The holidays sound better with Pandora
With the explosion of the Internet of Things, Pandora was distributed across more than 2,000 connected platforms. Listeners could hear their stations everywhere—from TVs, gaming consoles, cars, even from a refrigerator! And with the expansion of its two subscription tiers, Plus and Premium, listeners had more choices than ever.
The Christmas holiday season presents three major, intertwined opportunities: the peak sales period for consumer electronics, the stress of choosing gifts and the peak season for in-home entertaining. Pandora could simplify a gift giver’s search for the right device for the audiophile recipient. And for overwhelmed hosts with smart devices, Pandora provided an easy music solution for seasonal festivities.
Objective
Increase number of listeners on key connected platforms and drive subscription trials through partners
Strategy
I used market insights and previous listening patterns to identify platforms that were likely to experience a high volume of sales in November-December. With these insights, the cross-functional marketing team and I created a targeted campaign with segment-specific messages.
Results
Drove 27% YoY increase in listeners activating Pandora accounts and 22% YoY increase in listening hours on in-home platforms.
Execution
Channel-specific strategies included:
Targeted Google Home, Amazon Echo and Sonos users with a co-branded paid digital campaign
Co-branded email and owned advertising inventory retargeting lapsed smart device listeners with relevant music messages
Published a co-branded digital gifting guide offering recommendations for Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Sonos and Roku devices by listener type and service tier
Collaborated with smaller partners to include branding and extended trials in packaging and holiday promotions