It’s been an eventful week for Spotify. As reported through our sister publication The Hustle, the corporate introduced a spherical of layoffs simply days after the release of its annual marketing campaign Spotify Wrapped.
Whilst The Hustle talked in regards to the trade and worker implications of Spotify’s fresh layoffs straight away following Wrapped, I’d like to try this sequence of occasions from a advertising viewpoint.
The Advertising Energy of Spotify Wrapped
Wrapped is to Spotify what “All I Need for Christmas Is You” is to Mariah Carey — a certain guess for engagement on the finish of every yr.
Since it all started in 2016, Spotify Wrapped has given customers an in depth research in their listening behavior every yr. Whilst Wrapped used to be to start with disbursed in e mail structure, its recognition exploded when social media sharing used to be added to the combo.
The speculation to show Wrapped effects into sharable social media tales used to be pitched through former Spotify intern Jewel Ham in 2019. Since then, Spotify customers can see their year-end knowledge inside the platform’s app and simply proportion listening stats immediately to their Instagram tales.
Consistent with Time, 156 million customers engaged with Wrapped in 2022, and it’s estimated that part of Spotify Wrapped customers proportion their effects to their Instagram tales. That’s a large number of certain engagement Spotify can rely on every yr.
Now not simplest has the marketing campaign equipped content material alternatives for Spotify customers, however a number of manufacturers have hopped on board growing their variations of Wrapped and meme posts parodying Spotify’s branding.
Spotify launched the 2023 Wrapped effects on Wednesday, November 29. Consistent with standard, social media feeds had been flooded with Wrapped graphics and parody memes. On the other hand, only a few days later, the corporate made main bulletins that solid a shadow over the certain buzz generated through Wrapped.
Then Got here the Layoffs
On December 4, Spotify introduced it used to be shedding 17% of its group of workers, round 1.5k other folks.
This used to be the platform’s 3rd spherical of layoffs in 2023, following discounts in January and June. After the layoffs had been introduced, mentions of Spotify on social media had a typically destructive sentiment.
Whilst the tech business has observed a wave of activity cuts this yr, the timing of this spherical of layoffs didn’t solid Spotify in a good mild for the next causes:
- In Q3, the corporate reported benefit for the primary time in a yr, with €32M in running source of revenue (about $34.6M)
- Staff had been let move straight away once they finished paintings on a big marketing campaign that had a good affect at the corporate
- Staff had been laid off throughout the vacation season when other folks have a tendency to have extra monetary responsibilities
Whilst we all know that Spotify, like every trade, is having a look to chop prices and spice up profitability, this sequence of occasions wasn’t a excellent glance within the courtroom of public opinion the place most of the people empathize extra with the wishes of workers than firms.
If Spotify had been to provide its personal Wrapped chronicling corporate occasions in 2023, it might yield fascinating effects.
