Starbucks Coffee Co. is running a mobile holiday campaign on the Pandora platform to align the brand with the spirit of the holiday season.

According to Pandora, the coffee giant has pulled back from television advertising and is focused on online and mobile marketing with Pandora. Starbucks wanted to drive consumers in-store to participate in a charity drive, with $1 from each sale of the ?Playing for Change? CD going to the Global Fund to help fight AIDs in Africa.

?The drivers for brand opportunity is audience scale, multiplatform ? display, mobile and audio ads ? and a personalized free experience,? said John Trimble, chief revenue officer of Pandora, Oakland, CA. ?The Pandora platform brings a ubiquitous experience and relationship to our users and advertisers. 

?This ubiquity plays to our strength of access ? Web, mobile, mobile-in-car, home electronics, etcetera - and touches users in a very personal and emotional way, via their personalized music choices,? he said.

?We do a very nice job of targeting an advertiser message to a precise audience, as well as weaving their message into a meaningful experience for a user.?

Pandora is a personalized Internet radio and music discovery service available on the PC and on mobile devices.

To drive the holiday campaign, Starbucks created a branded playlist on Pandora.

With one click, the playlist could be added to the consumer?s personal tuner online and on smartphones. 

Additionally, banner ads are running throughout the application.

Some of the ads say "Listen to the Starbucks Holiday (RED) Blend Mix Tape," and "Legendary artists, playing to save lives."

After clicking on a banner, the consumer is redirected to a page to learn more about Starbucks' "Playing for Change" promotion and Starbucks holiday drinks.

Mr. Trimble said Starbucks? strategic initiatives in leveraging Pandora included aligning the brand and products with the spirit of the holiday season and driving consumers in-store to participate in a charity drive to purchase the Playing for Change CD.

The coffee giant is not new to the mobile space.

Starbucks recently launched a trial of a 2D bar code payment system for customers to pay via their iPhone or iPod touch.

The coffee giant released two new applications. Starbucks Card Mobile has a 2D bar code system testing in 16 retail locations in Seattle, Cupertino, CA, and Mountain View, CA. The myStarbucks application is a store locator that lets users search by amenities or get directions to the nearest retail location (see story).

Other advertising examples on Pandora include Nike and its Killer Running playlist and Scrubbing Bubbles? Singing in the Shower radio station offer. 

Going mobile
Pandora increased its iPhone user base by 400 percent in 2009.

The Internet radio service has reached 40 million registered users and 10 million of them are iPhone users.

More than 20 million consumers signed up for the Internet radio service in 2009.

Tim Westergren, founder and chief strategy officer of Pandora, said he was surprised by the increase in mobile users.

?I don't think any of us thought it would grow this fast, this quickly,? Mr. Westergren said. ?In hindsight, it turns out that we just didn't have any precedent for a really, really good mobile version of Pandora.

?Our previous experiences on flip phones were just not useful analogues,? he said. ?It's not overstatement to say that the iPhone and subsequent smartphones have completely changed our company and our space.

?Fifty percent of iPhone users use Pandora in the car. It's really redefining the whole notion of Internet radio.?

Mr. Trimble said recent Pandora research of a group of 3,100 consumers found that mobile users tell an average of 12 people about their positive experience with Pandora.

One-third of the consumers surveyed said they will only buy a mobile phone that has Pandora.

Mr. Trimble said the most surprising finding was the average listening time is more than an hour and a half per day, which is a huge data point and opportunity for the company and its advertisers.

?That amount of personalized and targeted engagement provides a powerful platform for brand marketers,? Mr. Trimble said.