I love Pandora, but I’m too cheap to pay for the ad-free version called Pandora One, therefore I get assaulted several times an hour with annoying audio ads… Until today. Today I loaded Pandora, listened to a few hours of music, completely ignoring the ads, until one from MSN came on offering a free 3 day trial to Pandora One – so I did what I never do, I clicked!
The Pandora player reloaded, the Ads are gone for 3 whole days, and the background/sidebar ad is going to stay MSN branded instead of cycling through the normal bevvy of advertisers. This is awesome for me, because I don’t want to pay for Pandora One, and don’t want to listen to ads. This is also awesome for MSN, because they know I will have 24 hours of exposure (3 days x 8 hours) to their ad, they also get the satisfaction of knowing none of their fellow advertisers will be served to my desktop. They have in effect, sponsored my listening for a short period of time. They just gave me something of value for interacting with their brand. This is also awesome for Pandora, because they are constantly struggling to find a happy balance between paying the bills and keeping their listeners happy.
I hope more people take note of ads that give back. This instant reward forms an immediate connection between individual and a brand. Pretty worthwhile if you ask me!
