Pandora Ad Revenues Boosted by Brands Like Honda, BOA

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Mobile was a big driver of Pandora's promising Q2 ad revenue results. The streaming music firm's advertising revenue increased by 118 percent year-over-year for Q2, and overall earnings were up 117 percent, the company stated yesterday in its earnings report. Brands including Honda, Lowe's, PetSmart, Bank of America, and Farmer's Insurance to name a few, ran ads with Pandora in Q2, many of them in its mobile app.

Joe Kennedy, CEO of the Oakland, CA-based digital radio brand, particularly lauded his firm's growth in the mobile space. In a statement, he said that "advertisers continue their adoption of Pandora's multi-platform ad solutions, resulting in our 6th consecutive quarter of year-over-year triple digit revenue growth. In addition to continued high growth in web revenue, Pandora's mobile advertising revenue for the first time comprised approximately half of total advertising revenue as we lead the way in the nascent but fast growing mobile advertising market."

Overall, Pandora's total Q2 revenue was $67 million, with ad revenues hitting $58.3 for the quarter ending July 31. Subscriptions accounted for $8.7 million of that sum, a 112 percent lift year-over-year. The company also stated listener hours have increased 125 percent compared to the same period 2010, giving it a 3.6 percent share of the total U.S. radio market.

In the midst of its IPO in June, Pandora was criticized for an alleged inability to attract ad dollars from non-web-startup advertisers. However, observation of Pandora both online and via mobile around that time revealed that the firm was indeed running display, video, and audio ads from a variety of well-established brands including retailers, insurance providers, and travel advertisers.

In fact, today, while an ad for Match.com appeared on Pandora’s site today, so did one from Amtrak.

Here's a look at Pandora's advertisers put together by ClickZ News in June:

Kate Kaye contributed to this story.