adStream: Lexus localized

adStream is a journal of ad-stalking and interesting commercial sightings in online audio services.

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We’re spotting the Lexus “Golden Opportunity” campaign all over the place in music services. Most of the ads are generic, but we did get targeted by location in one instance — Pandora.

Pandora has spent resources building a local ad-sales network working in over three-dozen markets, and deploys algorithmic tools to target ads by location. But in our ad-stalking experience, we don’t notice many location-specific commercials in our test account.

The account is registered in central North Carolina, U.S., and the Lexus audio spot that interrupted the music stream caught our attention effectively: “Hey Raleigh-Durham Pandora listener!” Local call-outs work exceptionally well in programming that is not inherently based on location.

The 15-second spot which spooled out was generic, with no mention of a specific local Lexus dealer. But, interestingly, clicking the call-to-action led us to a localized Lexus landing page with this header: “In Raleigh-Durham.”

But was it truly localized? Local dealers were not mentioned on the landing page. Clicking through lease offer teasers, we found pages that detailed the offers, but still did not seem connected with specific dealerships. Finally we came upon a Bing map that pinpointed two area Lexus dealers. Presumably, the lease offers would be valid at each one (and perhaps at all Lexus dealers), as there was an option to print it (after which you would presumably take it to the lot).

This appears to be cut-and-paste local advertising, and pretty effective. Pandora’s registration information is used to deliver a slightly customized audio ad (“Hey Raleigh-Durham Pandora listener!”), leading to a generic landing page with a single personalized element in the header “In Raleigh-Durham.”

If the advertiser has clean vertical alignment (same offers available through a national network of local outlets), it gets the job done with enough personalization to probably generate more click-throughs.

PS — Perhaps Pandora has recently started selling into the Raleigh-Durham market — later in the same listening session we were fed another localized ad for the largest energy utility in the area.