Spotify advertises itself

The Future. Spotify is rolling out a new ad campaign, “All Ears on You,” in order to woo more advertisers to its platform. With podcast revenue expected to top $2 billion by 2023 in the U.S., Spotify may be positioning itself as an advertiser’s audio answer to social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Snap.

“All Ears on You”
Spotify is turning up the volume on its advertising business.

• The company is launching its first global brand campaign, dubbed “All Ears You.”
• It’s also changing the name of its ad business to Spotify Advertising.
• Spotify wants to attract small and medium-sized businesses, not just large brands, which has been a winning strategy for Facebook’s ad business.
• The ads, which include the tag-line “Reach the most immersed audience” will roll out in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, and Spain.

The campaign comes as Spotify starts to see significant growth in its ad business. Last quarter, it made up 12% of the company’s revenue, up from 7% the same time last year, said CEO Daniel Ek.

Podcast play
The biggest driver of Spotify’s ad business is the company’s splashy push into podcasting. The company has spent heavily to build its podcasting infrastructure — acquiring podcast ad platform Megaphone and podcast tools company Anchor, launching its Spotify Audience Network to help advertisers target listeners, and allowing ad-insertion right in the middle of streaming episodes.

The gambit has paid off when it comes to listenership — Spotify is about to surpass market leader Apple with 28.2 million monthly podcast listeners. Still, the company has admitted that its podcast ad business has a lot of room to grow. The company must think that the messaging to the creator and advertising community is to blame.