Raise the Game: When wrapping could unravel

Approaching its ninth year running, Spotify Wrapped is highly anticipated amongst the platform’s users. Gathering thousands of data points over the course of a year on a listener’s activities, this information is packaged up into a slick, visually appealing in-app video. 

“We can all agree that this is an extremely powerful campaign; it hits users on a personal level, and uses data in a really clever way. But it doesn’t work for everyone”, says Alex. “At the end of last year, I received about 10 similar campaigns.” 

With its success, it’s no surprise that other brands have hopped on the ‘wrapped’ bandwagon; from Strava telling you how many (or how few) miles you clocked, to Monzo calling out your coffee spend.

“My favourite one had to be from a supermarket. Not due to innovation or creativity, but rather how ridiculous it was: a round up of my top three purchases: milk, bread, and Diet Coke. Not exactly something I was desperate to shout about on social media!”, Alex continues. 

That’s another thing that makes Spotify Wrapped so strong: it’s shareability. When the campaign launches, social media feeds are overflowing with users sharing their round ups, with some listeners even going as far as editing their results, to mask their real music tastes (even though there’s nothing wrong with being in the top 1% of ABBA listeners). 

According to an article in Forbes, the hashtag #SpotifyWrapped trends every year on X, and has 66.5bn views on TikTok, with 60m people sharing their year of listening on social media generally in 2021. 

However, with grocery brands, it’s important to remember that customers likely choose these retailers based on convenience, as opposed to brand loyalty. Alex says, “Even if a campaign leverages the best technology with excellent functionality, if it’s not going to resonate with your customers, or make them excited, then it's no good.”

“For us at Product Madness, whilst it’s tempting to follow suit and try a round up campaign for our players given Spotify’s success, we know that this wouldn’t land with our audience.”

Rather, Alex and the team's recent campaigns focus on giving our players a premium experience, and create narratives targeted towards the demographic that play our games. 

“Instead of trying to apply a blanket trend to campaigns, brands should be looking at their customers and building for them specifically. We look at why players play our games and listen to customers’ feedback when in the design phase.

Keep things simple and iterate based on feedback. Don’t just follow the latest marketing and technology trends, as you may find that there are much quicker wins out there for less effort, which generate higher engagement and sales.”