In recent years, music merch has become fashioble, sold cheaply at the world's biggest clothing chains. This means that any poser can get a band shirt, without even listening to a single song. So Spotify wanted to bring back the value of band merch by in the context of Spotify Wrapped.

Every year since 2016, Spotify has released Wrapped – a summary of your year as a listener and a celebration of music fandom. But eight years after launch, Wrapped was old news. So how could Spotify Sweden engage music fans – in particular listeners between 18-30 years old – in the Wrapped experience and celebrate the artists that have made the biggest impact?

With a highly limited media budget, the clear aim was to drive engagement and earned media.

For the launch of Wrapped 2022, Spotify launched Super Fan Collection. It’s the first collection of music merch that actually proves you’re a fan – based on Spotify listening data. A collection that you can only get, if you’re among the top 1% of people who have listened the most to an artist.

The collection was created in collaboration with the biggest Swedish artists of the year, with a total of over 300 million streams. Each part of the collection was created based on the artist's look and attributes.

The only way to get the merch was to listen a lot to the artists. An those who listened the most got a item sent to them. In this way, we celebrated both existing fans, and inspired more to listen more to get into the top percent. Thanks to data, band merch became a statement of true fandom once again.

Spotify isn’t just a music streaming service. It’s a unique source of listener data – the ultimate resource to find out how the world listens. While data can be cold and statistical, this campaign transformed it into an emotional source of pride.

Super Fan collection turned a data point – into a wearable proof of fandom. By creating a data-led collection of merch. The first music merch that proves you’re actually a fan, proved by Spotify data.

By analyzing all the listener data associated with the standout Swedish artists in 2022, the campaign determined who were among the top 1% of listeners. Meaning, those who are truly their biggest fans. And these fans were the only ones to get access to this limited-edition collection.

In this way, data showing seconds, minutes, and hours listened, was reinterpreted as something more than statistics. It became something every fan was proud to wear.

The Super Fan Collection was launched together with four of Sweden’s biggest artists of the year. The collection was exclusively available to the top 1% of each artist’s listeners, making it a true symbol of fandom – based on data. It was promoted through the artists’ and Spotify’s social media channels, and dedicated listeners received a notification on their Spotify app giving them access to the limited collection. The selected item was delivered directly to the fan’s door, in a special designed box, creating a unique and rememberable experience for the fans. Since it was a limited edition collection, the merch itself had small scale, but among the artists' fans it was sought after on a large scale.

- Engagement rate 89% above average

- The collection that sold out straight away

- The campaign generated over 13 million impressions (with a very limited media budget.)

And importantly, Super Fan Collection invented a new format. A new, data-led way for artists to celebrate and reward their most dedicated fans. This idea could be adapted by artists around the world – to once and for all prove who’s a real fan.