Once focused on just national advertising, Oakland, Calif.-based Pandora now has sales teams in 35 markets--including top performers Los Angeles, Chicago and Dallas—and reportedly has plans to enter four or five more, according to
Crain's Business New York.
Ground zero for its ad efforts is New York, home to the company's largest sales force. A new two-floor, 50,000-square-foot office in midtown holds nearly 200 employees, many of them radio-sales refugees from Clear Channel and CBS Radio. That's up from 95 a year ago, and could grow to 350 by next year. Their target: terrestrial radio's $17 billion in annual ad revenue--in particular the $14 billion that comes from local advertisers.
"Half of the salespeople here are laser-focused on broadcast radio," said John Trimble, Pandora's New York-based chief revenue officer.
A lot is riding on their success. It took 14 years for the company to eke out its first profitable quarter: net income of $9 million on revenue of $200 million at the end of 2013. Still, it lost $41 million last year, despite a 56% growth in revenue, to $638 million.
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| John Trimble |
Trimble says that the company is just hitting its stride. Pandora, in addition to being the leader in streaming radio, is also the largest station in its local markets, he said. And he has the data to prove it. Ad agencies now combine Pandora's streaming data with their ratings for broadcast radio stations, producing a "ranker" that shows the streaming service to be No. 1 in New York City, with a bigger audience than terrestrial standbys LiteFM and Z100.
Pandora also sells local advertisers on its ability to target users by age, gender and ZIP code. And its overall reach is huge. The service has 75 million active listeners, a 9% share of total U.S. radio listening and a growing presence on car dashboards.
"Pandora has eaten into the overall radio budget," said Kim Vasey, director of radio for media-buying giant GroupM. "They are making a dent in the space."
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