2018 Wrapped: How Spotify nailed personalised marketing

The best gifts are gifts are those that have been chosen or curated especially for you, with your personal tastes and interests in mind. This year Spotify nailed the art of giving with their 2018 Wrapped campaign, a lesson in the power of personalised marketing if there ever was one.

Spotify Wrapped is an end-of-year event in which the Spotify unveils listening data from throughout the year. The first part of this campaign was a series of outdoor media advertising looking back on yearly music trends. The second part was an individual event, in which Spotify subscribers receive their personalised listening data from the past year.

So why is Spotify Wrapped so successful, and what can we learn from it?

It’s Timely

The end of the year is a time for wrapping up and reflecting on the highs and the lows of the past 12 months.  Tapping into this wider consciousness at the opportune time is one of the reasons Spotify’s 2018 Wrapped campaign was so successful – it’s timely. “Our users have come to expect the year-end ‘Wrapped’ campaign year after year, “June Sauvaget, Spotify’s global head of consumer marketing.

Spotify’s omnichannel approach shows a strategic method of building hype and awareness of the campaign. While the outdoor media campaign focuses on wider listening habits and statistics of listeners – speaking to a wider cultural lexicon – it creates anticipation for the personal 2018 Wrapped release which was strategically promoted across social media (generally a channel for more personalised comms).

Like 💚 to get a reminder for your #2018Wrapped from @Spotify on December 6th. pic.twitter.com/3hANiMIWrM

— Spotify (@Spotify) November 28, 2018

It’s Personalised

So what makes people excited to see their listening habits from the past 12 months? Two words here – data storytelling.“With more listeners and better data, we were able to give fans a tailored experience, showing that Spotify really gets them,” Spotify wrote in a post last year. Amidst a sea of messaging, customers increasingly expect personalised and relevant content. Here we see the old adage hold true – content is king. We see the most successful campaigns moving away from the ‘blanket approach’, giving way to contextually relevant and personalised stories. Basic personalisation doesn’t cut it anymore (for example, using a customer’s first name in an eDM) with 52% of consumers stating they would share personal data in exchange for product recommendations. For marketers, it’s a win-win.

Chiara, our Content Marketing Manager, shares her Spotify 2018 Wrapped!

It’s Shareable

[Our users] are eager to see how their interactions on Spotify connect to what is happening across the global Spotify community,” Sauvaget, notes. The idea of being able to connect with a wider community who share the same interests and passions is the third contributing factor to the success of Spotify’s 2018 Wrapped campaign. With 26% of women and 20% of men looking for more ways to connect with multiple friends at once, we see a general shift towards the idea of finding a ‘tribe.’ Spotify simply create a space for listeners to congregate and share.

Thank you @thehunnaband for spending 100 hours with me this year on @Spotify. You are my #1. #2018Wrapped https://t.co/rvJYVEs13T <3

— m (@mutegirl69) December 20, 2018

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