European radio social site launches smart ads

Music social network Last.fm is giving advertisers the ability to create ads that can interact with the music a site visitor is listening to and serve up relevant music-related content tailored around their musical tastes.

by Helen Leggatt

last%20fm%20logo.png Last.fm has taken online advertising one step further. The music social network is harmonizing the advertising experience with a site visitor’s musical preferences. Interactive elements such as concert tickets, festival maps and transport information can all be served within ads to provide a more immersive, seamless mix between advertising and content.

Ad elements can even be made to move to the beat of whatever sounds the site user is listening to when the ad is served.

"A lot of these formats were not possible before," said Martin Stiksel, Last.fm co-founder (via Clickz). "Some of the new data now available for us to utilize for advertising was not available before. The world had changed around us and we've caught up and hopefully we made a step forward."

Converse and Motorola are the first to use the innovative smart ads on Last.fm, a London-based radio station with around 1.5 million listeners across Europe. Last.fm was purchased by U.S. television network CBS for $280 million last year.