It had been a while since we’d prowled through iTunes Radio looking for ads, so a revisit was in order. We fired up iTunes Radio on a 5th-generation iPod, and our hunt was quickly rewarded with a video placement by Nissan, part of its “Off the Stage” campaign. Continue Reading
adStream is a journal of ad-stalking and interesting commercial sightings in online audio services. It had been a while since we had turned our ad-stalking attention to Slacker Radio. We wanted to see whether Slacker deployed a similar full-court press as Pandora, which frequently covers our phone screen with a graphic ad that must be manually closed to see what’s playing. Continue Reading
adStream is a journal of ad-stalking and interesting commercial sightings in online audio services. As we were browsing for a playlist recently in the web browser view of Songza, we encountered smart use of the palette to display two simultaneous campaigns. Continue Reading
There are two main revenue paths for online streaming audio: advertising, and subscriptions. The balance of the two differs among music services. We recently spotted some Live365 spots which use banner inventory attached to audio ads to funnel users into subscribing. Continue Reading
adStream is a journal of ad-stalking and interesting commercial sightings in online audio services.
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. We caught one the other day, though. Continue Reading
adStream is a journal of ad-stalking and interesting commercial sightings in online audio services. In Pandora, Promoted Stations are sponsored playlists branded by advertisers, and co-created with Pandora’s curation experts. The program launched in May with several advertising partners, but the sponsored stations are difficult to find. We found one. Continue Reading
The latest report in our journal of ad-stalking in music services. We spotted a funny mash-up of a wine club and a wakefulness drug. Also, t-Mobile continues its intensive marketing to online listeners of its recently announced data-free music streaming. Continue Reading
Should radio and Internet radio platforms run ads for competitors? In the battle for “share of ear,” this is a question we have examined from a number of angles. During our recent ad-stalking, we spotted Google advertising its streaming service (Google Play All Access) on Pandora. the call to action lifted us right out of Pandora into Google. Continue Reading
adStream is a journal of ad-spotting in music services. We spent an interesting hour stalking ads on Slacker Radio, to check spot load and see (or hear) which brands were extending their campaigns onto Slacker, which brands itself “the most complete music service on earth.” We found rock-steady regularity in Slacker’s ad pacing. Continue Reading
At RAIN Summit NYC in February, Gary Liu, Global Head of Industry Development at Spotify, suggested a novel advertising strategy during a panel session. Liu speculated that music-service listeners might be willing to play ads on demand, in order to clear out advertising for an extended stretch of uninterrupted music listening. There were some chuckles in the audience over that, but a report in AdAge indicates that Spotify will pitch a similar idea to advertisers at this week’s Cannes Lions festival. Continue Reading
Wells Fargo, the 4th-largest U.S. bank, has been spotted in Pandora this week with the bank’s new “Small is Huge” campaign. The placement uses Pandora’s most attention-getting ad unit in the desktop-browser player. Click for screenshot and video. Well Fargo recently changed its lead creative agency. Continue Reading
Rdio’s new in-house playlist celebrating the 60 countries in which it operates gave us a good venue to settle in for some ad-watching. Rdio’s ad inventory is sold by Cumulus Media, so it’s not surprising to hear straight radio spots exported to Rdio’s streams. We clipped screen shots and counted the spot load. Continue Reading