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It’s been an eventful week for Spotify. As reported by our sister publication The Hustle, the corporate introduced a spherical of layoffs simply days after the launch of its annual marketing campaign Spotify Wrapped.
Whereas The Hustle talked concerning the enterprise and worker implications of Spotify’s current layoffs instantly following Wrapped, I’d like to check out this sequence of occasions from a advertising perspective.
The Advertising and marketing Energy of Spotify Wrapped
Wrapped is to Spotify what “All I Want for Christmas Is You” is to Mariah Carey — a positive wager for engagement on the finish of every yr.
Because it started in 2016, Spotify Wrapped has given customers an in depth evaluation of their listening habits every year. Whereas Wrapped was initially distributed in e mail format, its recognition exploded when social media sharing was added to the combination.
The thought to show Wrapped outcomes into sharable social media tales was pitched by former Spotify intern Jewel Ham in 2019. Since then, Spotify customers can see their year-end knowledge inside the platform’s app and simply share listening stats on to their Instagram tales.
In keeping with Time, 156 million customers engaged with Wrapped in 2022, and it’s estimated that half of Spotify Wrapped customers share their outcomes to their Instagram tales. That’s numerous optimistic engagement Spotify can rely on every year.
Not solely has the marketing campaign supplied content material alternatives for Spotify customers, however a number of manufacturers have hopped on board creating their versions of Wrapped and meme posts parodying Spotify’s branding.
Spotify launched the 2023 Wrapped outcomes on Wednesday, November 29. Per typical, social media feeds have been flooded with Wrapped graphics and parody memes. Nonetheless, just some days later, the corporate made main bulletins that forged a shadow over the optimistic buzz generated by Wrapped.
Then Got here the Layoffs
On December 4, Spotify introduced it was shedding 17% of its workforce, round 1.5k folks.
This was the platform’s third spherical of layoffs in 2023, following reductions in January and June. After the layoffs have been introduced, mentions of Spotify on social media had a typically negative sentiment.
While the tech industry has seen a wave of job cuts this year, the timing of this round of layoffs didn’t cast Spotify in a positive light for the following reasons:
- In Q3, the company reported profit for the first time in a year, with €32M in working earnings (about $34.6M)
- Workers have been let go instantly after they accomplished work on a significant marketing campaign that had a optimistic impression on the corporate
- Employees have been laid off in the course of the vacation season when folks are inclined to have extra monetary obligations
Whereas we all know that Spotify, like every enterprise, is seeking to reduce prices and enhance profitability, this sequence of occasions wasn’t look within the courtroom of public opinion the place most individuals empathize extra with the wants of workers than corporations.
If Spotify have been to provide its personal Wrapped chronicling firm occasions in 2023, it could yield fascinating outcomes.
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