iTunes Radio Advertisers: Happy So Far ... But More Wanted In '14

So Far, So Good ...So What's Next?

iTUNES RADIO's initial advertisers are reported to be fairly pleased with the streaming music service since its SEPTEMBER roll-out, but AD AGE reports advertisers now want more. Chief among them is more granular ad-targeting options besides the usual parameters like age, gender and zip code. And, of course, media buyers would like to see iTUNES RADIO take a bigger piece of the music streaming pie -- at the expense of PANDORA, SPOTIFY and the rest.

OMD chief digital officer BEN WINKLER, whose clients PEPSI and NISSAN advertise on iTUNES RADIO described the early results as being "right on target," adding that media buyers were pleasantly surprised at its  initial penetration on mobile devices.  "We thought it would be a good chunk from mobile, he told the magazine. "When we first put [campaigns] together, I don't think we expected two-thirds [of users] from mobile. By the time this thing rolled out, two-thirds felt right," he said.

Also impressed was NISSAN Dir./Chief Marketing Manager PHIL O'CONNOR. "We were able to reach the impression loads that we had targeted to reach, and that's with protections like not overloading any individual with too many ads ... which would suggest that their growth was good," he said

While PEPSI's deal has it committed to iTUNES RADIO through 2014, NISSAN and other clients' deals end at the end of 2013. Whether they and other new advertisers jump on board in 2014 is, while largely expected, still up in the air. Which explains why APPLE has made selling iTUNES RADIO its top priority for 2014 (NET NEWS, 12/26).

Marketers continue to have a "significant interest" in iTUNES RADIO "because anything APPLE does, they tend to do in a big way," DIGITASLBi SVP/Media ADAM SHLACHTER said. "Everyone is waiting to see what their impact is against the competition, whether or not APPLE can establish or take share from any other platform. Based on that, you will see people migrate budget."

PANDORA is the king of the music streamers with 72.4 million monthly listeners, while 68 million people listen to CLEAR CHANNEL's iHEARTRADIO network and 24 million people use SPOTIFY. iTUNES RADIO notched 20 million listeners in its first month "with zero promotion," BEN WINKLER said. "On the scale side, I'm excited about what happens to the numbers when the service is genuinely promoted from an advertising perspective."

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