This article appears in the March/April issue of strategy.

SILVER: Matching Message to Medium
AGENCY | Anomaly

SITUATION ANALYSIS | Spotify launched its first Canadian campaign in May 2015. Most Canadians were unfamiliar with the music streaming category, let alone the Spotify brand, and among those most likely to use a music streaming service, there were already established competitors like Songza, Rdio and SoundCloud.

INSIGHT & STRATEGY | Music has the ability to change listeners’ experience of the world around them. Spotify could quantify this through its platform by identifying what each of its users was listening to, when they listened and how often. And, uniquely, it could identify where consumers were listening, down to the neighbourhood.

EXECUTION | “Music For Your World” was created with playlists customized for Canadians based on where they lived.

Running from May to June 2015 and supported by a $250,000 budget, the campaign ran nationally across digital and OOH. Over 30 neighbourhood playlists were developed and every element of the campaign was driven by real-time data. Influencers were asked to add to their neighbourhood’s playlist and promote it. Customized ads ran on billboards and on transit in the neighbourhoods celebrated in the playlists to promote them.

RESULTS | Daily registrations for Spotify increased 21%, more than double the 10% target. Spotify moved from number three to number one in App Store downloads (among music streaming apps). Overall streaming in Canada on Spotify increased by 71% versus the previous period.

The campaign generated over 30 million impressions, fuelling an increase in brand awareness from 38% to 58% versus the previous period. The brand’s net promoter score increased from 15% to 25%.

Cause & Effect | There was no change in distribution as Spotify had been available in Canada prior to the campaign launch.