Madi Edwards
5 April 2023
Persuasion Methods
Campaign Case Study
Social Media Campaign Case Study Spotify Wrapped
Campaign Overview
Spotify is a company that transformed the way we listen to music when they began operations in 2008. Their mission is to “Unlock the potential of human creativity – by giving a million creative artists the opportunity to live off their art and billions of fans the opportunity to enjoy and be inspired by it.” (Spotify, 2023). Spotify is known as one of the world’s most popular streaming service which includes music, podcast, shows and audiobooks.
Spotify Wrapped is a tool that Spotify launched so that their users can see their listening history of the last twelve months. This allows their users to share their top-ranked artist and songs to multiple social media platforms, such as, Twitter, Instagram Stories, Facebook, and other social platforms. Spotify first launched their Spotify Wrapped campaign in 2015 and has continue to do it annually ever since. “What started as a simple data share to reward existing Spotify listeners by showing what they played in the previous year and how much is now a full-blown holiday tradition.” (Shalvoy, 2021) Since the launch of the campaign, each year Spotify creates new creative features to show their users unique listening history. In the 2022 Spotify Wrapped, they included a new feature that shows the users their listening personalities based on how they listened to music through 2022. Each year, Spotify adds unique features to make sure each user’s Spotify Wrapped feels personal to them.
The purpose of Spotify Wrapped is to provide a unique experience to their users that they can share with others and overall allow their users to have an experience that keeps them coming back yearly. Spotify’s overall target audience are those who listen to music, which is almost every individual in the world. Their target audience has nothing to do with race, education, or wealth status, it all has to do with if someone enjoys listens to music, podcasts, or audiobooks. With the creation of Spotify Wrapped, their target audience is to those who are already users of the app and those who do not currently use their app. This unique feature allows those who are users to share their data and persuade non-users without them even knowing. Those who do not use the app, would be persuaded to become a user so that they can see their personalize data and have access to this unique feature. The reason this helps target non-users, according to Spotify’s global head of consumer and product marketing, June Sauvaget, is because “This also creates this FOMO effect that happens and that inherently entices new users to consider Spotify, so it’s a flywheel effect,” (Swant, 2019). Spotify continues to do their annual wrap to generate a unique user experience and to help attract new users.
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Campaign Message Analysis
1. https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRcE12CH/
The purpose of this TikTok video that Spotify posted of their interview with singer, Charli XCX, was to promote that famous artists use their app. Charli XCX is a famous singer, which means she has following and can use her following to influence others. In this video, Charli talks about her top songs of 2022 from her Spotify Wrapped and how she’s shocked about what her top song is since she didn’t feel she listened to it as much as she did. I believe Spotify using a famous artist to talk about Spotify Wrap helps provide awareness to who all uses Spotify. Let’s say this is your favorite artist, you could be influenced to get Spotify to see and share your top artist the next year just like Charli did.
The persuasive theory that would best apply to this video would be the Elaboration Likelihood Model. The use of liking cues can be found in this video. If people who are fans of Charli XCX sees this video of her talking about the songs that were her top songs of the year due to Spotify Wrapped, they could be persuaded to become a user of Spotify so they can see their top songs just like her. Even if the person who watches this video is already a user of Spotify, this could encourage them to share their Wrapped results bringing more awareness to their followers about the unique feature they have for their users. Overall, this video is to persuade people into wanting to use the unique feature and to share it across their platforms.
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This post is an Instagram carousal post that Spotify News (an account owned by Spotify that shares the company’s news) of users sharing their most surprising thing they learned from their Spotify Wrapped. The purpose of this post was to share user experiences and what Spotify taught them about their unique streaming history that year. Sharing users most shocking things they learned from their wrap, will add curiosity to those who are not users and do not have this special feature that tells them about their streaming history. In the caption that Spotify wrote, they are trying to engage their current users to share more about their experience from this unique feature.
