In today’s time, Spotify is emerging to be one of the widely used marketing and advertising tools. According to a Statista report, the Spotify marketing investment by brands rose from 826 Million to 1029 Million euros in 2020.
This is a huge leap and the leap continues to get bigger as more brands are resorting to Spotify advertising for advertising themselves.
So, I thought, why not give you some more understanding of Spotify marketing. This is what I am aiming to do today.
However, before going into that, let’s first learn some more about Spotify.
What Kind of Platform is Spotify?
Spotify is a music, video, and podcast service. It allows its users to access millions of songs and other types of content from varied creators all around the globe.
Spotify was founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is considered to be the world’s largest streaming platform.
As per data by Statista, Spotify has 158 million premium subscribers worldwide. It has the largest number of subscribers currently.
The basic function of Spotify is streaming music. This service by Spotify is free but it also gives you a chance to opt for Spotify premium for availing of upgraded service.
Even if you haven’t opted for the premium service you can still get recommendations based on your taste. You still can build a collection of songs and podcasts as per your choice and many more things.Â
Spotify is available across a varied range of devices which include computers, mobiles, laptops, tablets, speakers, TVs, cars. You can easily transition from one to the other with the Spotify connect.
Spotify also partnered with Facebook in 2011. This step by Spotify helped it to garner greater engagement and saw an upsurge in its user base.
Later in 2012, it also partnered with Instagram which increased its exposure beyond imagination.
Can Brands Use Spotify for Marketing?
Yes, brands can use Spotify for marketing. With such large subscribers and user base, it is a great platform to get engagement for your brand.
Some brands are already using it to promote themselves. You won’t believe the results of marketing here are exciting and eye-opening.
It can be a gold mine for brands as it holds innumerable power to market your product.
Besides popular social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, Spotify is the new emerging trend for brand marketing.
It is safe to say that Spotify has changed the way of consuming music and other audio content.Â
Your brand can also go for marketing on Spotify. Look at the pointers below to get the answer.
Access to a Wide Range of Audiences
With such a high user base, your marketing efforts on this platform won’t go in vain.
It can help the brands get a deep audience insight based on their music consumption through this platform.Â
Spotify’s streaming intelligence reveals your audience’s tastes and behavior and helps you target them in a more defined manner. Further making your brand a popular one.
Redefines Storytelling and Gives Personalized Experience
Spotify helps you in redefining your storytelling process and opens up doors for personalization.
With the coming up of podcasts and audiobooks, the way of music consumption changed a lot. It has allowed brands to market their product by storytelling in a very different format.
The basics of storytelling are the same but the new format has opened up opportunities for brands.
Apart from this, your brand can now look at varied kinds of personalization techniques to offer the best to your audiences.Â
You can analyze the streaming data of your users and predict their interests and behavior. Based on it, your brand can create a more personalized marketing campaign for your users.
Growth in Streaming Services
Another reason why brands can use Spotify for marketing is because of the massive growth in the platform.
Services of Spotify have exploded in recent years. So for brands, this platform can be an ocean of opportunities as more and more people are turning to it to consume varied types of content.
If your brand hasn’t tried this yet, then you need to go for it and feel the marketing excitement. I am sure the results will be mind-boggling.
Are Spotify Ads Worth it for Brands?
All platforms are worth it for advertising if targeted properly. It just needs a bit of a focused approach and well-defined goals.
With the huge support of users to this platform, Spotify ads are interesting in their approach to target the ideal audiences.
They not only provide interest to their audiences, but they also interest them in a real-time context.
So, when your target people are performing certain activities, it allows them to match your brand’s personality that can satisfy their needs.
If you have a robust understanding of your target audiences, then I am sure that Spotify ads can be the most effective step for your brand’s popularity.
Moreover, there is an option to set demographics and locations to target Spotify ads to the right audiences. This will help you and your brand to serve a relevant ad within that specified target area.
All it requires is your effort to find out your target audiences and hit the right platform. This will help you in garnering greater engagement and making your ad work wonders.
Why Should Spotify be a Part of Your Marketing Strategy?
We all know Spotify as one of the leading music streaming brands. However, the scope of Spotify isn’t just limited to that. Apart from blessing its users with incredible music collections from all over the world, Spotify also gives a floor for amazing marketing and advertising strategy execution to a brand.
I am sure you must be thinking there are so many digital marketing and advertising platforms all around already, what is the need to use Spotify too? You must also be wondering how it will be beneficial for your business.
Well, I will give you a few reasons why you should be incorporating Spotify marketing into your digital marketing and advertising plan of action.
1. You Can Have the First Step Ahead Here
Spotify marketing is fairly new. It wasn’t until Spotify introduced its Ad studio that Spotify marketing came to light. In 2017, Spotify launched Spotify Ad Studio which was exclusively functioning in the United States. However, as it started seeing some momentum, Spotify made it available to UK and Canada too.
