to us, that's one listener and we can still serve the same targeted adds to that person."
Pandora's biggest local categories and clients include automotive (about 10 different local dealers), health care, and education (University of Minnesota, Globe University).
Read the interview in the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal here.