Spotify is known for innovation. As the first major streaming platform, it changed how consumers discover and enjoy music.

The problem now is that advertisers still see it as an audio-only platform. So we needed to innovate again, proving Spotify is an immersive, multisensory platform where music and video come together.

So we turned the most boring part of media planners’ job into a breathtaking musical experience; transforming their RFP spreadsheets into music videos, scored by famous dance music producer John Summit.

Now, if they want to watch their favorite music video, they’ll just need to open their work laptops.

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

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 prove our video bona fides?

Show up exactly when media planners were considering buying video ads: the RFP process

To get media planners excited about Spotify’s video ad units, we did something unforgettable with Spotify Advertising’s RFPs. In partnership with artist John Summit, we created Spreadbeats: the world’s first media plan music video, made and played entirely within Microsoft Excel.

Here’s how it worked.

When putting together a plan for their clients, media planners reach out to Spotify to ask for recommendations, the details of which are captured in Excel spreadsheets. This time, we responded with a very different kind of spreadsheet: a music video, created with John Summit and coded using Excel’s native functions. The file had to be small enough to be sent as an email attachment, yet capable of playing a full, four-minute music video. We were even able to personalize the videos to the recipient. It was just the conversation starter the Spotify team needed to engage with media planners in a whole new way.

We managed to code the whole music video in one 10MB Excel file. Ironically, to do something this advanced, we had to take a trip back to the origins of data and algorithms. We used old compression and visualization methods that hadn’t been used for many, many years, all in the spirit of economy. We transformed Excel built-in functions like ASCII, Graphs, Unicode, and conditional formatting into cutting-edge visualization methods. No AI was used, just human ingenuity and a lot of love. But all technology means nothing without a story: We told the story of E7, born in a rational world of numbers and data. One day, she wakes up and explores different visual worlds, on a journey to find herself and belong.

Spreadbeats was sent to 5,800 Media Planners, in 14 countries: US, Canada, Mexico, UK, Spain, Italy, Germany, France, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, India, and Singapore.

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.