Spotify

The Power Of Audio

Exploring audio’s new era for consumers and brands alike...  

What’s That Sound?

Spotify briefed Crowd DNA to work on the Power Of Audio – a trailblazing thought leadership study investigating, and celebrating, the role of sound in our lives, and what the future holds in store.

It’s no surprise that Spotify takes audio very seriously. It needs to know how, when and why people are listening, and what the new audio moments are. It also needs to help brands understand sound and how it can become a more effective part of the marketing mix.

Deprivation Methods

The fieldwork was significant, covering three continents and involving over 40 hours of interviews, with subject matter extending from music and podcasts, to voice activation and sonic branding.

We worked with 46 consumers in the US, UK, Brazil and Japan, conducting audio diary tasks (including deprivation phases), Skype interviews to dig deeper and filmed ethnographic sessions to truly build empathy around use cases and need states. We discovered a huge amount about people’s audio moments (singing in the shower among them!), how audio is used for mood control and the powerful recognition of brand sounds.

Key Points Of Focus

1: What is the power of audio?
2: What makes music special?
3: What makes spoken word special?
4: What is the creative opportunity in audio?
5: What is the future of audio?

The Expert View

Running in tandem was our work with experts – 14 in total, ranging from artists and producers, to academics, marketing heads, innovators, advertising consultants and content producers. Each of them provided a fresh perspective on why audio matters so much. Themes explored included audio and memory, audio’s role in next generation marketing and the power of the podcast.

Landing The Story

With the work first launched at the high profile industry event, the Consumer Electronics Show, in Las Vegas, 2017, outputs created by Crowd DNA’s Socialise team included image galleries and series of broadcast quality films (sizzle, main film and theme specific) that editorialised this thought leadership work in an accessible and narrative-led way.