The persuasive theory that would best be used with Spotify’s Instagram post is the Elaboration Likelihood Model, specifically the use of the social proof cue. This post shows the engagement of their users and them sharing their unique experiences. It shows how many people are talking about this feature and their personal listening history, making it look like everyone has Spotify and everyone is sharing their Spotify Wrapped data. This post creates a sense of the fear of missing out, which will persuade non-users of the app to start using it. It makes it look like everyone else is using this app and sharing their wrap, which will influence them to do it too. Spotify doesn’t have to directly say anything about becoming a user of the app, all they have to do is share customer experiences and engage in conversations with their users to persuade people to start using their streaming service.
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This is an Instagram post from Spotify News, announcing that the yearly Spotify Wrapped is ready for their users to view. The purpose of this post was to announce that the wrap is here and to also provide information to those who do not know what it is. The post is for users and nonusers to learn more about what is included in the wrapped experience for that year. Spotify including the “bigger and better” wording in their caption, will persuade people to learn more about the big things Spotify has included for its users this year and how it’s better than the previous years. They also have their own hashtag on social media for people to engage in Spotify Wrapped.
The persuasive theory that was used in this post is the peripheral route of the Elaboration Likelihood Model. The use of the model is shown through the wording of the message. For those who lack knowledge of what Spotify Wrapped is, Spotify directs the viewer to a link that will explain what the experience is. This allows the unfamiliarly audience have a better understanding the unique feature Spotify offers its users. The cue of liking is also used in this message because it’s explaining what’s bigger and better with this year’s wrap, persuading current users to like the new changes to their personalized wrap.
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Key Takeaways
1. Make user experience unique and one like no other. For this campaign, Spotify creating something that has never been done before and making a feature that it personalized for each user is something that is unique and beneficial. The use of this personalized feature has Spotify users to continue to use their streaming service and persuade others to become a user so they can experience this unique benefit that they have to offer their customers. Spotify having this unique user experience allows them to have an advantage over other streaming services that will overall benefit the company by having new users every year.
2. Customer testimonials can persuade non-users to want to use their service. Spotify’s use of user testimonials was a huge benefit to show the popularity and the unique experience the user in order to help engage new users. It helps show how unique each user’s wrap is and how it’s a topic of conversation among social platforms. This could provide non-users to feel like their missing out on an experience to learn more about their personal music and streaming history. Spotify sharing and engaging in its users experience also benefits them by allowing its users to feel like they have a special connection with the company and that they are more than just a user.
3. Your customers can persuade people without them even realizing it. Spotify Wrap includes feature that can directly share the user’s data to any platform. When users share their data and their unique listening history, it can persuade people to want to experience and learn more about their personal streaming history. The use of making something sharable to social media and having something that is personalized for each user, persuades non-users to want to know what their unique history is. Creating something that is unique and something that people want to share about themselves makes others want to do the same.
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References
Swant, M. (2019, December 17). Spotify rolls out new 'wrapped' campaign to help users remember their decade of music. Forbes. Retrieved April 8, 2023, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/martyswant/2019/12/17/spotify-rolls-out-new-wrappedcampaign-help-users-remember-their-decade-of-music/?sh=44dffacb10ea
Shalvoy, J. (2021, December 21). Spotify Unwrapped: Inside the Company’s Biggest Marketing Campaign. Variety. Retrieved April 8, 2023, from https://variety.com/2021/music/news/spotify-wrapped-marketing-shares-1235139981/).
Alexis, M. (2022, December 6). What is Spotify wrapped? Two Story Melody. Retrieved April 8, 2023, from https://twostorymelody.com/what-is-spotify-wrapped/
About Spotify. Spotify. (2023, March 9). Retrieved April 8, 2023, from https://newsroom.spotify.com/company-info/
Naomi. (2022, November 30). Everything you need to know about 2022 wrapped. Spotify. Retrieved April 8, 2023, from https://newsroom.spotify.com/2022-11-30/everything-youneed-to-know-about-2022-wrapped/
Four reasons why Spotify wrapped is marketing genius. Four Reasons. (2022, December 15). Retrieved April 8, 2023, from https://www.campaigndelmar.com/blog/spotify-wrapped-ismarketing-genius
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