#LoveAds started as an internal campaign idea ahead of the annual Spotify Europe advertising sales team conference. It was a simple message that we devised for the entire advertising team, Spotify for Brands, to express their pride in our ad products.
Our brand partners are often subscribers to Spotify themselves and can forget that the majority of our users listen to Spotify for free (109 million globally, to be specific), in turn hearing and seeing ads.
We know we have great ad products that work for our users and our brand partners, so why not wear that as a badge of honour?
Although it started as a European initiative, it soon travelled. #LoveAds became a movement within the company, with all Spotify ad sales teams globally now proudly taking part.
The hashtag has given us a common language to highlight campaigns we’re proud to have worked on, ideas we want to push forward and outstanding results delivered for clients.
Tough decisions
However, the campaign is not just a hashtag and has also involved tough decisions.
For example, we used to give Spotify Premium gift cards to our advertising clients, but we’ve decided to bring this to an end. Why prevent our partners from hearing and seeing how great their ads are on Spotify? We think it’s important that our partners experience the excellence of Spotify’s ad-supported service.
As we started to share the #LoveAds hashtag outside of Spotify on social media, we saw people take notice and express an interest in what we were doing. We realised our internal movement could be something bigger and more interesting.
In an industry that continually beats itself up, with negative headlines and competing channels attacking each other, our simple theme of #LoveAds is resonating.
It is our hope that #LoveAds becomes a positive message that the whole community can get behind, reminding us all why we should be proud to work in a dynamic, creative, valuable and innovative industry.
We are now working on new ideas to expand the proposition and hopefully find plenty of advocates who want to talk positively on the topic. The opportunities are unlimited, just as the great work we all do is. We just don’t talk about it enough.
Spotify for Brands is going to celebrate what we do and we hope others get behind it, creating a focus for good in our industry.
Please join us and tag all your favourite ads, celebrations of achievement and reasons why you love advertising – #LoveAds.
Marco Bertozzi is vice-president of sales, Europe, at Spotify