Why Spotify Wrapped is pure marketing genius

Also: some marketing gems from our swipe file

Marketing Qualified
December 01, 2023

Welcome to December! 2023 has really flown by, hasn’t it?! Anyway, let’s kick off the last month of the year with these topics:

Why Spotify Wrapped is pure marketing genius. It’s one of the most viral marketing campaigns of all time; here’s what you can learn from it.
Some marketing gems. It’s that time again. We share some recent favorites from our swipe file.

🎁 Why Spotify Wrapped is pure marketing genius.

If you’ve been on social media this week, we’re sure you’ve noticed everyone sharing and reacting to their Spotify Wrapped.

Wrapped is an annual campaign where listeners “get a deep dive into their most memorable listening moments of the year.” Spotify has run it every year since 2016, and each time, they make it a little different and exciting for users.

The Wrapped campaign gets hundreds of millions of engagements and shares on social media every year.

It’s one of the most viral and successful marketing campaigns of all time.

And the best part? They don’t put paid spend behind it.

Pure marketing genius!

So, what can we learn from Spotify? What makes this campaign so great? And what keeps people coming back year after year? Let’s break it down.

1) People love learning about themselves.

There’s a reason personality tests are popular and why people read their horoscopes every morning. Humans love learning about themselves and getting information that gives them a sense of identity.

Spotify Wrapped plays on this beautifully. It analyzes a listener's data for the year, pulls out interesting tidbits, and presents the information in fun and engaging ways.

2) It’s super sharable.

Do you know of any other marketing campaign that customers look forward to sharing months in advance? That’s precisely what Wrapped has managed to do. Spotify users love sharing their Wrapped each year.

The New York Times investigated the reasons that compel someone to share content on social media. They identified three main drivers:

To bring valuable info to the people they care about.
To define their own sense of purpose.
To engage in a social activity.

Wrapped hits on all three of these factors.

People hurry to post their Wrapped so they can share and compare them with their friends and family. People like and comment on others’ Wrapped posts to signal their approval, poke fun, or make memes about any embarrassing data.

But Spotify doesn’t stop there. They make the logistics of sharing extremely easy for users.

They provide pre-made cards designed and sized to be posted on social media. They format Wrapped to look like an Instagram story, encouraging users to post it to their own story feed.

And if a user takes a screenshot of their Wrapped, Spotify automatically pulls up the device’s share screen with a card designed for social sharing.

3) It has built-in social proof.

Spotify understands the power of user-generated content (UGC).

Wrapped lets users become part of the narrative. Even though it’s a marketing campaign, it feels authentic and human.

Every user that shares their Wrapped and spreads the word adds credibility and trust to the Spotify brand.

4) It’s a customer-first campaign.

Wrapped doesn’t try to promote new Spotify features or get users to upgrade to higher pricing tiers. Instead, it’s purely a value-add for the user.

It takes customers on a fun trip down memory lane of their past year and rewards them for their loyalty to listening on Spotify. The statistics feel like a reward.

5) It’s just plain fun.

Maybe the most significant reason for Wrapped’s success year after year is that it’s just fun! After living through another year of a media feed full of doom, gloom, and economic woes, Wrapped gives people a much-needed break.

People crave something light-hearted and enjoyable at the end of the year. And that’s exactly what Wrapped delivers.

What you should take away.

Take these principles and find ways to apply them in your business, too.

Understand what gets people to share about themselves. Those who post their Spotify Wrapped aren’t influencers or professional content creators. They’re just regular people who probably spend most of their year consuming social content, not making it.

But these people share Wrapped because it makes them feel cool or important or like they have great taste in music.

If you want people to share your product, you must connect them to a bigger story or purpose. A story that satisfies their wants/needs. Not your CMOs.

Leverage your biggest fans and make them feel like they’re a part of your culture.

Make content personal so people feel connected and special.

Reward loyalty.

Give customers a great experience that they want to share with others.

But most importantly, don’t be boring! Make sure your audience is having fun.