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<ul><li>As <keyword id="685487" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Spotify">Spotify</keyword> recently completed two years in India, we caught up with <keyword id="218234" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Neha-Ahuja">Neha Ahuja</keyword>, Head of Marketing - India, Spotify who walked us through Spotify's India story so far.</li><li>She spoke to us about the factors that have led to its growth and what it plans to do to sustain this growth.</li></ul> It’s been 2 years since Swedish streaming platform Spotify launched in India and in these two years, the platform has had quite a few milestones. Since its launch, its brand popularity has increased 3X, Spotify recently share and the way it has marketed itself in the country has a lot to do with this reception. Since the beginning Spotify has focused on localization. While it has the benefit of sound algorithms that make their playlists very personalized, based on what the listener listens to, it has also made sure its communication, both in terms of its campaigns, or the way it makes use of artists to communicate with fans, is relatable. We spoke to Neha Ahuja, Head of Marketing - India, Spotify to discuss with her the things she feels worked in the platform’s favor in India, and a few things they plan to do, to capture a wider audience here. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="India and the importance of localization" text="India and the importance of localization">India and the importance of localization</cmsannotation> Spotify launched officially in India in February 2019 and from the very start, its focus was on localization. The platform launched at a time when people were slowly getting used to the idea of streaming music online. While a lot of the younger population knew about the platform, the task at hand was to bring in new users to sample Spotify and to stick to it. “While there were people who knew about us, there was also a huge audience that did not, they weren’t even streaming music online yet. And what led us to reach a destination that we're very proud of today is that we were able to talk to each of these cohorts in the manner they would have liked to be spoken to. So for people who were still new to streaming, we played to the category codes. We told them what is streaming on Spotify, introduced them to our vast library and let them know about how convenient the platform was to use. At the same time, for people who knew about Spotify, we played up on the differentiation factor. We told them about our playlists, we leveraged fandom. We understood that different people have different music needs and that’s how we streamlined our communication,” explained Ahuja. It made sure it tailor-made its campaigns based on the geographies it was targeting. So while it featured <keyword id="6354700" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Anil-Kapoor">Anil Kapoor</keyword> to target the Hindi-speaking markets, it roped in South star <keyword id="14488" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Nagarjuna">Nagarjuna</keyword> to target the southern markets. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="The impact of 2020 on Spotify" text="The impact of 2020 on Spotify">The impact of 2020 on Spotify</cmsannotation> While the year 2020 was difficult for most businesses, <keyword id="808056" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Music-streaming">music streaming</keyword> was one of the lesser affected categories. People were stuck at home and looking for entertainment and music came to the rescue. Ahuja agreed too. “We were one of the few lucky industries. I wouldn't say it was a bad year for us but we did see a shift in the daily routines. The consumption patterns changed. Before, people would listen to us while working out in the gym or while travelling to and from work. With the lockdown, the consumption was a little more spread through the day. There wasn’t a stark difference between weekdays and weekends,” she explained. There was also a shift in the devices being used to stream the music. There was a move from smartphones to speakers, laptops or even tablets. “We saw a 55% increase in people listening to Spotify on their tablets, and a 37% increase in people streaming on their desktops between April and June 2020,” she added. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Spotify’s India story" text="Spotify’s India story">Spotify’s India story</cmsannotation> The platform also witnessed steady growth through the year. In a recent letter to shareholders, Spotify had said it continued to see healthy double digit Y/Y growth across all regions. “For the full year, net additions accelerated to a record 74 million compared to 2019 net additions of 64 million. In Q4, we added 25 million MAUs and benefited from faster growth in India, US, and Western Europe, with India serving as a notable source of upside vs. our forecast driven by successful marketing campaigns.” Another strategy that has worked for them in India is introducing different subscription packs for different sets of audiences. “Three things have worked in our favor when it comes to our premium offering. Firstly, there’s a product market fit. The app experience, the catalog, the personalization is great which helps in making sure that people do upgrade. Secondly, in terms of pricing, India is a unique market. We are the only country in the Spotify world to have over 15 plans. Whether its an annual plan, mini plan, a weekly or a daily plan, we have it all. And thirdly, we have a dedicated communication strategy for moving the consumer up the funnel, from a free to a premium experience, clearly calling out the benefits being very relevant, but also playing up the price points, which helped bring many people to the subscription side,” shared Ahuja. Spotify is also making sure it is able to give effective advertising solutions to brands, it has worked with over 100 brands in the past two years. It is also trying to expand its reach by partnering with different brands like Flipkart, Citibank etc. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="The future" text="The future">The future</cmsannotation> On what has Spotify’s USP in India been, Ahuja said, “It's not just about music streaming. It is also about how we position music streaming differently. When we came to India, we spoke about the category, but also about how you should consume music. It wasn’t about listening to a song or track, it was about streaming a playlist. Playlists is not unique to Spotify but we do own that experience now. What we are trying to do now, both in India and globally, is to talk about Spotify as a destination for everything audio. Now, it is not just about music, we also have podcasts. And that's what we we play up. We talk about music, but also about podcasts and our exclusives that are available only on our app. We are also bringing a lot of global exclusives to India which is a great experience for users. So we ensure there is something for everybody on the platform.” On what her focus areas as a marketer are going to be in the year ahead, she said, “One is to educate people on this music streaming behavior, two, to drive a love for audio, more and more people should consume more music and podcasts. So that's the intent. And thirdly, we want to leverage advocacy-both consumer and artist – where I use my current users to bring in more users along with the fandom of an artist to bring in more users.”

