Pandora: Add Experience to the Mix

As a long-time follower of Pandora Radio, I’ve watched them start-up, almost fail and then keep on keeping on. I’ve shared a few articles about them in the past (Here).

In 2004, I was a paying member of this Internet music service. A paying member gets “special” treatment and that means – no advertisements in my way on the web page, just straight music. When I met president and founder, Tim Westergren, in 2007 he asked me, “Why are you paying? You are probably the only one who does!” I guess I didn’t care since I felt like I was supporting internet radio and what they were trying to achieve; a community of like minded people who can connect and share the music they love amongst each other.

Every three months the Gods’ of Pandora would take $12 out of my account automatically. I didn’t notice it much until my credit card expired and all of a sudden advertisements started showing up all over my experience. At that point, I became intrigued. Pandora was targeting me as a savvy consumer.

Now it looks like they are taking ad’s one step further and creating experiences around them. In an article found on “The Future of Ads”, they go about explaining Pandora’s innovating advertising by way of banner experiences. Not only will they show me an ad, they will create some personalization around that ad to get me to notice and interact with it. Since they already know me (i.e. my musical style and my demographics) they are able to widget into my Pandora station interface and get me thinking…

Ah…My favorite Christmas station reminds me of chestnuts and open fires, friends and family. Oh wait; I need a new shovel and salt for the driveway to get them in, this is Minneapolis!

-Jodi

Pandora: Add Experience to the Mix

New Regulations on Tweets

How many times have you read something on Twitter, on Facebook, or even under the reviews for products on sites like Amazon and thought it sounded a lot like they were trying to sell you on something. Well, those days are over.

Starting December 1, 2009 bloggers are required to clearly state any connection to an advertiser. This meaning that anyone making a post anywhere in the social media world must disclose payments for an endorsement. Furthermore, they can be held accountable if the statements made about the product are false.

No longer can celebrities get paid for commenting about products and influencing our decisions without explicitly stating that they are getting paid to do so. It’s the first time that rules are being placed in the blogosphere about what can be said. Previous to Twitter and Facebook endorsements were made through the actually ad firms in forms of testimonials or television ads, but it has become increasingly popular to pay individuals to post their “personal experiences” in hopes of creating buzz.

Izea is a social media marketing company that specializes in sponsored tweets and sponsored conversations in blogs. Their purpose is to create buzz and drive traffic. Some might say this is the end of Twitter. What if every post made on twitter was for advertising? That would take away the purpose of spreading ideas and engaging in conversation that twitter holds, and turn it into an advertising frenzy.

But now with these New Guidelines bloggers must disclose that they are getting paid to make the statement. FTC regulations might have just saved twitter!

-Annie H.

New Regulations on Tweets

Capitalize on photo sharing via Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace: Visual endorsement; the new way of advertising?

Much of product placement research concludes that when the product and the plot of the scene are congruent then memory is affected along with attitude change. But there is also a negative effect if the product and the plot seem to be unrelated. Then the consumer will detect the product as being out of place and discredit the product. More times than not, consumers can detect product placements leaving them thinking negatively about the product.

“It’s like people only do things because they get paid, and that’s really sad.”

Check out this clip from Wayne’s World exploiting product placement:



In this example of Wayne’s World, Wayne doesn’t want to harm the reputation of his show by adding a segment in about his sponsor. He then continues to mock product placement by showing how obvious it really is.

Marketers have been using product placement since the 80’s to reach their audience, and now consumers can endorse the products, services, and people they believe-in by putting their own credibility on the line to do so then brands can pay them for their contribution. New start-up companies such as Udorse are capitalizing on visual endorsement by connecting brands and Facebook. Here is how it works, from Facebook you click on your picture and endorse an item, a service, or a new favorite band. If your friends then take action, such as visiting the endorsed products’ website, then the brand will pay you.

Whether Udorse is exploiting social media sites or creating a web version of word of mouth advertising, it is in deed another phenomena to the social media world.

-Annie H.

Capitalize on photo sharing via Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace: Visual endorsement; the new way of advertising?