Report: Here's Why People So Angry About Pandora Ads?

The latest Westwood One blog post looks at the reasons why Pandora listeners are so angry about hearing ads. Using the Nielsen Commspoint media planning platform and various scales of weekly impressions, Westwood One outlines what happens to Pandora’s reach and frequency versus AM/FM radio.

• AM/FM radio builds massive reach while Pandora flatlines: Though Pandora’s weekly reach will increase at first with more spend, it quickly sees a leveling out. By contrast, AM/FM radio’s reach keeps growing and growing as more media weight is added to the spend.
• AM/FM radio grows frequency gradually while Pandora excessively hits the same listeners: As the spend increases for Pandora, frequency spikes. Listeners are stuck listening to the same ad repeatedly, leading to dissatisfaction and complaints. AM/FM radio’s frequency grows gently. While a greater AM/FM radio spend will increase reach, it will not hammer the same listeners with the same ads.

AM/FM radio is the number one mass reach media. Instead of advertisers putting money into Pandora to reach a few consumers many times, they should use AM/FM radio to grow reach and to grow sales.