Experian’s new streaming ads in HD pre-roll webcast

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


Consumer credit-rating company Experian has rolled out a new ad campaign, and has included radio and streaming audio in the mix.

The Experian strategy comes from new CMO Kristen Simmons, whose past work includes the “Zoom Zoom” tagline for Mazda. She notes that a credit score “feels like you’re being judged,” and the new ads (see below) counter that with a fun message of empowerment. The marketing intent is to make credit scores less frightening and more personally advantageous.

We caught the ad in iHeartRadio, as a pre-roll for the webcast of Philadelphia’s HD signal, Smooth Jazz JJZ. The pre-roll is an iHeart insertion at the start of the HD Radio channel’s stream. As we have noted before, pre-rolls (audio or video) act as gateways to the user’s personalized listening, and are sharply differentiated from ad blocks in a station webcast.

Brad Hill