Cannes Lions
DDB MUDRA, Mumbai / SPOTIFY / 2021
Overview
Entries
Credits
Background
Spotify - an extremely late entrant into India’s music streaming market, number 13 to be precise - needed to garner attention by being unexpected in everything it did.
Since its launch in February 2019, Spotify had consistently outdone itself through dedicated and unexpected marketing interventions. But it needed to find ways to sustain this interest without breaking the bank, and in most cases without any bank.
And that’s when a seemingly harmless tweet was picked up by our listening team - a tweet where a music fan saw the Spotify logo in his favourite cookie – i.e the Good Day biscuit – India’s iconic chai (tea) time biscuit.
So, when the vast expanse of the Twitterverse looked at a Good Day biscuit and couldn’t unsee Spotify – we made it our business to make sure the rest of the world couldn’t either, only catch we couldn’t spend a dime.
Idea
We turned an inside joke on the internet into millions in PR. By taking the most sacred real estate we have on social media – our own logo, and changing it into our fan’s exact biscuit, showing him that we totally agreed with him. We even edited our Twitter Bio to read “Even we can’t unsee it now.”
We gave our seemingly nonchalant fan the ultimate hat tip, acknowledging we see what he sees. Because all fans were looking for, was to be heard and appreciated. And we did this by doing something most brands lose their temper over – changing their sacred logo.
Strategy
As the 13th player in India’s crowded music streaming market, Spotify needed to stay unexpected to capture people and media’s interest.
Spotify was obsessed with its fans and listened to them 24X7. As an iconic cult brand, we realized the more closely we listened, higher were the chances of us being able to act upon things in time, truly shaping pop culture and entering the news cycle.
When we picked up @tapaguchi’s tweet of the iconic Indian teatime biscuit “Good Day” reminding him of Spotify, we knew we had to cater to him in a manner that was fresh, acknowledging a fellow fans love for the brand but in a way that didn’t come across as thirsty. We steered clear of playing with Good Day pun and other tacky responses, we needed to keep it cool, understated yet epic. And so, we simply changed our logo to that very biscuit.
Execution
Step 1
Man tweets a meme about the Spotify logo looking like a Good Day biscuit.
"I offered a Good Day biscuit to my colleague and he exclaimed "Spotify!". Now I can't unsee it," - @tapaguchi, on Twitter, alongside a picture of his Good Day Biscuit.
Step 2
Spotify’s listening team picks up on the meme.
Step 3
Gets an art director to crop the biscuit from the man’s meme.
Uses the new cropped picture as our display picture on social.
Changes Bio to “Even we can’t unsee it now.”
Step 4
Fan is over the moon. Chatter is abuzz.
Good Day also chimes in.
Spotify gets millions in free PR.
Outcome
The simple yet impactful social makeover of our profile ensured the Twitterverse had a Good Day and the brand got INR 11 million worth of earned media with 0 money spent and 108% growth in positive sentiment. Our SOV grew to 46% over last year’s 36%. And our Engagement Rate was 210% on twitter v/s that of competition - Gaana at 5% and JioSaavn at 9.6%
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