How Spotify sparked cross-generational music conversations using Convenience Advertising

Spotify is a leading digital audio and media streaming service with over 640 million active users. With a vast library of songs, albums, audiobooks, and podcasts, it stands as one of the world’s largest streaming platforms.

Spotify set out to grow brand awareness and engage a more diverse audience by highlighting its ability to connect generations through music. The “Connected with Spotify” campaign encouraged listeners to explore which music era resonates most with them and reflect on their journey with Spotify over the years.

A key feature, “What’s Your Music Generation?”, analysed users’ libraries to calculate their “true generation music percentage.” This interactive tool sparked conversations about musical eras, revealing cross-generational influences and reinforcing Spotify’s role in shaping personal music tastes.

To maximise engagement, Spotify needed a strategy to reach different age groups, encourage participation, and position the platform as a unifying force in music discovery.

Spotify’s campaign, in collaboration with Convenience Advertising, media agency Zenith, and creative agency Akcelo, captures the duality of modern lifestyles, blending humour with relatability. From tongue-in-cheek ads comparing generational tastes, like “2000s Dad Rock Mix” vs “It’s just ‘rock’ to you”, to playful nods at emotional nostalgia with “Emo for Life”, the campaign brought music tastes and personality quirks to life.

Convenience Advertising was the ideal platform to showcase this humour and relatability, with an average of 2+ minutes for viewers to comprehend the message. By placing these creatives in licensed venues, Spotify effectively reached a diverse audience; the ads resonated with patrons’ varied lifestyles and musical journeys, sparking conversations about personal music preferences.

This approach ensured Spotify’s message, whether highlighting sweaty post-run cappuccino mornings or euphoric 6am techno, connected with audiences in their everyday moments. 

Venue type: Licensed venues
Locations: VIC, NSW, QLD, WA, SA
Weekly reach: 300,000+ impressions**

**Weekly impressions (bathroom visits) based on reported weekly traffic by participating licensed venue landlords, in conjunction with independent evaluation on bathroom visits (Convenience Advertising (2024) DonateLife: Year 2 Narrowcast Messaging by Dr Shaun Ratcliff and Accent Research - available for download). Program ran for one month, August-September 2024.