The Marketing Genius of Spotify Wrapped

Remember back in the late 2000’s when there were the good ole’ days of iTunes?

When you had to save up your hard-earned money and spend a whopping $1.25 on each song so you could listen on your brand new iPod Touch (what a time to be alive 🤩)

Thankfully, those days are behind us.

With streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music, we now have access to any song, anywhere, at any time.

Now, I don’t know what your streaming preference is, but I’m a Spotify guy through and through for several reasons.

But there’s one reason in particular that stands out among the rest:

Spotify Wrapped.

Sure, it’s fun and exciting as a music lover. But it’s also an absolute masterclass in marketing.

So while it’s not quite that time of year to pull out your phone and share your annual music recap on your IG story (we’ll get to that later), I wanted to break down the genius marketing strategy behind it.

Here’s what you’ll learn today:

• The genius marketing of Spotify Wrapped

• Why it works so well

• How you can use it

Alright, alright, alright, let’s dive into this one!

The Marketing Genius of Spotify Wrapped 🎶

If you’re unfamiliar with Spotify Wrapped, you might just be living under a rock (kidding, but only slightly :)). All jokes aside, here’s a quick look at the numbers:

Launched in 2016, Spotify Wrapped is a marketing campaign that allows Spotify users to view their music-streaming data from the past year and share it with friends.

Its main purpose?

To promote the company and encourage users to share their music stats with others.

And boy oh boy has it worked!

While exact numbers are hard to find, a report details how in 2020, the marketing campaign was directly responsible for a 21% increase in app downloads in the first week of December.

Now, I’d be willing to bet that since launching, Spotify Wrapped alone has likely brought in hundreds of millions of dollars and millions of additional app users.

I mean, just look at how fun and aesthetic it is ↓

Who wouldn’t want to hop on the bandwagon and download Spotify after seeing how personalized your friends’ music stats are?

Which leads us to one of the main reasons the marketing campaign is so successful year in and year out…

Why It Works So Well 🤔

One word: FOMO.

Spotify knows that through sharing your top artists and all your other hyper-specific listening data with your friends who don’t have the app, it’s only a matter of time before they become a new user.

Because here’s the thing. Spotify knows exactly what they’re doing.

They know that people hate missing out and being out of the loop.

Which is why they created Spotify Wrapped to be easily shareable.

All it takes is one click to post your top artists on your Instagram story and make your Apple Music friends jealous they didn’t receive the same fun recap at the end of the year.

But there’s another reason the marketing campaign works so well:

User-generated content.

You see, whenever someone posts about their year’s top hits or shares the (sometimes absurd) amount of minutes listened, they’re promoting Spotify whether they realize it or not.

So in some ways, Spotify users themselves do all the marketing for the company. Here's what it looks like:

Share your Spotify Wrapped on social media → Others get FOMO → They download Spotify and become paid users → The new users do the exact same thing next year

It’s one of the best examples of a positive feedback loop I’ve ever seen.

So how can you create the same hype and marketing strategy for your own brand?

How to Use It 📝

You don’t need to reinvent the wheel.

You can simply replicate Spotify by creating a similar word-of-mouth advertising campaign.

Here’s how:

Incentivize customers to share their purchase with their friends.

Maybe you could offer a discount code or spotlight them on social media if they share their purchase on Instagram or TikTok.

Maybe you could create a referral system and pay a small commission to customers who share their affiliate link with their friends.

The biggest thing is creating a positive feedback loop that drives more word-of-mouth advertising, more happy customers, and more sales.

Alright, that’s all for today.

I’m off to jam out to Noah Kahan on Spotify for the 19th time this week.

Hope you have a great rest of your weekend,

Connor “don't worry, I get FOMO too” Flynn

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