Industry
Media & Entertainment
Scope
Research & Strategy
Digital Editorial Design
Creative Direction
System Design
Spotify, the world's largest music streaming service, was finally available in India. The brand needed to carve out a distinct niche among leading international players such as Apple Music and Amazon Music, as well as local players such as SAAVN and Gaana. Spotify needed to hit the right note as a highly anticipated brand among millennials.
Through our deep market insight, we collaborated with them to build the frameworks for an intuitive digital editorial design and set the rhythm for a culturally relevant strategy.
The most significant task was to assist Spotify in launching and scaling up in the diverse Indian market by striking the right chord and creating instant affinity. To accomplish this, it was necessary to research all the different types of music genres in the country to create a unified story. Our goal was to modernise the brand's visual expression to be more inclusive and culturally significant to connect with the vast landscape of Indian audiences while also retaining the brand's distinct communication style.
Understanding the landscape of Indian music
After several discussions with Spotify's editorial team, we began our own research for a comprehensive understanding of their brand expression. We identified regional music as the brand's largest bucket in India and aimed at the code of the cultural significance it held.
Developing the CX strategy
Approaching a new market for a global brand can present unique challenges. We aided Spotify's success in India by instilling a sense of belonging in the audience. Our strategy focused on the behavioural similarities of music lovers across geographies and genres. The experience was then localised for the Indian audience, speeding up the process and allowing the brand to transition smoothly into the new market without getting lost in translation.
Curating the visual story
We identified regional music as the largest bucket for the brand in India and cracked the code of the cultural significance it carried.
We discovered dimensions that established instant connections with Spotify’s audience across demographics. These insights were built into digital frameworks for the brand’s expression, colour, typography and visual elements - everything that pitched Spotify as anything but stereotypical.
Crafting a unified design system
A playlist cover is a crucial piece in the larger puzzle. Our next task was to ensure that each cover blended in with the larger picture on the homepage. Hence, we created a visual style guide to define a unified look and feel for each playlist cover as it plays out its own individual story.
Every cover is designed as a window into that playlist. The idea was to select images that bring out the local flavour and expression for each genre, mood or collection. We focussed on visual narratives that evoked emotions over traditional curation by metaphors. Our team dug for real situations, expressions and emotions over staged or posey photographs.
Moods & Moments Based
Language Flagship
To fuse the culture-inspired look with the brand’s visual feel, we skilfully layered the regional/ cultural themes and colours with the varied playlist moods. This blend focused more on culture as it dominates the playlist curation with a hint of the mood through visual elements and the use of colours.