• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Shop
  • Jobs Board
Campaigns & Elections logo

Campaigns & Elections

  • Subscribe
  • My Account
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Articles
    • Industry News
    • CampaignTech
    • Creative
  • Videos
  • Buyer’s Guide
  • Reports
  • Expert Database
  • Events
  • Awards
    • Reed Awards
    • CampaignTech Awards
    • Rising Stars
  • Consultant Directory
  • Become a Member
  • Shop
  • Job Board
  • Subscribe
  • My Account
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn

Pandora offering music-specific targeting  

Want Toby Keith fans to hear radio ads for your Republican congressional candidate? Or get your Democratic state senator’s spots played for Vampire Weekend diehards? Pandora, the Internet radio service, can now help campaigns target voters by musical preference.

“We have experience working with political campaigns and in 2011 we helped these advertisers target by zip code. However, the musical preference incorporation is what’s new here,” Sean Duggan, Pandora’s vice president of ad sales, said in a statement. “Previously, we were packaging the zip codes as congressional districts and allowing advertisers to target ads to those packaged zips.

“There wasn’t any data science applied in those segments. Based on the success of that targeting, we’ve been working to build these prediction models so that we can infer who within any area leans in a given direction.”

Regarding pricing, Duggan said the cost of the music targeting service will be “within reach for local, state, congressional and other campaigns.”

Subscribe for Industry News Plus the Latest in Campaign Strategy & Tactics

Hidden
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Pandora started offering advertising clients what it calls “proprietary targeting” in November. That service used zip codes and listening preferences to target listeners for Spanish-speaking and Hispanic segments.

The company, which had 73.4 million active listeners in January, declined to answer specific questions about its new offering, but provided C&E with this explanation of how the political advertising service, which counts Precision Network and Bully Pulpit Interactive as users, works:

    •    Pandora’s inferences start with the zip code, which listeners supply when they register with the service. Pandora then maps those zip codes to a county, and then looks at the distribution of political party voting in prior elections within those counties. The company does this by using election results reported by news organizations at the county level. For instance, if 80 percent of citizens in a certain county voted for President Obama, Pandora applies that 80 percent of people in the zip codes in those counties have an increased likelihood to be Democrats.

    •    From there, Pandora overlays the information with people’s musical tastes. Through this process Pandora can draw conclusions such as, users who listen to country music most often are located in heavily Republican zip codes. Also, Pandora listeners that tune in to jazz and reggae most frequently tend to correlate with zip codes that lean Democrat. Electronic is a strong signal for Democrats.

Share:
FacebookTweetLinkedIn

Primary Sidebar

By
Sean J. Miller
02/17/2014 12:00 AM EST
FacebookTweetLinkedIn

C&E Creative Summit 2023 Countdown:

Get Tickets

Most Read

  • Digital Organizing

    How Digital Can Help Thread the Needle in Virginia

  • Sponsored

    Combine Digital Advertising With Direct Mail, The SMART Way

  • Sponsored

    Political Comms Is The Premium Peer-To-Peer Texting Platform

Subscribe for Industry News Plus the Latest in Campaign Strategy & Tactics

Hidden
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Become a member and get access to exclusive content.

Join Today

Footer

Upcoming Events

  • June 28

    The Future of Politics: Three Cutting-Edge Tools to Win in 2024

  • September 21

    Campaigns & Elections Creative Summit

Subscribe To Our Newsletter

For the latest in campaign strategy & tactics plus industry news and analysis, subscribe for free today.

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Follow us

Follow Campaign and Elections for more daily content.

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • About
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Contact

Copyright © 2023 Political World Communications, LLC

Advertisement

Subscribe for Industry News Plus the Latest in Campaign Strategy & Tactics

Hidden
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.