π± How Spotify Wrapped actually plays out
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Hey friend β Rob here. Look, i love Spotify Wrapped. You love Spotify Wrapped. Everyone loves Spotify Wrapped! But the real question we should be asking ourselves is, how does it work? Beyond it feeling good and cool and "we should do this too", how does it actually play out for the business? That is the topic of this case study. It won Bronze at the Cannes Lions Creative Effectiveness Awards. Which means it's not only good work, it's work that actually works. So hold on for 5 minutes, that's how long this will take. Ok, drop the beat! How Spotify Wrapped actually plays outπ¨ Problem The end of the year is a saturated time for brands trying to capture public attention. Especially if you're in the UK, though not exclusively, where Christmas ads are soooooooo over-saturated. Spotify needed to differentiate itself from competitors, and cement its play in culture. (Which would act as a powerful indicator of a strong brand, which justifies people investing in Spotify Premium.) But how do you do that if you (probably) can't outspend all the big hitters at Christmas? β π€ Solution You guessed it... Spotify Wrapped.
A personalised experience, based in data, done every year. It gives you a recap of your listening habits over the previous year. It highlights individual tastes and quirks. Across genres, time of day, and even your listening personality. But more importantly, it gives you something optimised to be shared on social media. (It's no coincidence the images all fit perfectly in your Instagram Stories, y'know. Β―\_(γ)_/Β―) And, equally important, user feedback and engagement data help them improve the following year. But you'd think this is a pure viral campaign, and all you need is a killer in platform idea to make it happen. Nope. The case also shows that Spotify went big on their media spend to make everyone aware of it. β¬22 million media spend, to be specific, with β¬8 million dedicated to production. And this is typical for the Wrapped campaign, which suggests it's been an integrated campaign for a while. It feels important to say this because sometimes we assume these viral sensations happen by themselves. When in fact, and this is a deeper dive for later, virality is so very often extremely engineered. But all the same, the real question here is, can we prove it worked? Hell yeah we can. β π€© Results Campaign:
Brand:
Business:
Impressive and inspiring all around. But also a good wake up call that a good idea, even for a popular product, needs the right level of distribution. No distribution, no delivery of the goods. Sure, "if the idea is good enough", you can still win. But good distribution ensures you have better odds of actually winning. That's all i've got for you today. Don't forget to join our private group. Appreciate your attention, Rob β
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Salmon Theory, by Rob Estreitinho
Helping savvy strategists swim upstream.
Hey friend β Rob here. This is the last newsletter of the year, and goodness me what a year it's been. I was made redundant. I started a business. I lost my mother. I had my best year ever in terms of cash and confidence building. Ebbs and flows, eh? I hope you have a chance to take a break, genuinely turn off those notifications, and sleep in if you feel like it. I bring below 3x articles i wrote recently, and an event we're running in January. See you in 2025, and thanks for supporting...
Hey friend β Rob here. Here's what's been swimming around our brains lately: Synthesis-as-a-Service 5 things iβve learned from Theophilus Wells IV The question i ask whenever i open a book [Bonus!] Social strategy, deconstructed Grab a cup of caramel tea, and let's get into it. Synthesis-as-a-Service And why it may be an underrated use case for hiring independent strategists. 5 things iβve learned from Theophilus Wells IV Including directness, self-definition and why impostor syndrome is a...
Hey friend β Rob here. Do you worry about things? Or at all? My suspicion is that you worry far too much about everything. But don't worry, so do i. I think it's part of what makes strategists minimally good at the job. We are always wondering what else we might be missing. It's not a point of advantage, but it's definitely a point of parity. Worrying means we don't take anything for granted. And that's the first ingredient you need to challenge preconceptions about a problem. However. As you...