In late 2020, Volkswagen unveiled their first all-electric vehicle, with a long-term goal of an entirely electric fleet. By late 2021, the buzz had died down and the automotive space was saturated with brands announcing their own EVs. With Volkswagen’s next major release not coming to local markets until 2024, we were tasked with keeping the brand’s electric vision top of mind.

A year in the making, we curated a playlist of electric-themed songs and streamed them nonstop for 365 days. Spotify Wrapped was released to all users on December 1st. On December 2nd, just like Spotify’s other 381 million users, we shared our personalized Wrapped on social. We then published our top tracks as a public playlist on Spotify under the moniker Electric Wrapped.

With no paid media or an electric vehicle to launch, we turned the annual Spotify buzz into the story of our electric journey.

Spotify Wrapped data doesn’t just inform listeners of their streaming preferences, it holds up a mirror to each user in the form of music. By hijacking this yearly data showcase, we set out to demonstrate that Volkswagen’s dedication to electric spans beyond our vehicles to our entire narrative.

To hack the system, we first had to understand how Spotify interpreted data to form Wrapped results. Analyzing the last four years of Wrapped, we determined three infographic mainstays – Top Song, Top Genre, and Top 10 Songs. To optimize all three for an electric-based outcome, we sorted through thousands of tracks relating to our core themes and cross-referenced them with genre.

To craft a singular narrative with our Spotify Wrapped results, we began by curating a selection of electric-themed music. We played the songs on loop for an entire year, constantly updating the tracks to stay current.

Within a day of the December 1st, 2021 Spotify Wrapped release, we went live on Instagram and Twitter with our results – sharing our Top Song (Charged Up), Top Genre (Electric) and Aura (Energetic).

In our research, we discovered thousands of playlists made by Volkswagen drivers for the Volkswagen community (music sets for road trips, commutes, carpools and more). We joined in by turning the Top Songs from our 2021 Wrapped into a public playlist on Spotify – giving VW drivers a soundtrack for the electric road ahead.

On Twitter, our single Wrapped post produced 100% more click-throughs and a 62% higher engagement rate than any other Volkswagen post from 2021.

On Instagram, it was our top performing post of the year with 30% more saves than the rest of our grid.

Within only days, we’d generated over 12.6 million earned media impressions. Every article shared the Electric Wrapped results and cited Volkswagen’s journey towards electric mobility.