Why Spotify Opened a Pop-Up Café in Paris

Spotify Wrapped has become a cultural phenomenon. With users being able to view the data and insights collected from their Spotify playlists and share them with the world, the platform now annually creates a viral moment each December. Over the six years since it began Wrapped, the platform has turned data collection into a marketing campaign, and its 422 million users appear to love it. Spotify’s In-house Agency Is Propelling Its Pivot to 'Playfulness' To help promote this year’s launch and directly engage with some of its users, Spotify's team in France chose to take over a café in Paris just to raise the cool stakes a little further and put on a party for fans of its local artists. Located in Paris’ 10th arrondissement, the mission of the café activation was to bring Wrapped and the data behind it to life while also fostering connections between audio creators and fans through this real-life experience. The Wrapped Café, which was only open for four days from 1:30pm—10pm, was part of a number of activations to take place around the world during the first week of December. It was decked out with Spotify-branded entertainment and refreshments including a customized pinball machine featuring the face of music artist Jul who draws 7 million listeners a month on Spotify alone, a branded foosball table and a dedicated menu featuring “Wrappucinos” on which Spotify's logo or the face of an artist could be printed on top of the beverage's foam. There was even customized dishware. There was also a photo booth with a custom audio personality filter and Wrapped-themed arcade games for customers to play as well. Every attendee was given Spotify coins to purchase food, beverages and customized t-shirts featuring a personalized code of the wearer’s Wrapped playlist.In all, around 1,500 people took up their allotted two-hour slots, meaning the Wrapped Café was booked to capacity. Caffeinated creativity "Paris is a bustling city, bursting with creativity and so many audio creators—when we decided to open up a café, it made perfect sense for it to be in the heart of the capital. Our overall goal was to surprise our users while reinventing ourselves and celebrating both artists and podcasters, and the Wrapped Café was the ideal combination of everything we hoped to achieve: an in-real-life experience for our users to meet some of France's new, favorite audio creators,” explained Marie Ybert, Spotify’s senior marketing manager for France and Benelux. Live programming was scheduled between 8pm and 10pm each evening. The first was hosted by the winner of the French version of Netflix’s show Rhythm + Flow, Fresh Lapeufra, who has been featured on some of Spotify’s flagship playlists this year, which helped him to reach the top of the charts in France in the summer. The next evening featured Chilla, who is one of Spotify’s 400 ambassadors within its EQUAL program, which aims to promote women singer-songwriters in a bid to create parity within the music industry. On the third night, singer-songwriter Bianca Costa, who features within the EQUAL France playlist, hosted. The final night saw a recording of its original podcast series Oyez Oh Yea, co-hosted by comedian Alex Ramirez and historian Manon Bril, in front of a live audience. The podcast began only this year with a humorous take on historical moments; this episode is set to feature on the platform early next year. Another artist who performed was rapper Fresh la Peufra. French media outlet Brut partnered with Spotify through its production company to bring the activation to life. Other activations taking place to celebrate the launch of wrapped included a warehouse space takeover called Casa Spotify México, which hosted 5,000 fans, a dinner and event hosted with live performances by DJ Layla, DJ Khatra and renowned producer Talal Qureshi in Karachi, Pakistani and the #SpotifyWrapped Sunset Soiree held in Jakarta, which saw over 200 influencers, press, artists and creators in attendance, including Indonesian singer-songwriter Ardhito Pramono who performed while guests were treated to a nail art and personalized bag station and activities like Jenga.

Experiential Marketing

Why Spotify Opened a Pop-Up Café in Paris

The 4-day activation was run as the platform released its annual Wrapped data marketing drive

Stephen Lepitak

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Stephen Lepitak