Unilever joins test of voice-powered ads

For years, Pandora has been operating on millions of smart devices – mobile, watch, fitbit, X-box, Tv, etc. Pandora this week started the next stage of a voice-powered ads pilot that started in December, per an announcement shared with Mobile Marketer.

Understands and follows instructions

What is Pandora? A music streaming platform – like Spotify – with a voice-powered assistant – like Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa or Google Assistant – and who is present in every moment of life. It “wakes up” to “Hey, Pandora” on the smart devices where it’s installed. It understands surprisingly many instructions, blows alarms, calms, laughs, provides background music for cooking, training, sleeping. The big advantage of voice control is that your hand stays free, you don’t have to scroll, touch, just talk. The Pandora universe includes a wide variety of playlist compilations, including Women’s Day, but they also collaborate with brands.

During the quarantine in May, Hasbro put together a selection of background music ideal for board games called “Bring Home the Fun with Sound On”. Melodies have been dedicated separately to the 12 types of games, such as the songs recommended for Monopoly, including Madonna’s “Material Girl” song, to help focus on money.

In addition to music, Pandora can also open and close podcasts and videos, alternate, or close and shut down itself on request.

Half year test phase

Testing of the interactive voice-powered ad began in December, with imited to a small group of Pandora app users. From the advertising side, Nestlé, Unilever, Pepsi, Wendy’s, among others, joined the project. The ads prompt listeners to answer a simple “yes or no” question before providing more information about a product or brand. The ads explain how they work before playing a short message, asking a question and awaiting a spoken response from a listener. Wendy’s ad asks listeners if they’re hungry, and provides menu recommendations to people who respond in the affirmative, as one example. Nestlé’s DiGiorno pizza offers the punchline to a pizza-themed joke to people who indicate they want to hear it.

During those earlier tests, 72% of listeners said the voice ads were easy to use, while 47% said they either liked or loved the ability to use their voice to interact with ads, according to a Pandora customer survey.

Pandora’s test follows a similar trial by rival Spotify earlier. Unilever tested ads personal care brand Axe that prompted listeners to say “Play now” to hear a curated music playlist that included ads. Spotify limited the test to a group of U.S.-based listeners of its free, ad-supported service.

These tests lead consumers to becoming more familiar with using verbal commands to interact with electronics devices and applications.

Videos can come

Pandora’s video ad format that gives marketers a chance to reach consumers who opt-in to watch a commercial in exchange for access to on-demand music is another sign of how audio streaming platforms are adding more video content. Rival platform Spotify, which also has interactive voice ads, this week announced that it will offer listeners a way to watch podcasts in a video format caled vodcast, which is a totally new form of interactivity. Spotify targets YouTube’s bread and butter. The addition of video content helps to make audio streaming platforms more compelling to advertisers. Competitor Apple Music is a subscription-based service that doesn’t have ad inserts.

Pandora’s expanded test of voice-powered ads comes a few weeks after the company’s Pandora for Podcasters platform introduced analytical tools to help creators see more insights about their audiences. Podcast producers can see information including the number of streams, unique listeners, total time spent listening and the number “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” reviews, per a blog post. U.S. podcast advertising revenue will rise 15% to about $1 billion this year, per a forecast from the Interactive Advertising Bureau and consulting firm PwC.