Now, Spotify marketing is one of the most amazing marketing tools you can have as a part of your digital marketing strategy. A lot of brands still haven’t utilized the marketing aspect of Spotify.
This gives you an extra heads up. You know, we know and all of us know, Spotify will soon become one of the pioneers in the marketing and advertising industry. So, isn’t it better that your brand’s base is already set there? Something to think about?
2. Your Audience is Here, so, Why Aren’t You?
According to the latest data by Spotify, Spotify premium subscribers soared by 21% in 2021 to 158 Million subscribers. Not only this, the overall subscriber count grew by 24% to 356 Million subscribers. Â
This means that Spotify is not only growing, but growing at a momentum that is faster than ever. Furthermore, this means that your target audience is right here right now, and you need to be where your target audience is right?
3. Spotify Audience Will Listen to You
Now it is important to be where your audience is. However, it is also important to keep your audience engaged. This way, you will be heard, be seen, and be heard.
When I researched audience behavior across various digital marketing channels, I realized a very significant thing about audience behavior on Spotify.
They are far more attentive and engaged with an advertisement than any other channel. This means that Spotify users listen to the music, but they will also engage with the promotions your brand carries out in this channel.
Moreover, Spotify promotions are more audio-based. They run in between songs so as users are engrossed in the song they are listening to, it is more often a behavioral fact that the user will be listening to the ad and will retain it as well.
4. Spotify Opens Doors for Podcast Advertising as Well
Over the years, Spotify has come to become one of the leading Podcasting Platforms. Its popularity has increased so much that it is giving direct competition to the Apple Podcast.
Not only this, recently Spotify gave birth to its own Podcasting platform, Anchor. Furthermore, Spotify and Apple are always competing intensely with each other.
Just like us, they fight (not literally) when it comes to monetization of the podcasting and streaming platforms. When in 2019, Spotify had only 4,50,000 podcasts in its pocket, it has now grown to more than 2.2 million podcasts.
Many famous Podcast shows like Dax Shepard’s Arm Chair Expert are also moving their base from Apple podcast to Spotify Podcast. As a result, brands need to understand that Spotify provides immense opportunities.
This is not only limited to advertising on the streaming platform as a whole but also in the podcast advertising arena.
7 Examples of Brands Doing Spotify Marketing
While a lot of brands may not have tapped into the Spotify marketing, many other brands are already there and garnering much love from the audience.
Let’s see what magic these brands have created on Spotify.
Kentucky Fried Chicken
Major fast-food brands have been all into the chicken for a long time. But this brand, Kentucky Fried Chicken has stood up to all the tests successfully.
KFC not only adjusted itself into pop culture but has also remained people’s all-time favorite.
So, KFC France had come up with a Spotify playlist dubbed ‘Bucket Bangers’.
It featured songs from Kanye West, The Beastie Boys, and many more. All this referenced the fried chicken legend.
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola was the first brand to use Spotify’s sponsored session video ads.Â
Its ads allow users to experience 30-minutes of advertising-free listening in exchange for watching a short video.
Such a consumer-friendly option than a simple and traditional Spotify ad.
So, Coca-Cola was a very popular brand that garnered huge audience engagement in terms of its product marketing.
Reebok
Reebok launched a Spotify app called ReebokFitList. It successfully made a connection between the music and the exercise.
It provided people with a playlist of the best songs for doing yoga, running, and dancing.
Reebok also got some athletes as its sponsors to pitch in their most favorite workout music.Â
McDonald’s
McDonald’s has given all possible efforts on Spotify to reach young people.
This brand brought new and fresh content to its consumers by sponsoring ‘The Drop’. It is a website where Spotify releases photos, videos, and playlists from popular artists.
This brand also created the ListenInApp which also allowed its people to see songs among their Facebook friends.
Jose Cuervo
This brand launched a campaign to reach out to college students in the UK. It asked the students to submit their best playlist from all around the country.
Then the public was asked to vote for their favorite music track where they will get a chance to earn a free party with DJ sets by members of Hot Chip and the Maccabees.
This campaign became very popular and got 270,000 views on Spotify. The sales drove up by 220% at the school that won the party.
Barilla
An Italian food company, Barilla, created a series of playlists that lasts the same time the listeners take to cook their desired pasta.Â
This garnered huge popularity in terms of enjoying music and cooking.
Barillas’ playlist spans all types of pasta shapes and genres from ‘Boom Bap Fusilli’ to ‘Pleasant Melancholy Penne’.
Nike Run Club
Nike also came up with a workout playlist for its listeners. It is known as Nike’s Run Club’s workout playlist.
With a large customer base interested in fitness, Nike took the opportunity to curate its series of playlist for them to do the workout.
It kept on updating the public workout playlist with new and new energetic tracks to kickstart a good workout.
