If you have Spotify or spend time even remotely close to anyone who does, you’ve probably heard about some of the great campaigns the brand has been running. Not only are they normally quite fun, but they’re also highly personal as a result of all the data they have on their users.
Here are a few of my favourite recent campaigns from Spotify, showing the true creative power behind data.
You’re not you when you’re hungry – Snickers X Spotify
Everyone knows the famous Snickers slogan of, ‘You’re not you when you’re hungry’. It’s true for most of us, flipping between normal and hangry in seconds, but how could that have possibly been turned into a campaign for Spotify? Well, with a little creativity.
With the vast amount of data that Spotify collect around our listening habits – allowing them to offer up music recommendations and more – they can tell when we’re listening to something that we wouldn’t normally listen to. That’s quite interesting by itself, made even more so by the fact that these people were then targeted with a Snickers advert, following the idea that the person isn’t acting like their usual self. It’s inspired.
Are you ready to face your hunger? See what your hunger symptom is and what type of @Spotify playlist will satisfy it below!⁰
Ladies: https://t.co/TP25V1ogvq
⁰Gentlemen: https://t.co/7XdFwcbagW pic.twitter.com/3F8SYvonFS— SNICKERS® (@SNICKERS) 9 July 2018
To keep the momentum going, Snickers also created a quiz to find your hungry personality with facial recognition software (via webcam or phone camera), which then leads you to a specific playlist that has been created in advance. If you’re wondering, I got the ‘Foolish playlist’.
What would your DNA sound like? – Ancestry X Spotify
Another amazing use of data is the collaboration between Spotify and Ancestry, who teamed up to offer people a playlist designed by their very own DNA and heritage. How awesome is that?
Little else need be said on this one, other than confirming just how powerful our data can be in creating highly-personalised content such as this. There’s no wonder it comes at a cost of $99…
#2018Wrapped – Spotify
The #2018Wrapped campaign had a few different executions, but the thing that had us most excited were the individual ‘reports’ sent to users of Spotify, letting you know everything from your top 100 songs of 2018 to the number of hours you listened to a specific artist. All in all, it’s just a fun way of sharing data.
People love finding out stats, especially when they reveal information and insights into our own behaviour. This campaign comes every year and is like the Spotify version of Apple’s screen time, which we’re always comparing since it’s kind of our job to keep up with digital, especially on mobile.
As one of the few people in the world without a Spotify Premium account (don’t @ me), this campaign even made me want to use Spotify more so that I can join in with the #2019Wrapped campaign that is no doubt coming this December.
And there are just three creative ways that Spotify used our data in 2018… I already can’t wait to see what they come up with in 2019.