PANDORA PREMIUM TO DEBUT WEDNESDAY:  Yesterday Pandora delivered the biggest streaming news of 2017 with the announcement of its on-demand subscription tier, called Pandora Premium, which starts rolling out to the public on a limited basis this Wednesday, March 15^th.  The Premium subscription will priced at $9.99/month, and become the third tier in Pandora’s full spectrum of streaming options.  Listeners will still be able to use the current base Pandora product (which will remain free and ad-supported), and the mid-tier Plus product which is priced at $4.99/month.  This move is significant because Pandora has dominated the free online radio side of streaming for years, leaving all the other players to duke it out on the sub side.  Now Pandora is playing offense on their side of the street – setting up what should be a very interesting showdown.  There are about 1,000 articles covering yesterday’s announcement.  The following RAIN link is about the most balanced and detailed one I’ve found.  It’s a long read, but well worth it.  (link)

LOTS OF SIZZLE, BUT WHERE’S THE STEAK?:  Even with that “new IPO smell” hanging in the air, Snapchat’s ad business is coming under increased scrutiny.  The challenge from marketers is simple – if you’re casting yourself as equal to Google of FB then you need to back it up with scale and ad effectiveness.  The scale is there for now, but there’s some growing skepticism over how well ads on Snapchat are actually working.  This is happening because so many marketers rushed to get on to the platform just assuming they’d see results.  Only now, per the attached RBC survey, are questions being asked about how well those ads are working.  Compound this concern with increased competition from YouTube and Facebook, with the latter having literally cloned Snapchat’s stories functionality.  All of this is creating a scenario where Snapchat needs to start proving that ads on its platform are working, or their money will start flowing back to the other guys.  (link)

A NEW PLAYER IN THE AGENCY GAME:  Finally today, AdWeek has a really interesting feature story on a phenomenon that’s quietly happening across the agency side of the industry.  For years smaller boutique creative and digital agencies have been bought up by larger agency holding companies.  I’m talking about the four big dog global HCs  – Omnicom, Publicis, WPP, and Aegis/Dentsu.  But lately there’s been a new buyer of agencies in the form of global Business Consultancies like Deloitte, Accenture, PwC, McKinsey, etc..  Previously these consultants concentrated on traditional business offerings like accounting, HR, and strategic advisory services.  But lately they’ve been adding data and analytics to the mix, which lends itself perfectly to digital advertising.  And now they’re completing the circle by actually buying agencies who plan and produce digital marketing.  This is creating a full A to Z offering for their clients and making these consulting firms even more powerful.  The infographic down the left side of the article shows which agencies have already been snapped up and by whom.  It’s a pretty amazing list to consider.  (link)

Have a great Tuesday guys!