Music streaming service Pandora has this month begun the local roll-out of the brand strategy its parent company already has in place in the US as it looks to deepen relationships with brands and enter the experiential, event space.
Called ‘Brands, Bands and Fans’, the initiative has already been up and running for two years in the US and made its Australian debut with the Taronga Twilight Series, a partnership with the Sydney zoo to stage 17 concerts under the stars.
According to ANZ managing director Jane Huxley the music and technology firm has made an “enormous” investment in the strategy, but it was only possible to instigate a plan here once the service could boast significant enough subscriber numbers.
“We had to make sure that the figures added up,” said Huxley. “It was all about scale, but we have that now. Our figures continue to grow on average by 25,000-30,000 listeners a week and we have also come out of an amazing bumper Christmas, which really boosted the listenership.”
The new strategy, the company said, is about identifying opportunities that blend seamlessly across its listeners, advertisers and musicmakers. In the US, ‘Pandora Presents’ has been running for more than a year, staging free concerts designed to connect fans with brands in special and unique settings. Taronga Twilight is the first incarnation of that in Australia.
This freshly charged activity has meant some changes to the Pandora team. Shaun Alexander, formerly an account director, has moved into a strategic partnerships director role and is charged with working with agencies and brands. Meanwhile, as previously announced, Nicole McInnes joined in November, taking up the post of marketing director.
“We are building out a team now that complements each other in satisfying all three pillars, and, more importantly, in a way that enables initiatives like Brands, Bands and Fans to engage in a highly impactful way,” said Huxley.
Pandora’s move coincides with another bout of changes on the music streaming front. This week it was revealed that Nova Entertainment had sold its 50% stake in Rdio back to its owners, while it is expected that the market will get extraordinarily busy with the arrival of Apple and Google later this year.
A version of this story originally appeared in the latest print edition of AdNews (February 6). Get your copy on iPad now, or in Print here.
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