Ad of the Day: Spotify Wrapped returns with new interactive activations
The streaming platform has introduced playful features this year, including a massive OOH crossword in LA.
Taylor Swift was the most viral artist globally this year / Spotify
Today marks the launch of Spotify’s much-anticipated annual Wrapped campaign. As is tradition, users will be able to see which artists they’ve personally streamed the most over the past 12 months and share them with friends on social media.
This year, however, the platform has introduced a couple of new touches to increase interactivity. “For many years, Wrapped has been a one-way street,” said Alex Bodman, vice-president and global executive creative director at Spotify. “We give millions of people their Wrapped and they talk about it. But this year, wrapped is going both ways. It’s all about interactivity and play.”
Coinciding with the typical personalized cards, participants will also be shown their ‘listening personalities,’ which use music habits to generate a personality profile, and fans will be able to unlock a Snapchat lens that reflects this.
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There are also various out-of-home (OOH) murals and billboards dotted around major cities, inviting people to work out the top streamed artists through a giant crossword (spoiler alert – it’s Bad Bunny for the third year in a row).
“Planning for Wrapped begins in December the year before,” explained Bodman. “One thing we learned is that 2022 is about emergence. We’ve emerged into a reality of culture hyperdrive, where everything is happening all at once. And as we’ve entered the world again, we suddenly found ourselves questioning everything.”
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Taking the data one step further, Spotify is also able to share how many times users played a specific song and on which day it was streamed the most. If you’re someone whose music habits change throughout the day depending on your mood, that will also be pinpointed for the first time this year.
Everything in the campaign can be shared across WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Instagram DMs, including video messages from the likes of Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish and Shania Twain thanking fans for their support. As Spotify’s vice-president of product development Donna Romer puts it, they are using wrapped to “drive even deeper connections between artists and fans.”
To excite football fans even further amid the World Cup festivities, there’s also a partnership with Barcelona FC where various top footballers share their own Wrapped results.
Lastly, Spotify Island will be live on Roblox as of today. According to the brand, it’s the “first time that a music-streaming service has established a presence” on the gaming platform.
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Credits
Vice-president, global executive creative director: Alex Bodman
Global head of brand design: Rasmus Wangelin
Brand design director: Bruno Borges
Copywriter lead: Chris Monk
Creative direction: Chelsea Alburger and Greg Edwards
Vice-president, global brand: Alexandra Tanguay
Senior director, brand, community and culture: Lauren Solomon
Associate director, brand: Payman Kassaie
Brand lead: Angela Leffell
Brand manager: Nicole Roman
Director of production: Lauren Keller
Global marketing: Dayna Tran, Rohit Gandhi and Darcy Hargadon
Global media: Shannen Boynton, Danielle DePiano and Karima Taalbi
Global social: Elissa Ayadi, Trischa Gamus and Allen Chen
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