Ad Of The Month

Do you have a neighbour who likes to sing in the shower? Then you might relate to Spotify’s new Brazil campaign, in which a passionate fan of Bonnie Tyler’s lung-busting soft rock hit “Total Eclipse Of The Heart” prompts his upstairs neighbour to stream the original on Spotify. “You can’t choose your neighbour, you can choose your Spotify”, runs the tagline.

It’s a simple enough narrative, and at 45 seconds the ad can take its time and get the most happiness out of the scenario, the karaoke style shower version, and the original tune. It’s clearly had an impact – in the first weekend of the campaign running, streams for “Total Eclipse” in Brazil jumped 188%. But how effective will it be for Spotify?

Tech brands and apps can find advertising slightly tricky. There’s no product to show, so you have to tell stories of people using the brand in ways that are entertaining and emotional – not just explanatory. Facebook, for instance, doesn’t talk about features in its successful ads – it shows people connecting.

In its more established markets, like the US and UK, Spotify has won awards for its content marketing and OOH campaigns focusing on which songs individual users like to listen to. But in places it’s less established, there’s not the level of familiarity needed for that to work. So you need a campaign like this, which highlights the basic premise of the Spotify service – if you want to hear a song, any time, any place, Spotify lets you do that.

Music is Spotify’s great asset, and by choosing an international hit which attracts the more ‘enthusiastic’ amateur singer they can effectively create happiness in the audience. The Star Rating of 4.8 is very strong, and the short-term Spike score of 1.34 is Exceptional, meaning audiences like the ad and find it motivating. The only slight cause for concern is the Brand Fluency score, a modest 57%. But as we say, Spotify is a brand which is still establishing itself in Brazil – while the branding here could be a little stronger, the ad still gets the emotional benefit of the brand across in memorable style.