Music has a significant role in our lives since it allows us to break free from commotion, reduce stress, and inspire ourselves. It helps in alleviating our mood and makes it ten times better. But finding the right audio track to suit our moods and tastes has always been a hassle, not to mention the problem of storage space on our devices!

Since it is not realistically possible to download so many songs on any one device and therefore the ideal cure to this problem is given by Spotify. Since its debut in 2006, a lot has happened, and the platform is now a household name in India. And all this was mainly possible because of the clever marketing campaign Spotify.

However, are you curious about how Spotify, a simple small startup became a leader in the global music streaming industry? Here is a case study on the marketing campaign of Spotify that will help you discover all of the information you need. Let’s get started!

About Spotify: The Music Streaming Giant

Spotify is a Swedish media streaming and music service provider that was launched in 2006 and has since been offering its users a selection of podcasts, recordings, and songs. Additionally, it dominates the digital audio streaming industry, competing directly with services like Apple Music and Google Play Music.

Spotify, which has its headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden, offers a massive selection of more than 70 million songs from a variety of different music companies and media organisations. The customers have easy access to the company’s huge online music and podcast collection, enabling them to enjoy any of their preferred songs whenever they want.

The best feature of Spotify is that it is totally free to access. However, it offers a very cost-effective premium subscription option that allows users to experience its vast library of music without being interrupted by advertisements. This clever marketing campaign of Spotify is called the “Freemium model”.

Why Does Spotify Do Marketing?

In 2008, the most important marketing campaign of Spotify advertising was introduced. Despite being produced on a small scale, it generated a lot of market talk. After 15 years, the corporation still largely relies on themed ad campaigns and it’s freemium model to market the brand. They are the most important element of the case study on the marketing campaign of Spotify. 

Spotify offers a freemium tier on mobile devices, desktop computers, and even laptops. Every three to five songs, users will hear an advertisement. The purpose of these adverts is to bring in money for the business. No free user is able to skip the advertisement, listen on shuffle mode, or even just skip tracks without an advertisement.

Collaboration with musicians is the other method of marketing campaign of Spotify advertising, that is employed on a regular basis. This broadens their reach and provides them with exclusive stuff. Spotify makes the artist’s content more available to their audience by including free audio and visual components in their tracks. It is a key factor in why more and more musicians, big and small, want Spotify to broadcast their songs.

Top 8 Marketing Campaigns by Spotify  

Spotify has established a brand identity on its own. The brand has become something akin to the “King” of the streaming music sector, mostly as a result of its innovative podcast branding initiatives and witty marketing campaign of Spotify. So what makes Spotify advertising initiatives so unique? Let’s look at it.

Personalised yearly #Wrapped campaign

Since 2016, Spotify Wrapped has been providing customers with a musical year in summary. The yearly round-up has evolved into a go-to for consumers with information on playing hours, top musicians, and a compilation of their top 100 tracks. 

It has also proven to be a wonderful marketing campaign of Spotify to attract new subscribers and keep them in the loop for a longer period of time. In the first week of December 2020, engagement on the Spotify app increased by 21%, according to Protocol, as a response to the launch of Spotify Wrapped.

‘There’s a playlist for that’ ad campaign

After entering the market in India in February 2019, Spotify launched its first marketing campaign of Spotify. The first Spotify branding campaign in India focused on the marketing campaign of discovering over 3 billion tracks to perfectly complement a user’s wide range of everyday activities. 

The “There’s A Playlist For That” Spotify advertising campaign was a highly customized out-of-home (OOH) and digital marketing campaign that was tailored to each user’s location and preferences. Additionally, it was geo-targeted based on cities, suburbs, and significant traffic crossings, with one-liners that highlight excitable cultural subtleties and genuine real-life scenarios.

The Spotify moods and moments advert

Spotify started a unique campaign to show how music may improve emotions and have an effect on one’s emotional state at certain times. The fact that the ad campaign is multilingual is its best feature. These Spotify branding ads ran simultaneously in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam on various TV channels. 

The Spotify advertising campaign, which employs the slogan “mood toh tabhi banega, jab Spotify chalega,” makes use of everyday scenarios including a heartbreak, a house party, and a long drive to demonstrate how a song can drastically alter a listener’s emotions.

Becoming the broadcast sponsor of IPL 2022

IPL has played a significant role in Spotify India’s advertising initiatives. While they have advertised on IPL on TV in past seasons, they have joined as a Broadcast Sponsor on Star Sports for IPL 2022. The industry leader in music streaming, Spotify, stated that the goal of their campaign was to maximise the significance of music in daily life. 

The IPL format allows the company a chance to incorporate itself into the general public’s lifestyle. The brand’s IPL sponsorship campaign illustrates how, when viewed through the perspective of music, every situation can be improved.

Spotify Rap 91 live event

Numerous well-known rap artists as well as many upcoming rappers performed at the recently finished Spotify Rap 91 Live event. According to a previous interview with the music streaming service Spotify, “The Rap 91 Live” would be a festival of hip hop. It featured more than 20 musicians from all around India, both well-known and up-and-coming. 

The festival was successful in combining hip hop music, entertainment, and street art. It was one of the biggest promotional events for Spotify ever held in India, and it succeeded in drawing a sizable crowd to the venue.

“Only you” ad campaign by Spotify

Personalization, or producing tailored content for customers, is crucial to being a dominant commercial player in a crowded industry. Across over 70 million songs and 2.6 million podcast episodes to choose from, there is constantly something unique to find, share, and cherish, but Spotify advertising recognises that no one really listens very much like you. 

In order to celebrate this, they’ve started the “Only You” initiative, a global promotion that includes an in-app engagement and customised playlists. It makes sure that each person receives content that is customised to their listening preferences.

Spotify’s ‘All ears on you’ campaign

The “All Ears On You” campaign by Spotify advertising took home the B2B Brand of the Year award at The Drum Awards for B2B 2022. The All Ears on You narrative shows a variety of listeners thoroughly engrossed in their individual Spotify jam sessions while doing everything from grooving out to deep meditation to relieving stress when stuck in traffic. 

Everybody travels at their own pace and hears the surroundings through digital audio. This ad recognizes the upcoming artists in every way, from the creative direction to the background soundtrack composition.

Building successful partnerships with other brands

A corporate collaboration has the ability to expand into new areas and Spotify is the market leader in this category, that too on a global scale. 76 businesses from all over the world are a member of Spotify’s partnership network as of 2022. 

Yet the Spotify and Starbucks crossover continues to be the crowd favourite among these incredible partnerships. Starbucks mobile app users received custom compilations and won drink rewards if they purchased a Spotify premium subscription. Consumer engagement was promoted by this creative relationship, which ultimately benefited both organisations.

Key Takeaways 

Spotify continuously strives to outperform its rivals with its creative podcast advertising strategies. The team hopes to employ their unique “Spotify advertising” solutions to increase both the number of active monthly users and premium subscribers. Today, it is unquestionably among the top music streaming services on the market and it is much obvious that the brand still has a lot of room to flourish and discover new prospects.