OREANDA-NEWS. Pandora (NYSE:P), the go-to music source for fans and artists, today announced its new visual ad experience – a series of native, mobile ad formats that make rich media, video and display ads more impactful and effective for marketers. Built to tap into the power of Pandora’s 80 million monthly active users, it gives listeners more control over the ads they see and delivers stronger results for brands. The ads launch in beta this summer with Express and the Lexus Dealer Association, and will be available to all advertisers later this year.

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Pandora Muted Video (Photo: Business Wire)

Pandora Muted Video (Photo: Business Wire)

These new ads take advantage of the natural behavior of mobile users and offer advertisers a larger creative canvas. The ad experience lives within the square space that houses album art, fitting seamlessly into the core visual element of Pandora, and includes the ability for listeners to swipe vs. tap to dismiss. It also allows advertisers to measure key signs of listener engagement including time spent and viewability, and supports IAB standard ads as well as programmatic needs.

During the pilot phase, the number of listeners who engaged with an advertiser’s landing page for more than 30 seconds doubled.

“At Pandora, we believe what is good for the listener is good for the advertiser,” said John Trimble, chief revenue officer at Pandora. “We saw an industry-wide problem with visual mobile ads and focused on what ‘the impression’ initially set out to achieve: viewability, time spent, attention and engagement. We’re changing the game by helping advertisers think less about traditional impressions and more about the quality of each interaction.”

The ad experience includes:

  • New Responsive Mobile Display: In addition to enhanced 300x250 mobile ads, the new creative ad canvas automatically adjusts to the size of the phone’s screen and lives within the square space that houses album art.
    • This also applies to the visuals accompanying audio ads and first impression takeover ads.
  • Introduction of Muted Video: Advertisers can serve their video - on mute - within a responsive display unit, accommodating the popular 1x1, 4x3 and 16x9 ratios.
    • Listeners tap on the video to un-mute and watch in a full screen view. This gives listeners more control over their ad experience and brands a new opportunity to deliver video on Pandora.

Express and the Lexus Dealer Association are on board for the beta, and Pandora partnered with Moat, the only MRC accredited company for mobile viewability measurement to measure in-app viewability.

“We are a brand that embraces the spirit of individualism and when we’re thinking about connecting with our customers, we want to be sure we’re doing it in a way that reflects that,” said Jim Hilt, chief marketing officer at Express. “Pandora’s visual ad experience will allow us to share visual elements of our brand while listeners are enjoying the personalized music they love. We’re excited to partner with Pandora on bringing ‘what’s now’ to such an influential audience.”