Spotify Wrapped: What marketers can learn from the viral campaign

The end of the year is a time of reflection. As one chapter comes to a close, people look at where they’ve been in preparation for where they’re going. After all, you can’t make a New Year’s resolution without knowing what you want to accomplish. It’s the time of year where people buy planners, get gym memberships and write holiday letters recapping their year for friends and family. This is the backdrop that makes Spotify Wrapped so successful.

Think about it. Just as you’re reflecting on everything 2022 has brought, Spotify provides you with the soundtrack that got you through it. Whether your year was full of confident and upbeat pop songs or maybe one too many break-up ballads, the music you listened to is a reflection of the year you’ve had. Whether you were surprised by your Wrapped or knew exactly what was coming, this year’s edition had something for everyone.

Spotify Wrapped through the years

Spotify Wrapped has been showing users their musical year in review since 2016. With stats on the amount of time you’ve spent listening, your top artists and a playlist of your top 100 songs, the annual round-up has become a staple for users.

It’s also become a hot topic on social media. Spotify Wrapped comes in an easily shareable format with quick links to repost to your favorite social media platforms.

For Spotify users, Wrapped is another way to share who they are and what they like with their friends and followers. For Spotify, it’s a viral marketing tool. To see just how effective the Spotify Wrapped campaign is, we dove into the Sprout Social Listening tool. Every year, Spotify Wrapped gets bigger and bigger on social media, with massive engagement gains between 2020 and 2021.

While 2021 might have been a banner year for the Spotify Wrapped campaign, 2022 has been even bigger. Total volume of posts, engagements, potential engagements and unique authors hit double-digit percentage increases over 2021 with the first three days alone bringing in over 400 million Tweets.

It’s clear that Spotify’s unique combination of personalization, shareability and seasonality is hitting the right notes with their audience.

What marketers can learn from Spotify Wrapped

As marketers look forward to 2023 planning, there are three key lessons to take away from Spotify’s Wrapped campaign.

Sharing is caring

Spotify Wrapped is extremely sharable. The content is optimized for social media and the in-app experience prompts users to share to social media. Creating personalized content that your audience wants to share is a winning strategy. Give your audience a conversation to join and the engagement will follow.

Rinse and repeat

Even though the format of Spotify Wrapped generally stays the same, it gets bigger on social every year. Annual campaigns–especially around the end of the year–create a sense of ritual that your consumers will crave. Give your audience something to look forward to with ritualized content.

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Join in the fun

When other brands create viral content, there’s no reason you shouldn’t join in on the fun. Creating brand specific versions of popular content is a great way to join the conversation. Guinness Beer built out brand specific content using the Wrapped format to engage with their audience. It’s a low-lift way to jump on a trend.

Sustaining your success

Spotify has proven that sticking with your proven formula for success can work wonders for your social strategy. Wondering how to find your own formula for going viral? This article will tell you everything you need to know for your next viral campaign.