How Spotify turned user data into a cultural phenomenon
Perhaps the most successful example ever of a company leveraging customer data to create valuable (and shareable) content.
Context
In 2016, Spotify had billions of data points about their users’ listening habits, but no idea what to do with it all except use them to improve their music recommendation algorithms.
Objectives
- Increase sign ups
- Increase switchers from Apple Music to Spotify
- Increase organic social mentions of Spotify
- Increase perceived differentiation from rivals, such as Apple Music
Insight
After a small first attempt at Wrapped, the brand realised their broad audience of music-lovers was united by a love of sharing their music tastes online.
Strategy
They turned the initial tests into a shareable, data-driven experience for users to shout about themselves and the brand.
In 2019, Spotify began modelling Spotify Wrapped after social media stories, allowing the data to easily be shared on Instagram.
Since then, Spotify have continued to introduce new metrics, podcast listening figures, digital badges, quizzes and personalised playlists. Each element is designed to enhance an already viral mechanism.
Outcome
Nearly 10 years later, in 2022, there were 425 million tweets about Spotify Wrapped within 3 days of its annual launch.
The work