How can You Begin Marketing on Spotify? 3 Steps to Popularity
Now, we have understood that Spotify is here to stay. We have also established the fact that Spotify can greatly contribute to your brand’s marketing and advertising strategy. Now that all of that is pointed and proven, let me give you some starter tips for marketing on Spotify.
1. Take Your Pick of the Kind of Campaigns You Want to Run
Since we are on Spotify, most of the time our audience will be inclined to their auditory senses. This means that we can target them through audio ads. However, this does not mean that marketing and advertising on Spotify are limited to audio ads.
As the behavioral pattern of the audience on Spotify depicts that they are viewing their mobile screens too for selecting songs, display ads are another way you can send your brand’s message across to the audience.
Wait, there’s more. Like I said before, Spotify has grown to become one of the leading podcasting platforms. This means that the podcasting platform will also give your brand the opportunity to advertise. So, there is Podcast advertising as well.
2. Use the Tools Tailor-Made for Spotify Marketing
Now, we understand the kind of marketing campaigns we can run on Spotify. The next step is to find a quick, efficient and competent way to make our campaign one of the best.
This is where the tools and platforms come into the picture. Spotify is a very smart marketing and advertising platform. Just like the ad campaigns can be divided into audio, display, and podcast, there are specific tools for each such element of Spotify ads.
The Spotify Ad Studio
Suppose you have decided to opt for audio ad campaigns for your brand. Now, these audio campaigns will run in between songs. They will be probably 5-30 seconds long (depends on the investment and your discretion of course).
For this, Spotify has a specific platform called Spotify Ad Studio. In the Ad studio, you will find all the assistance you need to successfully publish an ad.
You can also get professional help if you want for the production and publishing of your ads on Spotify. Sounds so cool right?
Not only this, you will get a plethora of advertising options on this platform for brands. From audio ads, video ads, podcast ads to a whole customized plate of advertising and promotion, Spotify Ad studio will bless you with everything under one roof.
3. Create a Playlist That Shows Your Brand Personality
Your brand has a personality of its own. It has a voice, a way of operating, and a way of appearing in front of the audience. Anything you do, any tweet you make, any stand you take, you are always operating from a perception of your brand persona.
Therefore, why not incorporate it into your Spotify presence as well? Spotify allows brands to create a custom playlist that can be shared with their target audience. In this playlist, you can add the songs, your brand logo, brand text, and also any link.
Mind you, the songs you choose should be in alignment with your brand persona. This way, the audience who share similar song interests will be able to connect to you on a much deeper and personal level. You will be heard, be seen, and be loved.Â
So, Are You Adding Spotify to Your Marketing Plan?
Spotify is one of the best marketing platforms that I personally like. We all are connected through the magic of music and we all share views and opinions in podcasts. As a result, Spotify offers the brands to show themselves to their target audience in a way they have never seen before.
This will help you as a brand to develop a special place in your target customers’ minds, hearts, and souls. Through Spotify, you can open a pandora box of infinite marketing and advertising opportunities for your brand. So, are you ready for the task?
If you are feeling overwhelmed as to where, to begin with, your Spotify marketing, don’t worry. We are here to help. Let’s catch up over amazing songs and discuss the plan of action for your Spotify marketing campaign. Until next time folks.
Popular Spotify News
Spotify Wrapped: A Brilliant Marketing Strategy by Spotify
Spotify came up with a new overall digital branding and social media marketing strategy.
Did you hear about the Spotify wrapped? Spotify has wrapped in all your 2020 songs. It provides you to have a look at what you have been listening to for the past 11 months, which includes top-streamed tracks, bands, albums, podcasts, and more.
One of the most important aspects of marketing is social media marketing and #Spotify seems to be killing it here. It is easier for your customers to find and communicate with you when you have a Social Media presence.
Marketing on SM helps you to spread the word about your goods and mission on a much larger scale. Much like what Spotify did. They used all their SM channels to announce their new feature creating a hashtag #2020wrapped.
The ability to tell the values and story of your brand, no matter what platform you use is crucial and that’s when you rely on digital branding. Spotify knows how to keep the trend and they have proved them with all their campaigns and features.
Moreover, it is all-inclusive so it has a section for artists too.
FAQs
Can I Opt for Spotify Marketing Even if I Am Not in The Music Industry?
Absolutely. Spotify Marketing is open for all. Every brand be it an e-commerce brand or a media company can use Spotify marketing for their business.
Does Audio Advertising on Spotify be Enough for My Brand?
Audio Advertising on Spotify is one of the best ways to incorporate Spotify marketing into your brand’s digital marketing plan. The audience on Spotify pays a lot more attention to audio ads compared to other platforms. It is definitely one of the winners.
How Can I Tell my Audience I Have a Spotify Playlist?
You can combine the power of social media and Spotify and create magic. Once your brand has created a Spotify playlist you can post about it on your social media channels and provide the link to it as well. Then, you will be heard, be seen, and be loved.
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