How Spotify will use marketing and communication to bring in its next phase of growth in India

<ul><li>The ‘Well Played India’ campaign specifically highlights four key moments of the year and what Spotify users listened to the most, during these moments.</li><li>Right from ‘Diwali cooking’ to ‘post-Diwali workout’, and from the ‘wedding season’ to the ‘traffic’ season that comes along with the weddings, the brand campaign depicts how every situation was accompanied by music. </li><li>The campaign features two TVCs, 25 digital creatives across online and social media platforms, and 15 OOH creatives highlighting culturally relevant audio trends, through the end of the year.</li><li>Spotify’s latest campaign ‘Well-played’ India is an extension of #SpotifyWrapped that celebrates how Indians listened to music throughout the year</li></ul>Last week, Spotify global started a campaign called ‘#SpotifyWrapped’ and gave a sneak-peek into what the audience from different corners of the world listened to in 2019. The campaign was later followed in India and gained a huge momentum on social media as more than 11,000 users shared their Wrapped cards. The maximum search volume for #SpotifyWrapped so far, came from Goa, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Delhi and Karnataka. Beyond users and artists, brands and influencers also joined in the -- right from Netflix to Boscia and Akshar Pathak. To amplify the impact of this consumer engaging campaign further, Spotify is now running ‘Well Played India’, a marketing campaign across TV, outdoor, and digital, to celebrate how Indians listened to music through 2019. The essence of this campaign is to highlight the biggest music streaming trends across the country, based on cultural and seasonal moments of listening. What differentiates this campaign from Spotify’s previous marketing campaigns here is that ‘Well Played India’ at its core, is powered by data, and an ode to India’s growing passion for music, transitioning from a recreational experience, to a more integral part of the daily social fabric across user moods and moments. 
 
 <div type="image" title="Wrapped OOH 3" msid="72767346" hostid="261"></div>





 The localised theme of the campaign is designed to build relevance with the local users, who have not experienced Spotify Wrapped, but have been listening to music and podcasts on Spotify since its launch in India earlier this year. ‘‘Spotify Wrapped is unlike any other campaign, and is designed to celebrate the user’s intimate relationship with music. Born through data and powered by the user’s innate passion to explore music, the campaign at its core reflects our value in audio discovery and how we are bringing alive newer music journeys and sounds everyday. “Well played” is a commonly used phrase between friends and family in conversations, and we used it to create relatability to what the Wrapped campaign stands for. Right from users to artists, we’ve seen the sharing of Wrapped cards kick off, and hope that this campaign drives more consumption and sharing,” said Neha Ahuja, Head of Marketing at <keyword id="6118216" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Spotify-India">Spotify India</keyword>. 
	
	<div type="twitter" handle="spotifyindia" handlename="Spotify India" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1085180566880673793/bzcQNnFJ_normal.jpg" favoritecount="15" retweetcount="0" status="At least there are no aunties at the traffic signal asking when you're getting married. Well played, India. Have yo… https://t.co/mGUCdUpegQ" createdat="1576471302000" id="1206434202402480128"></div>





 The ‘Well Played India’ campaign specifically highlights four key moments of the year and what Spotify users listened to the most, during these moments. Right from ‘Diwali cooking’ to ‘post Diwali workout’, and from the ‘wedding season’ to the ‘traffic’ season that comes along with the weddings, the brand campaign depicts how every situation was accompanied by music. The campaign features two TVCs, 25 digital creatives across online and social media platforms, and 15 OOH creatives highlighting culturally relevant audio trends, through the end of the year. 
 
