We tapped into three insights about Prince’s place in culture. Firstly, that he was still sorely missed - his absence was palpable. Secondly, that his return to Spotify was highly anticipated and yearned for - every day we would see multiple consumers post on social. And finally, that he was one of the only artists in the world iconic enough to own a color.

Our thought was that if we simply posted up empty purple posters in the weeks before his music became available, that people would make the connection. And that in making that connection, they would be reminded just how impactful his legacy is.

On January 23, a handful of posters and billboards started appearing in prime areas of New York and London. But the most impactful placement was a station domination at Union Square, the iconic NYC train station that gets over 96,000 commuters every day. The hundreds of posters throughout the station were just blank and purple, with a simple Spotify logo in the corner. Many people commented that it felt more like walking through a contemporary art space, than an ad-covered commuter hub.

On Monday, February 13, every placement in London and New York had been replaced before rush hour - now with black and white images of Prince filling these empty canvases. These stayed up until February 18, to drive streaming and awareness over the first 5 days of launch.

The Prince launch was highly successful on platform, with his music streamed over 2 million hours in the first week alone. His songs were also added to over 7 million playlists.

The PR effort was also effective. There were over 247 pieces of coverage from outlets including BBC, The Independent, Los Angeles Times, Pitchfork, and Billboard. Significantly, over 100 of these took place before the Prince launched was announced, giving Spotify an exclusive window of speculation before the competition. Even after the launch, over 30% of press mentions were exclusively about Prince’s return to Spotify, with no mention of Apple, Google, or Amazon.