This American Life: Pandora Doubles Down on Podcast Sponsorships

Originally published on PANDORAADVERTISING.com on May 3, 2016

Last week, we announced that the award-winning public radio show, This American Life, will now be streamed on Pandora. This American Life has been telling the thought-provoking and relatable stories of everyday people for over 20 years, and we’re proud to share their stories with Pandora listeners and marketing partners.
Amidst the Audio Renaissance, podcasting presents a massive opportunity for brands to help introduce compelling, new content to listeners who are eager to engage. This American Life currently experiences an average of 2 million downloads¹ of its show each week and is consistently ranked as a top five podcast within Apple’s podcast app. That is why we’re thrilled to offer additional Pandora advertising opportunities with This American Life. These opportunities allow brands to align their message with a brand-new form of content on Pandora. While most podcasts include multiple interruptions from various advertisers, Pandora offers brands 100% share of voice during the sponsorship, utilizing both audio and display placements to capture audience attention at scale.

This American Life releases an episode every week to Pandora listeners—each exploring a unique theme in contemporary culture—including documentaries, interviews, essays and contemporary fiction. In addition to new episodes released every week, the station is pre-loaded with 10 episodes for your binge-listening pleasure.
But this isn’t our first foray into podcasting. At the end of 2015, Pandora became the first-ever streaming partner for the most popular podcast in history, Serial, also from the creators of This American Life. With this partnership, Pandora had the unique opportunity to share this cultural phenomenon with 80 million listeners, and to provide our marketing partners with an opportunity to align brand messaging with best-in-class content.
Partnering with Pandora exposed an untapped audience to the format and to Serial specifically—an audience that was primed and ready to catch the podcast wave. Listener response has been overwhelming. Since late 2015, Serial on Pandora has been streamed over 15.6 million times².
The combination of the popular podcast and Pandora’s premium advertising environment also proved an ideal destination for brands to capture the attention of an engaged audience. Pandora’s launch sponsorships on Serial successfully exceeded client goals of brand awareness, favorability and association:

We anticipate that the audience for this audio format will continue to grow—for both Serial and This American Life. So, don’t miss out! If you haven’t already, be sure to tune in every Monday to This American Life for the latest episode, and get caught up on Serial on Pandora.
For questions on how to align your brand with This American Life or Serial on Pandora, please contact us.
Sources:
₁This American Life Internal Metrics, March 2016
₂Pandora Internal Metrics, April, 2016
₃Pandora Internal Metrics, Millward Brown, March 2016