By way of mid-December, my Instagram feed is overflowing with my buddies’ Spotify Wrapped playlists.
So I began my festive, well timed dialog with Spotify’s Head of World Industry Advertising, Grace Kao, with a very easy one: What is on her Spotify Wrapped?
“I indisputably channel my 12-year-old daughter at the moment,” she instructed me. “So feminine energy singers: Chappell Roan, Olivia Rodrigo… Beyoncé, clearly.”
Within the spirit of mirrored image, I come up with “Advertising Wrapped”: Kao’s height advertising and marketing methods of 2024, and what to carry into 2025.
Lesson One: Personalization creates connection.
If Kao had to make a choice a cornerstone of 2024’s Advertising Wrapped, she’d make a choice “Connection.”
Which is why Wrapped is one of these sturdy advertising and marketing tactic. It isn’t about simply personalization — it additionally fosters connection.
As Kao instructed me, “Spotify Wrapped does so smartly as a result of it is non-public, however it is usually about group. All we wish to do is percentage our Wrapped with others. I wish to listen about your Wrapped as a result of it is a connection we each percentage.”
Whilst I will admit my very own Wrapped is fairly embarrassing (I do not pay attention to the rest post-2020, so my Wrapped is caught in a time-loop of Taylor Swift’s Folklore… As an apart, I am dangerous with exchange), there is something deeply fulfilling about seeing all my social media connections at the identical web page for as soon as.
Whilst discussing how personalization creates connection, any other marketing campaign sprung to Kao’s intellect: The hot Coke and Oreo “Bestie Mode” collab, by which customers may obtain curated Spotify playlists that mixed their fav hits with their very best buddies’ height songs.
“In 2024, we noticed other people in need of extra track and extra connection, so this was once an excellent chance to carry two iconic manufacturers in combination and do one thing amusing that introduced price to our shoppers.”
Lesson Two: Do not sleep on podcasts as a lead gen alternative.
Gen Zers do not identical to being attentive to podcasts — they prefer purchasing from them, too.
In line with one file launched in October of this 12 months, 82% of Gen Z listeners have taken motion on a logo after listening to a podcast advert.
This does not wonder Kao. As she places it, “Gen Z trusts podcasts greater than they accept as true with influencers on social media at the moment.”
This is smart to me. I lately bought a Ninja blender as a result of I heard a podcaster within the well being house rave about it. (I am additionally a infamous shopaholic, although, so have in mind: I require minimum convincing.)
Kao boils the reasoning right down to authenticity: “I believe this is because podcasts are unscripted in a definite sense. It is like being attentive to an natural dialog.”
Should you suppose this advertising and marketing lesson applies best to B2C, suppose once more: Spotify’s 2024 Tradition Subsequent file discovered that probably the most height podcast genres for Gen Z is trade and generation.
So in 2025, Kao’s advice is to lean into podcasts as a lead gen alternative, particularly in case your target market comprises Gen Z.
Lesson 3: Be the primary.
“Spotify is a day-to-day significant other all the way through your lifestyles. We are there in your first dance at your marriage ceremony, your first kiss, your first activity interview, or the primary track you play for your new automobile,” Kao quips.
“And that first enjoy is what drives logo loyalty.”
She’s now not incorrect. I am nonetheless unswerving to Lululemon years after Alo Yoga, Vuori, and Outside Voices hit the scene as selection athletic attire firms. For no explanation why as opposed to the most simple one: I shopped there first.
“A large number of logo loyalty comes from being first to marketplace. And so when manufacturers take into accounts 2025, it’s a must to believe: How are you able to be first, or a minimum of a part of a consumer’s first enjoy?”
Whether or not you promote device, collaboration gear, or automobile tires, the purpose holds: You will not be top-of-mind right through anyone’s first dance, however you can be the emblem they discovered first, and the only they make a choice to stay with as a result of the small, measurable have an effect on you will have had on their first moments — be it a primary advertising and marketing activity, first crew venture, or first large advertising and marketing marketing campaign.
And that is the reason one thing to rejoice.
