Case study · Pandora · 2016
The distraction study
If nobody is looking at the screen, does an audio ad still land?
The question
Audio is the medium people consume while doing something else. Measurement built for screens treats that as a problem. Pandora wanted to know whether it was.
Collect
Participants listened while performing everyday tasks in the lab, with biometrics and recall measures capturing what they took in from the ads between songs.
Analyze
Recall and response were compared across levels of distraction, and against a screen-first baseline, to isolate what audio holds onto when attention is divided.
Present
A topline for the room, one chart per task, with the argument that audio’s weakness on paper was a strength in practice.