Spotify
Car Thing

They made a bunch of Car Things and couldn’t sell them. Then they met us.

  • How do you sell a Thing?

    You have a phone. It plays music. It connects to your car. Your car plays the music. Easy enough, right? Spotify didn’t think so. Because when you’re speeding down the highway at 75 mph (don’t lie, we all speed) headbanging to “No More (Baby I’ma Do Right)” by 3LW, the last thing you need to be doing is fumbling with your phone to choose your next jam.

    Enter: Car Thing. A thing for your car. Specifically.

    But how do you launch Spotify’s first-ever hardware product when everyone just thinks what they have is “just fine?” People didn’t get it – or why it was better than their phone. The answer came with this realization: Car Thing’s not better. It just makes music in your car better. Because improving your music experience is Spotify’s thing.

    So we shouted that from the rooftops in a hybrid local/national integrated campaign. Figuratively, of course. In paid social. On billboards. Car charging stations. Gas Station TV. Podcasts. Radio. Connected TV. Across the internet in hundreds of versions of addressable OLA. And through a full-on performance media plan. And we did it all in less than a month.

    Something seemed to connect. On day one, more people made Car Thing their thing. 2,000% more than usual. And it had significant reach, with more than 150M impressions over the life of the month-long campaign.

Black and white illustration of a bubbling chemical beaker.
A brightly lit billboard at night outdoors, displaying an advertisement for Spotify that reads, 'All your music in one place,' with an image of a streaming device and a Spotify logo, next to a park bench and trees.
Billboard advertisement for Spotify's Car Thing, featuring a photo of a driver and a close-up of a car's dashboard with music controls, with text promoting Car Thing and music as your thing.
Three smartphones displaying different screens of a mobile app related to music, navigation, and messaging on a green background.
City street with a large billboard advertisement for Spotify, showcasing a car dashboard with a phone holder. The ad's text reads: 'Simply Spotify. Not toggling between apps. Car Thing.' The building behind has graffiti art and the sky is clear.
An empty green screen with large dark green text that reads '0%'.
Zoomed in view of the chemical element symbol 'OM' on the periodic table with a dark green background.