Last year, Spotify launched its largest ever global campaign, based solely around its customer data. Creatively tapping into listener habits, the brand turned these insights into humorous, relevant and consumer-centric messages that had a big impact.
Back once again with a fresh end-of-year campaign starring its users, Spotify is proving just how much it knows about people, highlighting the winning behaviors of its listeners in 2017 as inspiration for the year ahead.
Proving the value that lies in understanding your consumers and continuously innovating take personalization to new heights, here’s why we chose Spotify’s ‘2018 Goals’ as our December campaign of the month.
The Insight
The data-driven approach works. The goal of the 2016 campaign was primarily to strengthen the brand by preserving the reported 60 million existing users of Spotify and attracting new users – and it did just that.
With results proving that using data to connect with consumers on a personal level was a tactic that paid off, the brand decided to take a leaf out of its own book.
Again, the teams carefully analyzed their data to uncover the most compelling truths about their users that would tell the most engaging stories.
But they didn’t stop there. This time optimizing the campaign by leveraging digital innovation, the teams created a microsite aimed at helping users relive the music they discovered in 2016, urging them to “check out your 2017 wrapped.”
Features include an interactive quiz covering users’ own listening habits and personalized playlists recommending music they may not have have discovered yet.
The Message
This year’s global wrap-up imagines what its audience might do in 2018, based on the events of 2017.
Seth Farbman, Spotify CMO, tells Creativity: “When we started to look at this year’s data and what the news was every day, we realized there was a lot of fatigue and exhaustion with all the events in 2017.
So rather than go back and relive that exhaustion, we thought we would look forward and bring in a spirit of hope and optimism.”
The ads, running in 18 markets worldwide, put a humorous spin on user behaviors and include straplines such as:
“2018 goals: Be as loving as the person who put 48 Ed Sheeran songs on their ‘I Love Gingers’ playlist”.
Source: Spotify
The Result
Once again, the brand’s unique data-driven approach is getting the right attention.
Following in the footsteps of last year’s campaign which featured in a variety of leading publications and sites including Adweek, The Verge, The Independent, NBC and Business Insider, the in-house team’s latest efforts are not going unnoticed.
Garnering much the same coverage and praise from the likes of Adweek, The Drum and Campaign, the relatable and humorous approach is again paying off.
By combining both traditional and digital methods and media, Spotify is expertly demonstrating its deep understanding of its users.
Taking the time to identify the revealing truth behind every behavior, the brand found a way to relate to people on another level.
As CMO Seth Farbman explains, the data-led ads work because what we’re listening to says something about us.
“If we just talked about how many people listened to this one song, or streamed this, or did this other thing, it stays up high. But when you get very concrete, so you’re realizing this is a real person with real listening habits, real playlists, real playlist names, then it just cuts through the clutter.”
