Jingle all the way

We’re talking about a Kellogg ’s playlist to go with breakfast and a TUI travel playlist with the sounds of the South Seas while listeners are at work. Another highlight: how about a Gillette playlist as you get ready for the day? Ok, we take it you can see what we’re driving at! The idea behind it all: branding playlists that get that corporate message out there while establishing a direct connection with your brand’s target audiences – at precisely the right time. Adidas was one of the first labels to integrate company playlists into their brand campaigns – also introducing a web app to go with it: users add their location, favourite song, mood and how far they want to run, and hey presto, a ready-to-go playlist flashes up on their smartphone.

High-end French fragrance label Phlur is casting a spell on consumers with selected seasonal products that whisk listeners away to France and immerse them in a world of premium perfumes. In Austria, the multipartner JÖ Club platform picks up Spotify subscribers  and takes them on an individual audio journey to the destination of their choice. From spiriting them off to Majorca with Spanish sounds, to the shores of the Adriatic courtesy of Italian classics.

Back to the future

Talking of Spotify: the world’s biggest music streaming platform spotted the potential of branded playlists a long time ago. Put another way: it looks like we’re finally finding our way back to what music does best – triggering and regulating emotions. Sports apparel manufacturers are sponsoring work-out playlists while cool streetwear labels are serving up hip-hop to their fans. Another advantage of the whole approach is that it treats listeners to relatively interruption-free music and, quite simply, wins their hearts in the process.

A successful mix of brand building and aural value added. The Italian pasta maker Barilla published various playlists on Spotify that run for as long as it takes for the pasta to cook to perfection. Now that’s what I call marketing. And when listeners hit the stores, it’s precisely this brand that they will be adding to their carts. “Life is a combination of magic and pasta” as Frederico Fellini put it.