 <div type="image" title="Wrapped OOH 2" msid="72767457" hostid="261"></div>

Spotify gives a sneak-peek into what music Indians played and loved the most in 2019

<ul><li>In order to stand out in the clutter as it entered the Indian market, Spotify launched its marketing campaign called ‘There’s a Playlist for That’ and later, ‘Sunte Ja.’</li><li>The campaigns highlighted India’s daily social fabric, where people use music as a strong medium of emotional connect to navigate through their life. </li><li>Neha Ahuja, Marketing Head, India, Spotify told us how the campaign was shaped and helped the brand reach its objectives. </li><li>Going forward, says Ahuja, the brand aims to increase its focus on accessibility, introduce new features, and get new partners for the same.</li></ul>After Swedish music application Spotify launched into the Indian market, it faced a threat of getting lost in the clutter. A month into the launch and Spotify released a massive marketing campaign called ‘There’s a Playlist for That.’ The brand decided to pay all its attention on the 3 billion playlists available on its platform and reach out to millennials by crafting personalised messages. In an association with Leo Burnett, a hyper-local OHH plus digital campaign was thus launched to have a deeply localised and personalised user engagement with millennials. The campaign was geo-targeted on the basis of cities, neighbourhoods, and important traffic intersections, with one liners that depict relatable life situations and hyper-local cultural nuances. The core insight behind 'There's A Playlist For That' stems from Spotify’s understanding of how users wish to connect with music as a powerful form of emotional expression through playlists, no matter how life changes tracks. The idea was later extended to a campaign starring Anil Kapoor and Ishaan Khattar called ‘Sunte Ja’. According to IANS, <keyword id="6118216" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Spotify-India">Spotify India</keyword>’s Monthly Active Users have grown to 2 million plus, while globally, Spotify has 248 MAUs. The music streaming platform outperformed its goals by 30% in Q3 of 2019. Spotify credits this growth to its strong marketing game and especially its second campaign - Sunte Ja. Neha Ahuja, Marketing Head, India, Spotify told Advertising and Media Insider what made its marketing strategy successful, how they overcame the threats of competition through marketing campaigns, and their plan ahead. Watch the case study to know more: 
 
 
 
 
 <div type="Video" msid="71941248" hostid="261" title="How Spotify Used its ‘3 Billion Playlists’ to Stand out in the Clutter: Case Study" thumbUrl="https://denmark.timesinternet.in/cmslite/api/app/images.jpg?msid=71941248"></div>

How Spotify used its ‘3 Billion Playlists’ to stand out in the clutter: Case Study

How Spotify Used its ‘3 Billion Playlists’ to Stand out in the Clutter: Case Study

<ul><li>Spotify launched more than 30 local podcast Originals after the lockdown. </li><li>India became one of the fastest-growing markets for Anchor, a Spotify tool that allows for the creation and distribution of podcasts.</li></ul>Spotify India has launched a new campaign that focuses on building awareness around podcasts and the role audio content can play in a listener’s life, especially as a supplementary addition to their primary activities through the day. Based on the insight that podcasts are a great companion for when your hands are busy but the mind is free, the digital campaign highlights content across moments and genres of podcasts. <div type="Youtube" id="uFbmPHDzhIc" title="Spotify | Make Goals on Morning Strolls" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/uFbmPHDzhIc/mqdefault.jpg"></div> Listeners in India consume podcasts at different, yet specific moments of the day. What this means is in the morning, religious and news based content is more popular, while learning-based content becomes more popular during the day. Evenings transcend into storytelling - right from comedy and romance, to thriller and horror. The one common thing that binds all these podcasts together is that the listener is engaged only auditorily, usually while completing a task that might not need much mind space. Neha Ahuja, Head of Marketing at Spotify India, highlights the insight and why it made so much sense for podcasts. “We recognize that there are moments in all of our days, when physically we are busy - say, out for a run, cooking at home, driving to get some fresh air - but our minds are free at that time. Those are ideal moments for consumers to listen to a podcast, and with more than 2 million podcasts on Spotify, there is something for everyone, no matter where and when they want to listen to one”, she said. The campaign features 5 ad films and will be promoted via online videos, news apps, and social media platforms. The first ad film highlights the storytelling in Bhaskar Bose, while the next two take you down the self-help lane with The Ranveer Show, and Gita For The Young &amp; Restless; then, there’s the one for the astrology believer in you, while the last one is all about nostalgia with Yaadon Ka Idiot Box. The campaign will run for a month, starting today. <div type="Youtube" id="pxLg2EX3sxo" title="Spotify | Solve Cases while Cleaning Spaces" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/pxLg2EX3sxo/mqdefault.jpg"></div> There is no doubt that podcasts have become a buzzword over the last few years, and more so in 2020, as people spent more time at home, and both listening and creation of audio content steadily increased in India. Spotify launched more than 30 local podcast Originals during the time, and India became one of the fastest growing markets for Anchor, a Spotify tool that allows for the creation and distribution of podcasts.

