TSL SNEAKINESS:  Over the coming weeks you may encounter radio reps gleefully touting the latest Nielsen study showing that their time spent went up YoY, for the first time in forever.  What they won’t point out is that Nielsen changed its methodology to include minutes listening on digital devices (so basically their streaming side), while last year’s survey only counted terrestrial listening.  The broadcasters are claiming this change creates a more “apples to apples” way of looking at radio vs. other media.  But in reality they’ve skewed their own numbers by changing the criteria, and have created an “oranges to orangutans” scenario with this data.  Nothing to do proactively with this info – just be ready to rebut if you hear a client or agency referencing a radio claim that TSL is up.  http://www.insideradio.com/free/nielsen-time-spent-with-radio-is-up-across-demos/article_d74a9872-8f83-11e6-af34-bf881ec4fac0.html

NATIVE 101:  Next up is a very deep dive into Native Advertising in the following eMarketer white paper.  They dissect every aspect of native, including revenue growth of this sector, the conflict between native and op-ed, and native’s ability to solve for ad-blocking.  If you have a quiet 15 minutes it’s worth the read.  But if you don’t have the time, at least take a look at page 7 featuring Pandora’s Jonathan Eccles.  He does a nice job of highlighting the inherent strengths of Pandora’s new display and video ad units as native solutions.  Good ammunition to have as you battle it out on this important frontier of the media landscape.  https://www.emarketer.com/public_media/docs/eMarketer_Native_Advertising_Roundup_2016.pdf

CAMPAIGNING LIKE IT’S 2012:  Have you noticed we’re in election season yet?  Amongst the sea of political advertising Pandora continues to receive press as THE go to digital media option for candidate and issue advertising.  AdWeek picked up the story, featuring our VVP of Political Sean Duggan.  Sean’s main point, that political advertising always seems to be a step behind the industry, actually makes total sense.  Campaign consultants who plan media are always using the last election cycle (two or even four years ago) as their model, with the belief to keep doing what worked back then.  Unfortunately years are an eternity for media consumption change, which means campaigns are advertising to where voters used to spend their time, and not where they are today.  That’s why TV, and other incumbent media types, have held political dollars longer than other categories.  But as we know, it’s just a matter of when (not if) even the most hardened politicians see digital as the key to opening the ballet box.  http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/political-campaigns-need-embrace-digital-media-if-they-haven-t-already-173979

SUMMER DOLDRUMS FOR STREAMERS:  Triton is out with its monthly Webcast Metrics Rating for July.  As in previous years, the summer months are seeing a slight reduction in Average Active Sessions (AAS).  Month-over-month listening for total streaming and also Pandora specifically were -4%, which is in line with the seasonal trend.  Overall YoY streaming is still +13% vs. 2016, which is pretty amazing growth by any standard.  The normal graphs are below.  http://rainnews.com/summertime-dip-in-webcast-listening-in-july-while-strong-year-over-year-growth-triton-digital/

Have a great Tuesday guys!