Pandora adds limited on-demand features to new branded station ad product

Pandora is updating its branded station ad product to incorporate select on-demand features and influencer curation. The audio company is hosting a campaign for Gatorade-owned brand Propel. It includes three branded stations, each attached to a fitness personality and focused on a particular genre.

“It’s the first time that we’ve ever used fitness influencers to actually curate the sounds of these stations,” said Susan Panico, Pandora’s SVP of strategic solutions.

Each of the playlists features a custom song by artist Jessie J called “Get Ugly.” Listeners can opt to save that track for on-demand listening. Each playlist curator also chose a “power-up song” for their collection, and listeners can save that song for future listening as well. This feature is a sample of the full feature set offered by Pandora’s new subscrription tiers.

“It’s not always about the click,” Panico said. “It’s also about the value of driving time spent with the brand and when you have a custom station like this, it really will create a sticky factor to drive that time spent listening that’s time spent for the brand.”

Anna Washenko