Music for Every Horoscope: How did this brand engage with music and astrology lovers all over the world?

Thursday: Gorillas of Guerilla Marketing FROM THE DESK OF MILES EVERSON: Happy Thursday! Are you familiar with the term, “Guerrilla Marketing?” For those of you who aren’t familiar with it yet, guerrilla marketing is an unconventional, engaging, and impactful marketing strategy. Campaigns of this type spark an emotional reaction that leads to lasting brand recall. In today’s article, allow us to share with you a digital guerrilla marketing tactic conducted by one of the largest music streaming platforms in the world. Keep reading to know how this company captured music lovers’ attention with interesting “cosmic” playlists that represent consumers’ every mood and life theme. CEO, MBO Partners Chairman of the Advisory Board, The I Institute

Music for Every Horoscope: How did this brand engage with music and astrology lovers all over the world? Hello! We’re now into the 2nd month of the new year. We hope 2023 is bringing lots of good experiences for you so far! For those of you who are fond of astrology, have you checked what your horoscope says about you this year—or at least this month? If you haven’t yet, there are lots of online resources that are currently talking about these astrological readings for the year 2023. You might want to check them out, whether it’s just for fun or for guidance. Did you know that in 2019, one music streaming platform delivered horoscope predictions to its users in an unusual way? Instead of the typical explanations you’d read online, this company combined the power of text AND music to represent consumers’ 2019 zodiac readings. Any guesses on what this company is? Spotify! Spotify is an audio streaming and media services provider founded on April 23, 2006 by entrepreneurs Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming platforms in the world, with over 456 million monthly users, 195 million of which are subscribers. The company offers digital copyright restricted music and podcasts, including 82 million+ songs from record labels and companies. As a freemium service, Spotify’s basic features are available to all users but with advertisements and limited control. Additional features such as offline listening and commercial-free listening are offered via paid subscriptions. Users can search for music based on artist, album, and genre, and can also edit, create, and share playlists with other users. Music for Every Mood… and Horoscope? As a popular music streaming service, Spotify is known for creating personalized content to capture its users’ attention. The company also conducts its annual “Wrapped” campaign where it creates unique playlists for users based on their most-loved songs for the year! In case you don’t know yet, these are not all the personalized content Spotify offers to its users. In fact, in 2019, the company also created a unique set of playlists at the beginning of the year—just in time for the Super Blood Moon and for those who were looking forward to what their horoscope had in store for them! The “Cosmic Playlist” Campaign This digital guerrilla marketing strategy consisted of 12 curated playlists that reflected people’s horoscopes in 2019. The tracks were informed by the astrological readings of celebrity astrologer Chani Nicholas, who determined the theme and tone of the music in each playlist. The campaign also marked the coming of a significant cosmic event in 2019—the Super Blood Moon, which the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said would be the year’s only total lunar eclipse. So, to help Spotify users make the most out of the experience MUSICALLY, the music streaming platform encouraged them to tune in to Spotify’s Pop Culture hub to get their horoscope readings and listen to sign-specific playlists. What’s more? To further promote the “Cosmic Playlists,” Spotify debuted an out-of-home (OOH) campaign consisting of wild postings and projections. The posters stayed up for 2 weeks (the week before the eclipse and the week of the eclipse) across Australia and New Zealand. Meanwhile, the entire digital guerrilla marketing campaign lasted throughout 2019, with the playlists changing each month to reflect new readings. Was Spotify’s “Cosmic Playlist” campaign effective? Many Spotify users from all over the world enjoyed listening to their sign-specific playlists. According to Nicholas, the campaign helped grow engagement among millennials, especially given the growing popularity of horoscope apps. She said the “Cosmic Playlists” were also designed to help users reflect on the direction of their lives, not just to make bold predictions of fame and love as what stereotypical horoscopes make. In her words: “When a song resonates with you, it might feel really personal, like it’s speaking about your own experience. But it’s also speaking to a huge, broad audience. When there’s something collectively going on where a song resonates for a lot of people, it’s the same way that a horoscope will speak to the archetypal themes of the moment.” Here are the results of the campaign: The “Cosmic Playlist” campaign garnered a total of 1.3 million+ streams throughout 2019. Over 1 million music and astrology enthusiasts enjoyed listening to the sign-specific playlists. Some of them even shared the tracks on Twitter and Facebook. The campaign was featured in various articles from different media outlets like Forbes, AdWeek, Mumbrella, Campaign Brief, Newsweek.com, etc. Spotify’s “Cosmic Playlist” campaign was nominated under the Advertising, Media, and PR Integrated Campaign categories at The Webby Awards in 2019. Great job, Spotify! These results show the “Cosmic Playlist” campaign truly resonated with millions of music lovers all over the world and became an avenue for people of all ages, interests, and backgrounds to engage with one another. *Applause* — “What’s your astrological sign?” Whether you believe in the stars or not, the cultural obsession with astrology continues to make its mark. Especially nowadays where there’s growing engagement among millennials and Gen Zs about these topics, astrology has never been more accessible. That’s why today, this scientific study is no longer simply synonymous with bold predictions about love, fame, money, etc. Now, astrology attracts more people who also use it as a way to reevaluate their lives. … and what made Spotify’s “Cosmic Playlist” campaign special? The ability to combine astrology and music—two things that equally capture people’s attention and emotions—for a whole new awesome experience! Because of that, Spotify was able to offer users an elevated musical experience—music that represented their mood and helped them identify the direction they wanted to take in their lives. We hope you had fun reading today’s digital guerrilla marketing feature! With insightful information about your target market, you can also personalize your offerings to further capture your target market’s attention and compel them to interact with your brand. It’s time to take control of the “playlist” of your brand’s marketing strategies! Hope you’ve found this week’s guerrilla marketing insight interesting and helpful. Follow us on LinkedIn. Stay tuned for next Thursday’s Gorillas of Guerrilla Marketing! Do you want to learn how one automotive brand broke a world record with a literally out-of-this-world guerrilla marketing stunt? See it in next week’s article!