Spotify was losing relevance amongst Gen Zs in key markets (Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand) to big streaming competitors.

TikTok was the cool new juggernaut on the block, rapidly gaining users, while Youtube’s free model appealed to price sensitive Gen Zs.

Spotify found itself on the backfoot with high awareness but lacking a compelling proposition.

When asked why they weren’t switching to Spotify, Gen Zs responded that they were “happy with their current service” (YouTube (72%), Tiktok (38%) and they “didn’t see a reason to” (53%).

With every competitor at high awareness, we needed to boost consideration and show Gen Zs that Spotify is more than just another music streaming service.

Thus, we were given the following brief and KPIs:

Create a brand campaign that wins the hearts and minds of Gen Zs and grow market share in key markets.

+5% consideration against 13-34’s

+ 20% incremental MAU’s (Monthly Active Users)

Our film opens with a stressed teen studying for her exams. Frustrated with her progress, she opens Spotify and plays her unique “Discover Weekly” playlist. This activates a beacon in the sky, attracting the attention of Nik Makino, Flow G, Al James, Omar Baliw, and Karencitta who are chilling at Spotify’s rooftop headquarters.

Nik Makino and Flow G answer the call and their hit song “Moon” plays. To reach her, they are have to zipline through the city. They gear up and zipline past buildings, through laundry lines, landing in the girl’s room through her open window.

The girl is stunned. Our artists are unfazed and start playing her own personal concert. The vibes are immaculate. She is able to focus and is seen having a productive study session, albeit with some dancing. The film ends with a huge super - Music that finds you. Spotify. Listen for free now.

The hero film submitted kick started our campaign and gave Filipino Gen Zs a reason to switch to Spotify.

The use of artists was our way to humanise the algorithm. Real artists and music made their way to the listeners that needed them. The strength of Spotify’s personalisation was demonstrated through the extreme lengths artists took to reach listeners.

The film had over 237 million impressions in the Philippines!

More importantly, it changed the way Gen Zs saw Spotify with an increase of 14% of Filipino Gen Zs agreeing that “Spotify is a brand for me”.

Consideration for Spotify’s personalised algorithmic playlists increased, showing that Gen Zs understood Spotify was best at personalising music recommendations.

+15% Discover weekly consideration

+22% Blend consideration

+13% Genre Mix consideration

Overall, the campaign (which also ran in Thailand and Indonesia), caused MAU growth to exceed 82% of our KPI.