Classes on Profitable Marketing Methods

In the past two weeks, more than 381 million people around the world have been asked “How did you sound in 2021?” When accessing the Spotify app, the world’s most popular and widely used streaming service.

This is indeed a question that makes the user curious to get to know themselves better and, in most of them, a desire to share their results with friends and family. After all, it’s yours Spotify Wrapped To let you know that all of these dates are unique in 2021.

Since its release in 2015, Spotify Wrapped has become a December tradition expected by streaming users around the world. Besides, it’s a Growth hacking strategy as self-confident as the choice of “All I Want for Christmas Is You” for the soundtrack for the Christmas family dinner.

The experience, launched on December 1st, provides information on the top songs, artists and Podcasts heard by the user all year round. In addition to the creative ways this data was presented in previous versions of the platform, this year Gamification and connectivity were the highlights of the retrospective.

What makes this wrapped so attractive for the user is the hashtag #SpotifyWrapped, a global trend. This helped the app climb from 15th to second in number of downloads within hours of its launch. How did user popularity pull in massive results for the brand in December and help it establish itself? Q4 as the company’s largest quartersays CEO Daniel Ek?

I believe that the way Spotify collects, presents, and interacts with data with its users can be seen as a successful process that can teach businesses and marketers around the world a look behind the scenes. This can also apply to your own strategies.

If you’re a Spotify listener too, head over to the app, hit play in your “Your Top Songs 2021” custom playlist, and follow me.

Data collection for data-driven experiences

You can use the music streaming platform all year round and provide specific data on your music taste, podcast preferences and length of stay in the app.

Spotify, a pioneer in sophisticated and assertive methods, shares key insights into their behavior with users. This often motivates users to share the results on their social networks so that all of their followers can interact in a variety of ways.

Some would say that this is a risky strategy as the company is openly showing that it is collecting and analyzing personal data in order to promote the platform. But the company managed to make Spotify Wrapped the streaming giant’s secret growth hack.

But what makes it so effective?

These factors can help answer this question:

Use smart data for gamification

The brand is able to leverage data and BI that the platform already understands through its users to provide personalized gamification.

Surveys suggest that interactive content is a great source of engagement and conversion results for marketing strategies. This blog post explains the validity and importance of quiz questions: The quiz format was a good catch in 2021.

Creating hype and predictability in the market

Since 2015 Spotify has consistently launched this feature within the first days of December, Spotify Wrapped is now an action expected by users – and also by the media and press.

This creates expectations between the listeners and consequently a lot of hype about the topic at this time. The brand is therefore able to work with the predictability of the market itself, based on the increase in visibility that comes from the personalized use of their user data. Then Spotify can devise specific strategies to grow and implement at another convenient time.

Free custom resources for the user

At the end of the interactive experience, the user receives content specially created for him with the help of automated algorithms. In 2021, the company went beyond playlists of top songs or artists: it created the 2021 Wrapped Hub, which offers a variety of personalized, data-driven, and editorially curated content.

In other words, after dipping information about a user’s favorites into the app, the brand is still presenting to users a free resource to keep them involved and engaged. Does this sound familiar to you, marketer?

Presentation of usage behavior

One of the main focuses of the chosen format for presenting Spotify Wrapped is to grab the user’s attention and inspire him with information about himself that makes him feel unique and as a member of certain groups at the same time.

But the entire user experience during the retrospective was built from key points that are essential to the success of this strategy.

Take a look at some details:

With words of encouragement and empathy

Effective catchphrases are hits in Hollywood films, bumper stickers and apparently also in this year’s Spotify Wrapped.

“In 2021 you did what you had to do”; “You always understood the task”; and “You deserve a playlist as long as your skin care routine,” each showing empathy and connection with the user.

Curiosity to double-check what is said is piqued almost immediately, increasing the time Spotify listeners are interacting with and immersed in the experience.

Divisibility: beautiful colors and design

The information on user behavior is presented in a highly shareable, attractive and colorful format. Various animations and interactions are provided during the slide show, always together with the most popular songs by the user and with a very clear call-to-action button: “Share this story“To further increase the reach of the brand through likes and shares on social media.

Have you ever thought of creating content that is so good that users and customers can share it on different channels for free? That’s what Spotify users do.

Word of mouth: Create free advertising

The data collected by Spotify throughout the year and shared in the retrospective give its users curious insights that are ultimately the subject of many discussion groups (in my family, for example, nobody was impressed that the Beatles are at the top artist from my retrospective, but my mom, who was a 0.5% Alok listener, made me realize that she would be great company for my next disco party).

This increases word of mouth marketing advertising and spreads the brand’s services more among current and future users without investing directly in advertising. This is surely one of the most positive free ad campaigns ever!

Interaction: with the brand, users and artists

After a time when the digital became essential to maintaining personal and professional relationships, this year’s Spotify Wrapped brought opportunities for interactions and connections between users, artists and the brand. This action determined that Spotify Wrapped is one of the company’s greatest marketing achievements.

But how did you do it?

Get closer to who you are listening to

Working with more than 170 content creators on the music streaming platform, Spotify has added artist and podcaster videos thanking their fans for hearing so much that it appeared on users’ profiles.

In doing so, the company inspires other brands too Develop strategies with real people. A video in which your team thanks customers for the year-round partnership, for example, could be a good alternative.

See what you and your friends have in common

A feature in this year’s Spotify Wrapped is the use of common slang and terms that people search for frequently search engines. This increases the users’ closeness to the brand and, by sharing the content, the company receives even more free advertising.

Another Spotify wrapped message advocating this was the introduction of the 2021 Wrapped Blend, a feature that allows the user to see their music tastes match those of friends for 2021, stream their mixed playlist and share their results on social media. Another great incentive for people to interact with the brand’s content.

Spread the word: Share on social networks

Similar to the numbers of the digital market is the exponential growth in the use of TikTok platform couldn’t go unnoticed by Spotify. In addition to the Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook channels, every Spotify Wrapped slide can be shared by the user on TikTok this year.

With this function, the company shows that it is following market trends and implementing its strategies different channelsalbeit indirectly. A reminder that new channels can be a source of good opportunities.

Music, Marketing and Data

After a few years of the hype promoted by this promotion, I am happy to share my insights on why Spotify Wrapped is a success, not only with its users, but also as a complete marketing strategy of collecting, presenting and sharing data organically and with free advertising.

I hope you are also inspired by Spotify’s strategies and can implement some of my tips in your own business.
Please let me know if you are one of the Beatles’ top listeners and have any other questions about music, Spotify, marketing, or this article.