Spotify Reveals Its First 2020 Wrapped for Advertisers

Spotify is expanding its popular year-end data feature to advertisers for the first time with a comprehensive look at the listening trends of the year broken down by audience. The streaming service's 2020 Wrapped for Advertisers consists of an interactive microsite with data on various trends in popular content and device habits across 12 user categories ranging from foodies and fitness enthusiasts to new parents and Gen Z. Agency Huge designed the layout in its first work for Spotify since winning the account earlier this year. The new offering comes as Spotify has been investing in expanding its ad capabilities—particularly in the podcasting realm—with deals like its $235 million acquisition of podcast analytics and production platform Megaphone last month and new tools like Streaming Ad Insertion (SAI) introduced earlier this year. "We think that streaming audio, including music and podcasts, is going to be one of the great new futures of advertising," said Khurrum Malik, Spotify's head of global business marketing. "And we want to set this up for advertisers take advantage of it in 2021 and beyond." Many of the top line trends were behaviors you might expect from people in a year dominated by a pandemic. With workers quarantined at home, weekday listening habits began to resemble what the company would expect on the weekends under normal conditions. The company also found that listeners gravitated to podcasts and music as a break from over-binging video streaming and tended to seek out "chill" music in particular. In a bright spot for Spotify's ambitions in the podcasting space, the company said it saw a 108% year-over-year jump in the number of users who tuned into podcasts this September. The stat comes on the heels of a series of high-profile acquisitions and exclusivity deals that have brought the podcasts of big names like Joe Rogan, Bill Simmons and Michelle Obama onto the platform. "We're seeing a tremendous amount of podcast growth," Malik said. "We think that investing in podcast advertising—not just in the largest shows, but shows that may not be the largest ones as well—is just a great opportunity because this is where consumers are spending their time." Like other streaming services, Spotify also logged a big boost in listening from connected devices like smart speakers (59%) and game consoles (51%) as people spent more time at home. Malik said that shift is expected to stick to some extent even beyond the pandemic, but also forecasts a return to more mobile listening as life eventually gets back to some degree of normal. Diego Nicolau, executive creative director at Huge Brooklyn, said the agency attempted to distill all of the data that Spotify made available in the most accessible and hands-on way possible. "We wanted to do it in a way that is fun, interesting and feels dynamic," Nicolau said. "You can toggle between options and you can spend hours on this piece of content—it feels much more like a tool."

Year in Review

Spotify's First 2020 Wrapped for Advertisers Offers Up Listening Insights

Streaming service debuts a version of its popular year-end summary tailored to brands

Patrick Kulp

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Patrick Kulp