Spreadbeats is a music video, made entirely in Excel, serving as an actual media RFP that’s emailed directly to media planners. It doesn’t get more direct than that.

Spotify is known for creative twists on direct marketing, and Spreadbeats is no exception. The media RFP is typically a very tedious, spreadsheeting, number-crunching, ROIing process. To break through, Spotify Advertising did something that had never been done before, that media planners would never forget. And sure enough, when media planners received them, they immediately started buzzing about Spotify and couldn’t help but add video ad units to their media plans.

Media planning happens year-round around the world, but spring is by far the most influential time in the industry. Between Upfronts, NewFronts, and, of course, Cannes, the marketing industry is buzzing about new and exciting media opportunities, with everyone looking for ways to add an X factor to their quarterly media plans and gathering inspiration for their annual plans in the fall.

To gain media planners’ attention and budgets, brands go big. Events. Conferences. The full- court press is on. Of course, Spotify Advertising plays the game too. But the noise of the latest “this” and promises of “that” can be overwhelming for a media planner.

Even for Spotify, it can be hard to be heard. Cool new audio features like Daylist and Remix may get buzz, but we wanted to make sure our video and multiformat ads got their fair share of the attention. So, this year, Spotify decided to do something different.

We partnered with rising Spotify musician John Summit — just as he’s releasing “Shiver” and riding the buzz of his recent Coachella set — to reimagine a forgotten genre... the music video. Together, we used our music and audio heritage to catapult into a new era where Spotify Advertising could be known for video ads too.

Imagine you’re a media planner. Your job depends on your ability to show ROI. So it’s no wonder that when it comes to RFPing, you prioritize efficient go-tos like Meta and Google, old reliables like YouTube, and shiny objects like TikTok. Spotify just seems like another digital audio platform, and an expensive one at that. Not exactly a must-buy.

But the thing is, Spotify is so much more than an audio platform. It has video and multiformat ads… it’s interactive and engaging, and its ROI goes way beyond numbers on a spreadsheet.

To break through, we had to find a way to hack the RFP process and change the conversation… showing media planners and the entire marketing industry why Spotify Advertising goes beyond just plain digital audio.

Objectives:

Improve ROI perception

Increase familiarity beyond audio

Drive relevance, consideration, and brand love

In 2023, Spotify launched new video ad units. But there’s a problem: Media planners and advertisers still consider us as just an audio platform. And audio only commands 2% of their ad spend. As a result, when reaching out for proposals, they often request media plans tailored exclusively for audio ads. So, to win over media planners, we brought Spotify’s video ad capabilities and its ROI superiority to the place where they spend the most time considering ad buys: their Media Plan spreadsheets. Spreadbeats. A never-been-done-before, eye- and ear-opening way to prove the power of combining video and audio in a medium perfectly tailored to its audience. We partnered with Coachella-headlining artist John Summit and coded a four-minute music video into the actual spreadsheets Spotify’s salesforce sends to its clients, turning rows and columns into a canvas that sprang to life when the file was opened.

At CES, Horizon Media’s founder, Bill Koenigsberg, said, “I don’t know what Spotify Advertising is supposed to do for me.” He summed up what 66% of media planners felt: Spotify ads had no unique benefit.

So without fully knowing what Spotify Advertising offers, many media planners simply assumed that we were an audio-only platform. And they only spent 2% of their budgets on audio ads.

But Spotify Advertising offers so much more at every step of the marketing funnel than audio ads - our video ads actually yield better ROI than other advertising platforms’ video ads.

So we set out to make it crystal clear that not only does Spotify offer video ads; those video ads will work harder for your media plan.

The clearest way to showcase our video bona fides?

Speak directly to media planners while they were considering buying video ads; during the RFP process.

We worked with Spotify’s ad sales teams to create custom RFPs for every brand who’d requested one, so that when they received their actual detailed RFP responses, they’d also receive a hidden music video surprise.

With no paid media, Spotify sales reps individually emailed media planners their RFP responses, including a coy message of what they were about to see. Then, once they opened it, the RFP sprang to life.

Spotify salespeople could use a Spreadbeats generator. With the generator, they could customize music videos for each recipient by inputting their name, the brand they represent, and other relevant details.

They could seamlessly integrate their real spreadsheets into the music video by uploading them. After clicking “generate,” they would receive a straightforward Excel file containing their informative spreadsheet along with the customized music video.

Spreadbeats was sent to 5,800 Media Planners, in 14 countries.

By turning media planners’ main work platform into an entertainment experience, we achieved exactly what we set out to do, both internally and externally. Internally, we gave our Spotify sales team the ultimate tool to start a conversation about Spotify’s unique value with an audience of media planners. And in an industry that is known to persuade with numbers and data, it managed to convince potential clients on an emotional level, ensuring breakthrough in a sea of sameness of percentages and raw data. The media planner audience is highly receptive to a strong creative idea, and Spreadbeats is an idea that spoke to their hearts as well as their minds.