Spotify launches its first campaign to build awareness around podcasts and the role audio content can play in a listener’s life

<ul class="summary-list"><li>NYC mayoral hopeful <keyword id="739187" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Andrew-Yang">Andrew Yang</keyword>'s pitch to an LGBTQ political club went disastrously wrong, per a New York Times report.</li><li>Yang grated the members with glib references to gay bars and gay people being "a secret weapon."</li><li>One member of the club described his pitch as having "Michael Scott levels of cringe." </li></ul><keyword id="72226" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="New-York-City">New York City</keyword> mayoral frontrunner Andrew Yang bewildered members of a prominent LGBTQ+ political club in the city with "Michael Scott levels of cringe" while trying to win their endorsement, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/22/nyregion/andrew-yang-gays-stonewall.html">The New York Times reported Thursday. </a>Several members of the Stonewall Democrats of New York City relayed to The Times and posted on Twitter that Yang offended the group by referring to the gay community as "so beautiful and human" and "a secret weapon," and his constant references to gay bars and clubs. Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-staffers-making-their-mark-in-the-biden-administration-2021-3">15 Gen Zers in the Biden administration share what inspires them and how to get a leg up in Washington</a>"I genuinely do love you and your community," Yang said, according to a recording of a part of the event <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/22/nyregion/andrew-yang-gays-stonewall.html">obtained by The Times</a>. "You're so human and beautiful. You make New York City special. I have no idea how we ever lose to the Republicans given that you all are frankly in, like, leadership roles all over the Democratic Party.""He kept calling us 'Your community', like we were aliens," one member, filmmaker Harris Doran, told The Times."Oh man Andrew Yang at the Stonewall endorsement meeting was an inexperienced, ill informed joke who keep telling us his campaign manager was gay over and over and naming one gay bar over and over," Doran <a href="https://twitter.com/harrisdoran/status/1385067184305623040">also posted on Twitter on Wednesday night</a>. "If you are thinking of voting for him, I beg of you, god help us, don't.""When I see a candidate come in just with Michael Scott levels of cringe and insensitivity, it either tells me Andrew Yang is in over his head or is not listening to his staff," Stonewall Club member Alejandra Caraballo <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/22/nyregion/andrew-yang-gays-stonewall.html">told The Times</a>. "Those are both radioactive flashing signs that say he is not prepared to be mayor of New York."The Democratic primary for mayor, which will be the first ranked-choice mayoral election in New York City's history, is set to take place on June 22.Yang was the first choice for 22% of likely Democratic primary voters <a href="https://www.ny1.com/content/dam/News/static/nyc/pdfs/Spectrum_News_NY1_Poll_Apr_18_2021.pdf">in a recent Spectrum NY1/Ipsos poll</a>, followed by Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams at 13%, New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer at 11%, and former CitiGroup execute Ray McGuire at 6%. The Stonewall Club chose to endorse Stringer for its first choice, nonprofit executive Dianne Morales for its second, and McGuire for its third. Rose Christ, the club's president, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/22/nyregion/andrew-yang-gays-stonewall.html">told The Times</a> that Yang's tone was "outdated," and that his focus on gay bars and parades "are not the substantive issues that our membership cares about and it came off poorly."Sasha Neha Ahuja, one of Yang's campaign managers who herself identifies at LGBTQ, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/22/nyregion/andrew-yang-gays-stonewall.html">told The Times:</a> "I hope Andrew continues to have space for folks to listen with an open heart about the experiences of all communities that have been deeply impacted by years of oppression. I apologize if folks felt some type of way about it."

