The Official Blog of AREA203 Digital

I am fascinated by user experience. I take note of the good, the bad, and the ugly. I’m not a guru. I just know when something works well for me, something is intuitive to me, and when something feels right to me. While the integration of advertising into a web experience is not always pleasing, I really think Pandora has done some things right, for me.

Pandora is one of my favorite online experiences simply because I love music. I was a bit late to get on that bandwagon, but I signed up right around the time they were seemingly experimenting with interactive ad experiences. One of the first ads, I remember, is the Pepto Bismol ad, which appeared to cover the viewing area of the browser with a soothing coating of pink bismuth. Many people were annoyed, as if Pandora were a sellout to the “future of web advertising.” However, I enjoyed the idea that advertisers were stepping up to more creative methods just to get my attention.

Personally, I don’t dig the audio ads nearly as much as the visual ones, but my favorites are the interactive ads. Starbucks, for instance, clothed the Pandora experience in an ad, resulting in a ten-minute tangent from what I was working on. First, let me admit that I love Starbucks. I briefly worked a second job at one in Memphis, and I found it to be a really good company to work for. I also love coffee. So, I’m a bit distracted by anything Starbucks anyway.

The Starbucks ad, serving as an introduction to the new “however-you-want-it Frappuccino” promotion, consisted of a “Create your own musical taste” slider ranging from “light” to “heavy.” You could, in turn, create a station based on your selections. While not convincing enough to make me stray from my musical selection already playing, I opted to not let Starbucks create a station for me. But, I was impressed by their intent and the extent to which they went to encourage my interaction. I felt it was a great blending of a brand that I happen to love into the Pandora experience that I also love.

Among others, there were also ads for Amazon, Amstel, AT&T, Canon, Fancy Feast, The American starring George Clooney, MasterCard, Oreo, Samsung, and Seasonique.

The Canon ad was nice as it created a mood to showcase one of their latest camera models. These ads are also a great way to reinforce visibility of a brand motto or tagline, like Canon’s “Click to see beyond the still,” which was integrated in both the framed experience and within the song panel.

I find the Fancy Feast ad interesting, since I assume cats generally don’t use Pandora. But, their owners do, so they wrapped the page in an elegant atmosphere of cat-owner pride, focusing on those mornings your feline friend wakes you up into a happy, life-loving morning. How do you reward your friend? By buying Fancy Feast Appetizers for Cats! And, by creating a Pandora station for you and your beloved feline.

Seasonique is a brand of female contraceptive. They wrapped the page in a girl-friendly, teal color and used strong wording to empower their female viewers. In much the same way that Starbucks offered interactive components in their ad, the Seasonique ad offered the ability to create stations based on mood, time of day, and genre.

While I focused mainly on the ads that stuck out to me from a feminine perspective, check out screenshots of the other ads, which have a more general appeal.

If you’re like me, you are probably wondering about the effectiveness of these framed experiences, and how this style of advertising came about for Pandora. Check out this interview between Hollis Thomases of ClickZ and Cheryl Lucanegro, VP of advertising sales at Pandora.

I also found another article about Pandora’s Advertising Model by Byrne Reese, and his perspective on Pandora’s advertising model. It’s interesting, and I think he hit the nail on the head when he wrote: “They do not think of a rectangle on the page as an ad, they think of the whole page as an ad. And in this format, which maybe considered to be by some to be more invasive is actually not. The ads do not pop out at you. They do not autoplay video. They do not interrupt or disrupt the user’s experience, they simply frame the experience.”

I love Pandora. Aside from the occasional audio ads, which are very brief, I mostly enjoy the framed experience they have created. For the amount of time that I use Pandora each month, I can enjoy it for free while learning about new products and appreciating new creativity from familiar products. It’s a great service, and an excellent integration of advertising, creativity, and the web.