Spotify's Involvement in Coach's Tabby Tour Is a Grab For Untapped Brand Budgets

During an investor day in May, Spotify co-CEO Alex Norström laid out an ambitious growth strategy through 2030: mid-teens revenue growth, 1 billion monthly active users, and $100 billion in revenue. The music platform is in the midst of a turnaround, from losing money in 2022 to generating €2.2 billion in operating profit in 2025. A large part of Spotify’s plan to sustain that turnaround—and ensure growth in its crucial ads business—is its ongoing positioning as a cultural platform, designed to entice other brands to sponsor big, lucrative collabs. Ads business lead Katie English referenced the importance of these “high-impact sponsorships” during that same investor day. “These are not your standard ad impressions,” she said. “They are deeper, more organic brand integrations that connect advertisers to culture and turn love for Spotify's brand into advertiser value. That's exactly why we expect higher growth in the second half of 2026." In mid-September Spotify uncorked its biggest one yet, which it hopes will be a major proof point in this thesis. Coach invited Spotify to be a part of its Gen Z-targeted Tabby Tour, which kicked off this year on Sept. 16. Spotify's involvement epitomizes that expansion beyond ad impressions and one-offs, said Drew Sanders, global head of AUX, Spotify's in-house music and experiences consultancy, which was created in 2024. The Tabby Tour is, Sanders said, “much broader” and “more global,” with over 17 different stops across multiple months. It started in New York City and will stop on campuses and cultural venues across the U.S., U.K., Japan, and South Korea through November, with more dates to follow in 2027. It features artists including Tinashe, Rachel Chinouriri, Nxdia, Fousheé, and Alessi Rose, and is an extension of Coach's new "Live Your Story" campaign, which celebrates self-expression. A new revenue stream for Spotify’s rebuilding ads biz These deeper brand integrations are an attempt to solve some of the traditional limitations of Spotify’s advertising business. While Spotify’s ad business has improved over the past year, it’s a weak link compared to the rest of the company; ad revenue grew just 3% year-over-year per its Q2 earnings in August, below the overall company’s 15% total growth. While the company spent the past year rebuilding its programmatic plumbing to entice digital spend, its role in the Tabby Tour represents a different type of growth potential: international, and tapping into a bigger budget pool. As English said in May, Spotify had previously been “too concentrated in the U.S. and too centered on audio-only budgets.” The Tabby Tour, part of a global partnership, helps Spotify capitalize on the same cultural cachet that it has banked on to boost other aspects of its business. Its 10-year-old tradition Spotify Wrapped, for instance, is a viral hit every year, and reliably drives monthly active user growth and subscribers. Reserved by Spotify is a much newer bet, launched in June with Live Nation, that gives Spotify Premium users early access to concert tickets—a perk the platform hopes will keep its paying customers paying. Evolving for Gen Z Across the company, Spotify has positioned itself as a celebrator of culture, having shifted its marketing focus last year with its “Fan Life” campaign. That campaign also reflects Spotify’s desire to supercharge its engagement with Gen Z, which represents 35% of its audience, according to its 2026 Culture Next report. The rich experience promised by the Tabby Tour is necessary to capture Gen Z. Spotify has noticed that the younger generation engages with its platform very differently than older generations. "You see a very clear split between audiences where older people still listen to audio-only podcasts,” said Spotify co-CEO Gustav Söderström during a company conference presentation in September. “If there's no video, they contact customer support and say, ‘The podcast is broken’...They don't have the concept of audio-only anymore." Coach shares the need to find new ways to capture Gen Z. The luxe brand has locked onto growing its younger consumer base, adding 800,000 new Gen Z customers compared to last year, per consulting firm GlobalData. And the Tabby Tour is meant to capture a multitude of Gen Z touchpoints. Coach CMO Joon Silverstein noted the different elements of the activation in an email, from association with artists to personalized Spotify experiences to Tabby Tour stops, noting how each can help Coach broaden its relationship with both existing and prospective customers. “That reflects our broader approach to partnerships: building deeper cultural relationships around shared values and complementary capabilities,” Silverstein wrote. “The goal is to create something neither partner would make in quite the same way alone—and that people can participate in, shape, and make their own.” Spotify declined to say how big of an investment Coach has made in the Tabby Tour. And as this year's run is just kicking off, it remains to be seen whether the margin is worth the squeeze. It won’t be until 2027 when Spotify will reveal whether it was just an elaborate splurge, or whether it can sustainably unlock large, non-audio budgets from clients hoping to reach an important, young cohort. Tabby Tour highlights include The Tabby Tour bus Custom Coach x Spotify bus at each stop, where fans can listen to music and learn about featured artists. Ticket booths selling special-edition Coach Tabby bags and other collectibles. Photo booths and community message boards. Personalized playlists and "Courage Signs" based on listening habits, that let users save and compare signs with friends, and trade their sign for a physical Coach hangtag at tour stops. Real-time bus tracking and behind-the-scenes content. Per Silverstein, “Track the Tour has already attracted more than 70,000 visitors, with a 75% engagement rate and average time spent exceeding our benchmark. Almost 10,000 people have used the experience to discover their Courage Sign.” Correction 9/29 at 1:30pm ET: This story has been updated to clarify that the Tabby Tour is Coach's event, which Spotify joined as part of a broader partnership.

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Spotify's Involvement in Coach's Tabby Tour Is a Grab For Untapped Brand Budgets

The music platform's work on the Tabby Tour could help it push into more ambitious brand collaborations

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