Spotify Memes

We all enjoy funny memes, don't we? Many of us stream our music on Spotify as well. Even if you do not, I am certain you are aware of this music streaming platform. When all of us saw memes as a source of entertainment, Spotify took it a step further and used it as an advertising tool. But how did it work out for Spotify? Was it successful? Let's read along and find out!

Spotify Memes Campaign

Spotify's meme campaign is one of the best marketing ideas the company has come up with. They are funny and memorable. People found the meme billboards and their ideas very innovative. The meme campaign was a global brand campaign released by Spotify to strengthen its customer relationships. The campaign also hoped to gain new users.

The onset of 'meme culture' inspired Spotify's meme campaign. Spotify rolled it out in countries such as the U.K., the U.S., the Netherlands, Germany, Brazil, Mexico, France, Italy, etc. The campaign made use of integrated marketing techniques. Spotify used marketing channels such as print media and social media to promote this initiative.

"Music for every mood" and "What's next?" were the meme campaign's tag lines in different markets. The campaign published a series of memes with relatable everyday situations and a song title that fit the solution. The campaign showed that Spotify had a song for everyone despite their mood.¹

Spotify Meme Campaign Strategy

The Spotify meme campaign strategy was very successful and worked well in favor of Spotify. The campaign divided its market into two - the mature markets and the emerging markets. This division was to approach both markets the right way to gain the desired results.

Spotify's mature markets include Australia, Canada, Germany, the U.K., the U.S., the Netherlands, Sweden, and New Zealand. In such markets, the aim of the campaign was to strengthen the brand's bond with its millennial users and draw the attention of new potential users.

The "Music for every mood" campaign in these countries displayed billboards as the ones below:

or,

Television commercials were also released as part of the campaign to make people aware that Spotify had set playlists for their every mood.

For Spotify's emerging markets, such as Argentina, Brazil, Columbia, France, Italy, Indonesia, Thailand, South Africa, Spain, and the Philippines, the theme was "What's Next." With billboards featuring this theme, Spotify positioned itself as an attractive platform where all users could discover new music.

Spotify Meme Campaign Objectives

With memes being a unique marketing idea for Spotify, the campaign's main objective was to spread the message that the app had the right music for every mood. The billboards set up as a part of this campaign showed people that Spotify had songs to listen to, whether they were experiencing a breakup or wanted to party late at night. The app aimed to build a deeper connection with its users and attract more users to the streaming platform.

Spotify Marketing Campaigns

Spotify's popularity has constantly been increasing in the market over the years, and it is all thanks to Spotify's brilliant marketing campaigns. Spotify is noted for its very relatable and catchy holiday campaigns. The company comes up with a different theme for each campaign, striking a chord with the target audiences yearly.

Fig. 1 - Spotify marketing campaigns have been very creative and captivating over the years

Let us take a look at Spotify's marketing campaigns over the years.²

Spotify Marketing Campaigns: 2016

Spotify's 2016 ad campaign was titled: "Thanks 2016, it's been weird". This campaign was essentially data-driven. The people at Spotify very creatively used user data to design wholesome and captivating advertisements. The campaign benefitted from print media, social media, and websites. The 2016 campaign was a four-step program:

1. Social media and websites,

2. Personalized lists, and

3. Rewards.

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Spotify used their user's data to create unique billboards, such as the ones that read:

or,

These billboards were the very first step of the four-step marketing campaign. The print advertisements reflected the music culture and its role in people's lives in 2016. As demonstrated by the examples above, despite being a global campaign, Spotify localized these advertisements. Spotify set up the billboards designed based on the user's data in users' exact neighborhoods. This helped the viewers in resonating with the ads.

Social Media and Websites

Spotify told its users that "we are all a bit weird" with its marketing campaign. On social media platforms and websites, Spotify also pointed out that the music we listen to is weird. It showcased strange trends in the music industry that happened throughout the year; the odd spellings of album titles, the number of dances Drake needed in 2016, and 2016's top Justin Bieber songs on Spotify at the times of his different hairstyles.

Personalized Lists

The campaign's next step was to give users a feeling of personal connection with the brand. They achieved this by sending their users an email showing their personal recap of the year. The email had information about the user's favorite artist, the day they used the app the most, and a playlist created just for them that included their favorite songs. Over 30 million users opened these emails.

Rewards

The last step was to reward the users who streamed music more than most other users. Spotify teamed with top artists to reward their biggest fans. "Trapping paper" was gifted to listeners who streamed trap music most often. "Trapping paper" was essentially wrapping paper with illustrations of top trap music artists. Artist Sia's top fans were gifted Santa hats with her iconic black and platinum-colored hair. Spotify gave Shawn Mendes's fans Shawn Mendes Christmas sweaters. These are a few of the gifts the top Spotify listeners received. These rewards were announced through videos that received over 10 million views.

Over 15,000 news articles covered this campaign. As a result of the campaign, over 1 billion songs were streamed, and Spotify generated 1.2 billion impressions.³

Spotify Marketing Campaigns: 2017-2018

Remember when "#goals" was probably the most popular hashtag? People used them frequently on social media - #relationshipgoals, #lifegoals, #friendshipgoals, and so on. Spotify saw this as an opportunity to make their marketing campaigns more fun and relevant among their users. During the Christmas season of 2017, their billboards highlighted their goals for 2018, revealing a few not-so-common habits of the app's users again.

A billboard read:

or

This campaign significantly increased Spotify's number of subscribers and brand awareness.

Spotify Marketing Campaigns: 2018

"#2018Wrapped" was the title of Spotify's 2018 campaign. This campaign focused on showing people the various playlists created by the users. They selected funny and creative titles made by users for their song or podcast playlists. This campaign, too, like the 2016 campaign, was a global one localized to its markets. Some of the interesting billboards released during this campaign include:

and,

Spotify Marketing Campaigns: 2019

Spotify's 2019 marketing campaign was titled "Music for every mood." Read more about this campaign under Spotify Meme Campaign Strategy.

Spotify Marketing Campaigns: 2020

Similar to the 2018 campaign, the 2020 campaign was titled "2020Wrapped." This campaign was similar to the 2018 campaign - it gave users a glimpse into how their year with Spotify was. The brand also touched on relevant topics and social issues of 2020. This campaign raised the app's mobile downloads by 21% in the first week of December and increased the monthly users by 29% compared to 2019.⁴

A billboard released by Spotify during this campaign read:

The Neil Young Spotify memes were viral all over social media during the early months of 2022. Neil Young published an open letter against Spotify, criticizing the company. He accused a podcaster, Joe Rogan, of spreading misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine (Joe Rogan is a podcaster who streams his podcasts on Spotify).

Neil Young said people might lose their lives if they believed misinformation. He announced that the platform could either stream his music or Joe Rogan's podcasts.

As a response, a Spotify spokesperson replied: "We want all the world music and sound available to Spotify users...We regret Neil's decision to remove his music from Spotify, but we hope to receive it soon." Spotify chose Rogan over Young, which led to the beginning of Neil Young's Spotify memes.⁵

Some of the memes read:

or,

or, my personal favorite,

Can you remember any of these viral Neil Young Spotify memes? Which is your favorite Spotify marketing campaign?