Andrew Yang offended an LGBTQ political group with 'Michael Scott levels of cringe and insensitivity,' report says

<ul><li>Spotify capitalised on Truecaller’s brand solutions to maximize the brand visibility and saw 30% more clicks in a single day for its launch campaign. </li><li>Zoomcar managed to achieve over 400 million impressions for its brand campaign after using Truecaller</li><li>India is the largest revenue contributor for Truecaller globally</li></ul>When Swedish mobile app Truecaller started buying and selling ad inventories programmatically in 2017, a lot of people were not aware of its potential. Fast forward to now, Truecaller’s programmatic platform has helped brands like Spotify and Zoomcar to capitalize on the platform’s 100 million daily active premium smartphone users in India, to send out their communications and see close to 500 million impressions in one day for their campaigns. Spotify launched in India in February this year and during the launch phase, the music streaming app capitalised on Truecaller’s brand solutions to maximize the brand visibility and saw 30% more clicks in a single day. By using Truecaller’s contextual capabilities, Spotify’s launch campaign, ‘There’s A Playlist For That’ ended up delivering over 500 million impressions in a single day. Similarly, Zoomcar again used Truecaller to reach out to its users across major cities, to promote its three-day offer of 100% off on bookings made towards the end of May, earlier this year. The numbers from both the campaigns are impressive. Both Spotify and Zoomcar saw 500 million and 400 million impressions respectively for their campaigns. We recently spoke to Tejinder Gill, Vice President Global Sales, Truecaller to understand how the programmatic ecosystem has evolved in the country in the past few years. Sharing his views on some of the biggest advantages of using programmatic advertising, Gill said, “When you look at it from a publisher’s lens, programmatic has helped us get better yield. We get more money for our inventory and everything can be optimized automatically at the back-end. We’ve now also started offering guaranteed deals called ‘Programmatic Guaranteed’ through which we can sell all our premium inventories like Roadblocks programmatically.” Gill further shares that moving to programmatic has also helped in bringing about a lot of operational efficiencies. “We no longer need a big team. Currently, three people are managing ad operations and programmatic for Truecaller globally, which includes large markets like India, Middle East and Africa. On an average, these people manage over 100 campaigns a month, which means three campaigns per day, which is a pretty high volume,” adds Gill. It has also helped in regularizing payment cycles, he shares. Gill believes programmatic is very helpful for marketers too, who now know exactly where their campaigns are running, which has given them a lot of confidence and control over their campaigns. “They are also getting better insights and are able to optimize their campaigns. They know how frequently we are reaching out to consumers and what geographies they are from,” he explains. The fact that the pricing is transparent has also helped win over a lot of clients, shares Gill. Speaking about how Truecaller helped them reach their target audience and drive effectiveness, Varun Jha, Chief Marketing Officer, Zoomcar, said, “Through Truecaller, we managed to achieve over 400 million impressions for our brand campaign. By tapping such a large quality audience through Truecaller, we were able to generate user interest that led to direct conversions during our campaign. Having witnessed such exceptional metrics, we would surely partner with Truecaller in the future for our brand promotion.” Sharing her experience, Neha Ahuja, Head of Marketing - India, Spotify said, “Being recent entrants to the Indian music streaming landscape, collaborating with fellow Swedish app Truecaller truly accelerated our launch campaign in India. It helped us gain scale and connect with potential 1.3M users who clicked on our ads through Truecaller.” Gill also feels that programmatic has evolved a lot in the last few years. He shares that close to 70% of marketers are today choosing to transact programmatically. Moreover, during the first phase, only display ads were available programmatically. However, today, YouTube mastheads, and inventory on Facebook and Google can be bought programmatically, which is leading to the entire ecosystem moving towards programmatic. So how important is India for Truecaller in the global scheme of things? ‘Very’, says Gill who shares that India is the largest market for Truecaller globally. “India is far ahead of the curve in terms of programmatic when compared to a lot of other markets like MENA and Africa. We are also the largest revenue contributors and will continue to grow as we scale up,” he adds.

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How Spotify will use marketing and communication to bring in its next phase of growth in India

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How Spotify used its ‘3 Billion Playlists’ to stand out in the clutter: Case Study

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How Spotify Used its ‘3 Billion Playlists’ to Stand out in the Clutter: Case Study

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Spotify launches its first campaign to build awareness around podcasts and the role audio content can play in a listener’s life

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Andrew Yang offended an LGBTQ political group with 'Michael Scott levels of cringe and insensitivity,' report says

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