SOURCE: Pandora Media

March 19, 2008 09:00 ET

Alltel Wireless and Pandora Team Up to Bring Music Discovery to Customers

New Online Campaign Asks Website Visitors to Share Favorite Local Bands, Musical Styles

OAKLAND, CA--(Marketwire - March 19, 2008) - Today, Pandora Media, the premier provider of personalized radio service online, and Alltel Wireless, America's largest network, launched an innovative marketing campaign where Pandora users in specific Alltel Wireless markets will be invited to submit their favorite hometown bands on Pandora's website (www.pandora.com). On the homepage, an Alltel Wireless ad asks its customers and consumers nationwide to join a collaborative effort to create Alltel Wireless branded, local music stations across the country to promote distinct, regional music styles and the local artists who play them. Users can then share their personal stations, songs or favorite musical groups with others.

"This campaign is a great example of leveraging the strength of interactive media to deliver a new and rich customer experience. By tapping into the high affinity of Pandora's listenership, Alltel Wireless can generate excitement and enthusiasm within their customer base about discovering and sharing local music styles and bands around the country, from salsa to reggae to the blues," said Cheryl Lucanegro, vice president of advertising sales for Pandora.

"We're excited about our relationship with Pandora and launching this innovative media campaign," said Lisa Bryant, staff manager of interactive advertising for Alltel Wireless. "This campaign was designed through our inspired collaboration with our agency Ingenuity Media and gives our customers the ability to create their own music stations while at the same time supporting local bands in their communities."

Pandora's registration process captures users' zip codes and makes it possible to engage in precise "geo-targeting," bringing Alltel Wireless' "My Circle" message to its best prospects. During the year-long campaign, Alltel Wireless will be the exclusive advertiser registered users in these geo-targets see, hear and connect with on the Pandora homepage. In phase one, consumers will have the opportunity to submit their local bands for inclusion in Alltel Wireless' regional music stations. In phase two, Alltel Wireless and Pandora will curate the submissions to create the local Alltel Wireless branded stations. In phase three, the local stations will go live and users can continue to support them by suggesting additional local talent, thus refining the unique flavor and style of each station.

About Alltel Wireless

Alltel is owner and operator of the nation's largest wireless network and has more than 12 million wireless customers. For more information, please visit www.alltel.com.

About Ingenuity Media

Ingenuity Media, the media arm of The Martin Agency, provides a full range of media services including buying, planning, data analytics, consumer forensics and digital/emerging media. Ingenuity also collaborates closely with the branded content and innovation design disciplines at The Martin Agency. Headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, the company also has a Manhattan office at 71 Fifth Avenue. Ingenuity Media has more than 20 clients including such well-known brands as Alltel, SIRIUS Satellite Radio, SEIKO, The Alliance for Climate Protection and UPS.

About Pandora Media™

Pandora (www.pandora.com), a personalized radio service, available anytime and anywhere on the PC, in the home and on mobile devices, is based on the Music Genome Project began in 2000 and the most thorough analysis of popular music ever undertaken. Each song in this massive collection is analyzed by more than 50 trained musicians, and assessed against nearly 400 distinct musical attributes such as melody, harmony, and rhythm to capture its unique musical identity. Using this information to build playlists based on musical similarity, listeners can simply enter a favorite song or artist, and instantly launch a personalized listening experience which includes discovery of new bands, artists and songs. Today, Pandora has a growing user base of more than eleven million registered listeners, a database of some 500,000 songs, and national advertisers such as HP, Microsoft, Toyota, Visa and Nike.