In late 2014, music streaming service Spotify was planning its Canadian launch. Although early adopters were excited about Spotify's arrival in Canada, research showed most Canadians were unfamiliar with the music streaming category, let alone Spotify. Moreover, the nascent space already had established players (YouTube, Songza, Rdio). These existing platforms, however, were making largely functional pitches of their services, devoid of emotional or local context.
The :Music for your World" campaign, by Anomaly, used a combination of meticulously prepared Spotify neighbourhood insights, first-party data and influencer input to promote playlists tailored to Canada's highest streaming neighbourhoods. The agency used this information to map the targets' listening habits, tracing them back to their daily routines and pairing these findings with hyper local insights (beyond just music) to create a campaign that held a mirror up to their lives.
The challenge for Spotify's launch to establish it as the platform of choice anytime and anywhere music is consumed, and to show Spotify truly understands Canadians.
Quantitative research showed that the majority of Canadians search for and listen to music based on moods (happy, sad, feeling blue) and moments (party, waking up). They use music to add layers that uplift or motivate, get the party started, or help them unwind during their commute home. In short, they looked for content that is personal, meaningful, and relevant.
With this in mind, the team looked deep into Spotify's data and found something truly remarkable. Spotify could tell what people were listening to and where, right down to a neighbourhood. No matter what the neighbourhood, the Spotify insights team could determine the most streamed songs in that area. This would allow the team to show Canadians that not only did the brand understand how they used music, and get what they listened to, but also that it understands the role it plays in their lives.
Anomaly also carried out extensive research in each target city to find local insights around which each creative element would be created. Spotify was promising "Music for Your World" so the brand had to know this "world" inside and out or risk coming off as inauthentic and out of touch with our target.
Each piece of creative was crafted to a local insight and a corresponding moment to ensure contextual and behavioural relevance. Some examples included riding the 504 streetcar in Toronto, sitting in traffic on the Lions Gate Bridge in Vancouver, and drinking Caesars in Calgary.
The result was the creation of more than 30 playlists, curated to match iconic Canadian neighbourhoods and based on the actual music listened to by the people who live there. It was a campaign that celebrated Canadian neighbourhoods through music, while showcasing Spotify as being more than just a streaming service, providing music to soundtrack almost any aspect of your world.
Within days of launch, there was an almost immediate spike in activity across all of the custom playlists. "Canada's Playlist" (one of the custom campaign playlists) rose to be the second most streamed playlist on Spotify by the end of the campaign, and overall streaming in Canada (on Spotify) increased by 71% vs. the previous period.
Throughout its two months in market, the "Music for Your World" campaign saw daily registrations increase by 21% vs. the previous period. During the campaign period, the Spotify app moved to the number one position among music streaming apps across both iOS and Android. The net promoter score also rose to 30 points among the brands monthly active users.
