Spotify’s ‘A Song For Every CMO’ campaign resulted in literal song creations dedicated to several marketing professionals and attracted a lot of eyeballs within this customer persona.
Music is in Spotify’s DNA, so at some point in 2021, it became the obvious focus for a marketing campaign. The company wanted to celebrate some of its marketing partners, along with their creative and strategic experience and results, in a lighthearted and fun way.
Based on the simple premise that CMOs are music fans too, Spotify reached out to CMOs from different advertisers in different industries to create a custom song for each one of them. The requests were met with positive reactions and the final tracks were genuinely appreciated.
The CMOs themselves were very involved in the creative process, from advising on their musical preferences to giving their approval of the lyrics and song cuts. Like everyone, CMOs have distinct personal tastes and listen to music during various moments of their day.
Each song’s lyrics were tailored to give homage to the individual. For example, “Zena With a Z!” praises Kimberly-Clark global CMO Zena Arnold with these words:
Lean On Zena, she’ll be right there
To help you through trouble or Share A Square
She’s the marketing lead of KC
Driving the digital transformation
With brand responsibility.
The “album” cover art was designed to give a nod to both the music genre and the CMO. And all CMOs received a framed platinum record of their single commemorating their Spotify chart debuts and giving them something new to spice up their industry awards shelf.
“A Song for Every CMO” perfectly demonstrates audio’s potential for unleashing creativity and brand-building on Spotify. The campaign showed marketers “how fun and effective the platform can be, how their message can be so tailored to one’s audience, and how it can bridge music and creativity in new ways”, according to Michael Aimette, co-chief creative officer at FCB New York, the agency behind the campaign.
The results were unprecedented: 75% year-on-year growth and $1 billion in ad revenue for the first time in history, making 2021 the best year in Spotify Advertising history.
Sources:
https://ads.spotify.com/en-US/news-and-insights/introducing-a-song-for-every-cmo/
https://www.jamestmeiser.com/spotify-cmo-songs
https://musebycl.io/music/spotify-immortalized-top-brand-cmos-original-songs
https://clios.com/awards/winner/branded-entertainment-content/spotify/a-song-for-every-cmo-116875
