A Lesson in Personalisation: Spotify Wrapped
Each December, a global phenomenon reignites: Spotify Wrapped. The extremely successful campaign, launched in over 30 markets this year, has grown year upon year, becoming more interactive and user-oriented than ever. The Wrapped campaign gives Spotify users an in-depth look at their year in music, collating data such as most-streamed artist, song, and recently, even podcast.
What is most impressive about Wrapped is the personalisation. In a world where data is collected prolifically, Spotify manages to turn our data into an experience that users want to be a part of. All this data makes personalisation even easier to achieve, but few brands do it as well as Spotify. Users want to feel special; personalised marketing can be critical in encouraging a customer to buy into a brand. Nowadays, the ‘Hi [name]’ customisation isn’t enough. Look no further for a case study into personalisation than Spotify Wrapped.
This year's iteration of Wrapped saw newly added gamification and other elements to augment the experience. A two-truths-and-a-lie-style game has been added, where users are presented with three data pieces based on their listening history and they must guess which is the false data point. Audio auras were also newly included, where consumers can see the colours of their aura based on their top two music moods of the year. Over 170 artists also appeared in Artist Videos this year, which thanked users for their streams when the artist appears in their Wrapped playlist. And of course, a staple Wrapped 2021 playlist featuring all your most-played songs this year is available to all users.
When the campaign launches each December, Instagram and other social feeds are flooded with users sharing their auditory facts of the year. Of course, this is evidence of the impact of the campaign. It is obviously a major success. So where does the success lie? What is Spotify doing so differently in the personalisation space compared to other brands?
It must be something to do with the data. There is something to be said about collecting data that users actually want to share. Collecting the right data seems to give the impression that there is some sort of trade-off between Spotify and the user: data for an immaculate, exciting and fine-tuned snapshot of your year in music. Users are getting genuine value for their data, and it’s being presented to us in a way that doesn’t feel invasive.
Spotify excels in this area of the data-value trade. The Wrapped campaign gives users a visualisation of their data in a way that is accessible, and most importantly, fun. The type of data collected allows for the creation of entertaining content which by its nature is hugely personal, and innately sharable. Coupled with entertaining graphics and catchy copy (which this year was decidedly more meme-driven) Spotify has managed to encourage users to engage on a more social level, resulting in a plethora of user-generated content each year. Purely from a brand awareness perspective alone, the benefits of UGC are enormous. In 2020, Spotify app downloads increased by 21% after Wrapped, suggesting that UGC played an important role in influencing those who didn’t already use the popular streaming service to make the switch.
Spotify’s Wrapped is a lesson in tasteful personalisation. Data collection is happening around consumers constantly; while it makes personalisation possible, no other brand does personalisation quite like Spotify. By creating a campaign that consumers actively want to engage with, Spotify has managed to build a strong brand-following. The right kind of data has been taken and transformed into an individualised snapshot of the year: it is a next-level use of data, done in a way that is fun and morphs each user into a Spotify influencer.
With the huge successes of the Spotify Wrapped campaign, it is useful to analyse it and consider what they are doing right. As more and more brands hop on the personalisation trend, we can see that the way Spotify does it still reigns. Consumers aren’t just given a playlist of their most streamed songs anymore; audio auras, gamification, and Artist Videos are all a part of what can be expected from their Spotify Wrapped each year. The Wrapped campaign is one that constantly evolves, giving users something unexpected, but still always hinging on a high-degree of personalisation.
It’s food for thought: how can we take the inspiration from Spotify Wrapped and integrate it into our own work?