Online advertising should learn the custom advertising model of Pandora

We are in an era of emphasizing DIY. Almost everything on the Web offers custom options. Internet retailers know what we like, so we recommend what we want according to our preferences. Social networks provide some services based on each person's profile. The site is now geared toward how to better meet the needs of consumers to adjust and improve.

Music websites are no exception. If you're a music lover (who isn't?) You must have heard of Pandora (the music website of America). The site allows users to create different music boxes based on their own tastes (the music box here refers to the site will be based on a user's preference, the same music will be summed up in a "box" inside), by the user as "Explore music" site. Depending on the song or songwriter you first entered on the site, Pandora will recommend other music that you might like and help you find more music that you are interested in.

Pandora is run by music genome Project, a group of musicians and music-loving technicians established in 2000. The organization divides each song into 400 attributes, melody, harmony, chord, lyric, and other features. Such a classification allows Pandora to recommend songs of similar properties based on the user's favorite music sample. It's like having a specialist around to recommend music as you want. During the period of running Pandora (before that, music Genome Project organized for the AOL Music and self-service retail convenience stations, such as Best Buy and Tower Customers such as records provide white label service (White-label), which became the 3rd largest Internet broadcasting provider. The website in the United States has 6 million registered users, each month's independent IP reached 5 million. You may think that there are young people in the area, but in fact its main audience is 18-39 years old.

"We firmly believe that this model is the future of online broadcasting," said Cheryl Lucanegro, vice-president of advertising sales at Pandora, who is in line with the characteristics of the digital age. In Pandora, it not only provides you with music, but also personalized music, and it even allows you to create music.

Pandora's advertising service also has a "custom" feature. Advertisers can choose not only 160*600 or 300*250 (annotation one) two specifications of the size of the ad unit, but also the entire page can be customized a hue (we call it valance), the user player also has advertising text below. About 60% of the entire page is related to the advertiser's product picture and product information.

In addition, advertisers can also create unique music boxes according to the corresponding Valances, playing to users. For example, Absolut (absolute vodka, the world's 3rd-largest spirits producer) in the promotion of new products pears (pear taste), Absolut vodka created "Absolut Mood", "Absolut Social" and "Absolut Bling" Three kinds of music boxes. Inside the music is Jay (American rapper) music, the entire page with gorgeous jewelry diamonds and strange car design to decorate, of course, there are Absolut pears wine. Advertisers can also combine the characteristics of advertising with the type of music. A car dealer, for example, can play country music to the user in his Truck series, while the car series can use some jazz music.

Pandora's cleverness is also reflected in the interests of advertisers. As an online music website, advertisers will naturally be concerned about whether the user listens to the screen when listening to the song, because the display of the advertisement does not achieve the original purpose. So in order to reduce this unnecessary exposure, the ad will only appear when the user clicks on the button on the player (for example, forward, adjust the volume, and so on). According to the data provided by Lucanegro, the one-hour ad will normally be exposed 7 and a half times.

Almost 80% of the ads on Pandora are displayed according to the age group, the location of the registered user, or the type of music the user listens to, the period of the day, and the day of the week.

Pandora's unique way of advertising is very much in harmony with the user's taste. A user of Pandora made the following comments about a form like "unlike other nasty ads, Pandora's approach makes the entire page full of art." ”

With the increasing demand for customized Web content and network services, online advertising will undoubtedly need to follow this idea. Pandora's approach, which neither interferes with the user nor satisfies The advertiser's demands, has undoubtedly taught us a lesson. This "note" sounds very harmonious, doesn't it?

(Original starting on March 29, 2007; compiling: Lalaice)