Clemenger tops Mumbrella Awards as axed Pandora staff win Sales Team of the Year and crowd ovation
The commercial team at streaming music service Pandora was named sales team of the year at last night’s Mumbrella Awards, just days after receiving the devastating news that the company would be closing its Australian operations.
The Pandora team accepted their award to a standing ovation from the audience of nearly 1000 people at the Star Event Centre in Sydney, with commercial director Chris Freel reminding the room that his entire team is “really employable at the moment.”
Pandora accepting Sales Team of the Year
The announcement triggered wild celebrations in Pandora’s awards suite before the entire team took the stage to make their final appearance before the industry.
bit of a tasteless headline re: Pandora don’t you think mumbrella??
Hi “Wow”,
Could you explain why you think that? I don’t think I agree
Last night’s win for Pandora was one of the most powerful moments I’ve witnessed in the years we’ve been running the Mumbrella Awards.
I sometimes feel cynical about our industry, but the support shown by everybody in the room to the Pandora team was tremendous, and really moving. A genuine moment of acknowledgement for the tough week they had all had – and what they achieved as a sales team in their relatively short time together.
I think it’s hard to mention them winning without also mentioning why it was such a big deal at the time – which was the fact that through no fault of their own, the operation has been axed by their bosses in the US.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
you don’t find “axed Pandora staff” a bit insensitive?
Being axed has nothing to do with their win. we all know what happened. Why remind everyone, including those same staff who are probably reading this review this morning?
Perhaps: “Clemenger tops Mumbrella Awards as Pandora staff win Sales Team of the Year and crowd ovation”
See what I mean?
Hi “wow”
I suspect the thing they found insensitive was when they were axed. Not when we wrote about it.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
How does Pandora get Sales Team of the Year when they shut up shop in Australia?
Hi Ummm,
Thanks for the question and I’m happy to explain. The jury awards its winner on performance during the period being judged. There was lots of evidence of success for the growth of sales and performance of the team. The fact that a new strategy in the US led to Pandora axing their only international office, doesn’t change that.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
Hi Tim
I find your response hard to buy. An article written only 3 days ago here stated that estimates found rival Spotify’s revenues doubled to 11.9m in 2016 while Pandora was flat on the year on 6.2m.
The MD left in March and they never replaced her.
The fact is that the Australian branch wasn’t performing well enough. That’s not a random decision that the company made. They analysed the business and made a strategic business decision. Those are based on numbers.
I know that it is better to put a spin on things and when things go south we like to reflect (at least in public) on the strengths and successes (especially when you work in marketing) but giving the Pandora sales team this award just tells me that the criteria used to judge best sales team is flawed and doesn’t reflect the real world effects of doing sales successfully. It puts into question the value of these awards. Does it mean anything or are we all just giving ourselves pats on the back?
Hi Grace,
This is what our voiceover script had to say on the night:
The last year has seen US-based music streaming service Pandora grow its revenues by 60%, thanks in large part to clever initiatives by its sales and marketing teams to help raise awareness of the category in and outside the industry. These included innovative partnerships with brands including Nescafe and Holden jumping on board.
They also teamed up with their biggest rivals for a roadshow event to educate the market on the benefits of streaming, called Unrivalled, while they entered the experiential scene with Pandora Warehouse, and in-store radio partnerships with Woolworths and BWS.
The jury said: “Pandora worked with their biggest competitor to grow their category and showed real evidence of commercially successful innovations for their partners.”
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
you didn’t answer Grace’s question…
Hi “C’mon Tim” (who I note shares an IP address with “wow”),
That’s the info I have to hand to share immediately. What I can also tell you immediately is that their detailed written entry was good enough to persuade a jury of senior, unbiased industry professionals to shortlist them. Their live presentation – and follow-up questions from the jury – was enough for them to take the prize in a highly competitive field. So yes, I’m confident they deserved it.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
Hi Grace,
As a (former) employee of Pandora I really enjoyed reading your response. Interesting to note you based our success as a Sales Team purely on revenue as a comparison to Spotify via an article you read. Not that it matters anymore – but I can tell you the closure of the Pandora business goes well beyond revenue generation and “the numbers”.
The fact is, revenue is not and should not be the final measurement of success for any sales business.
The fact is, other factors outside of this have had an effect on our business and it’s closure in this market.
The fact is, we were on the way to replacing our MD, which is a process that takes time with any international organisation. We also had strong leadership to support us during this time.
The fact is we kicked ass while we were here. Just a few weeks ago 2000 Media Agency employees across Australia told us that we had the highest NPS score in the VIC Digital Sales market via Media i.
Just one of many achievements we were successful in over the last couple of years.
Thanks,
SP
The response in the room to Pandoras Sales Team of Year win was a genuine ‘moment’. In the super competitive environment we all work to see eveyone come together behind a group of individuals like that was brilliant. Well done to Chris and the team.
Congrats to Freelo, Rachel and teams!
The genuine and spontaneous show of support for the Pandora team was a newsworthy moment. Anyone who has worked in the industry for an extended period has more than likely felt the pain of being made redundant – usually for no fault of their own. Good to see a room show the love.
Well done and well deserved to Chris and his team, I wish you all the best mate.
Why is everyone so salty today? Pandora won an award, everyone cheered. Happy Days. Move on….
Wow I didn’t realise tan/dark brown shoes with black suits was such a popular thing for guys these days…
I am pretty sure Clemenger Harvie has been around longer than 5 years…and could hardly be called a start up
Awesome event, congrats to all involved!
I’ve been in the industry over 20 years and watching the reaction to Pandora’s win was a true highlight for my jaded soul. Pity some on this page are even more jaded than me…
Thank you to everyone for your support last night and this week. It’s been incredibly humbling to each of us at Pandora to get so many calls, emails, texts and most of all the standing ovation from our peers last night.
In the famous words of Taylor Swift….haters gonna hate hate hate… ?