In order to promote streaming music while driving over the traditional mode of radio, Spotify chose to entertain rather than advertise, building a humorous brand film that put a beautiful piece of music at its core.

The brief was simple. Get people to think about Spotify the next time they think about listening to music in the car. The entire idea is based on a single insight: that we’ve all stayed in the car to let a song play out. From there we showed in relatable ways how this happened.

The idea is based on a single insight: that we’ve all stayed in the car longer than we had to, in order to let a great song play out. We brought this idea to life in various imagined scenarios - heightening the tension to humorous effect.

In answering this brief, Spotify embraced a universal insight that depended on the right licensed song to land its emotional tone. The aim was entertainment and emotional connection first, so the resulting work required a licensed song at its center to drive the narrative.

The music had to be believable, i.e. something you would stay in the car for. After that you don't want it to be too kitsch, or too sad, or too current, or too esoteric (because you have to believe that everyone is listening to that same track). We arrived at Sia's piano version of Elastic Heart, a song familiar to listeners, but not its stripped down version, which was arguably more emotional.

The spot ran on OLV (YouTube and Programmatic OLV), from August 26th 2019 through September 30th, 2019.

After the campaign, people who listen to Spotify in cars in the United States increased by over 20%, far outpacing our performance targets.

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