Why Spotify makes sense for telco brands with ambitious marketing goals

Telecommunications brands face the challenge of putting the right products in front of the right people at the right time—and yet, 43% of telcos struggle with choosing the right marketing channels to do so.¹

But Spotify can make that decision a little easier. In the UK, more people are streaming music and podcasts than tuning into broadcast radio.² And in the arena of digital media more generally, Spotify is among the top leaders when it comes to driving engagement, outperforming all other media types—including video and social media—according to volume one of our Sonic Science research.³

This reach presents an opportunity for brands to speak directly to their ideal audiences via Spotify ads. And telco brands are getting on board: In fact, 65% of European telcos investing in digital audio believe that music streaming is more effective than other forms of media, and 63% believe podcasts are more effective.⁴

Still, there's room for telcos to take even more advantage of this popular format—today, telcos invest an average of just 18% of their overall audio budgets in digital audio, while tech companies invest more than one-third (34%).⁵

Here are three reasons why Spotify makes sense for your telecom marketing strategy.

1. Big or small, find your audience

As the stats above showcase, digital audio has superseded both traditional radio and social media as an attractive advertising format, making it an important component of telcos' overarching marketing strategies.

Advertising on Spotify offers a unique blend of reach across multiple devices, engagement opportunities, and the ability to speak to specific cultural moments and themes. The Spotify Audience Network has the scale to help telcos of any size deliver specific, targeted messages to audiences across a wide range of demographics. By harnessing the power of first-party data, you can also get your ads in front of the right listeners.

What's more, the dynamic nature of digital audio makes it an ideal format to speak to cultural moments and current events—whether that's a popular podcast, a relevant trending topic, or a playlist that's skyrocketed in listenership thanks to a hit TV show.

For telcos, one potential theme worth exploring via digital audio ads may be the 5G revolution. While 3G technology enabled web browsing and 4G technology facilitated mobile streaming, 5G's use cases are often less clear to day-to-day customers. To illustrate the importance of 5G, it helps to get use-case-specific in your telco advertising efforts.

You can showcase, for instance, how 5G supports faster and more seamless gaming, streaming, or other high-bandwidth tasks. By targeting relevant audiences on Spotify—like gamers or techies—telcos can demonstrate how their services have real impact on listeners' lives.

![[US, UK, DE, FR, IT, ES] News & Insights // Telcos Winning on Spotify // Inline 1](//images.ctfassets.net/tvhwpwv117no/5Zx8LmkjBypI8N8Inl1Agn/8ab65f893097f5acf8de739b9f7bd8ba/SAS-TelcoBrands-Article-INLINE.jpg)

2. Familiar formats, different experience

With traditional radio advertising, marketing messaging can easily get lost in the ether. Advertisers have few options for targeting beyond the entire station's listener demographics and the time of day their ad plays.

Spotify, on the other hand, offers intelligent and multi-format solutions that enable brands to create and share ads in a fitting context for their audiences—without interrupting the rhythm of a listener's day. In volume two of our Sonic Science research, we found that 73% of study participants agreed that they are open to listening to ads on audio streaming services, if the tone fits what they're doing at the time.⁶ In addition, Spotify makes it simple to track a campaign's success and adjust its elements until you've found the sweet spot.

Advertising on podcasts is another great tactic for telco brands to lean into. Some telcos are already seeing results with this approach. For example, BT increased awareness of their product offerings via Spotify podcast ads, generating a 19-point increase in awareness of BT's “unbreakable WiFi," as well as a 21-point increase in consideration of their product. Take it from Rhys Davies, Consumer Lead, Campaigns & Media, at BT, who—in our latest episode of Inside Tracks—explains how BT leverages Spotify's behavioural and interest targeting to reach their audience in key moments.

"Music is a passion point for so many people, and with the rise of podcasts finding niches in culture and people's interests, we have a really great opportunity to find pace with people who are choosing what they want to listen to, and to get our message in front of them at a time they're most likely to be paying attention.

We've seen great success with podcast advertising. When we were launching our hybrid broadbrand product to market, we were able to leverage Spotify's new call-to-action cards to showcase the product with a visual aspect that consumers weren't used to seeing on Spotify. We were able to target different podcast titles with different audiences, and we saw a really great performance [across brand metrics]".

— Rhys Davies, Consumer Lead, Campaigns & Media, BT

3. Spotify audiences are engaged

Spotify's first-party data from 2022 also shows that listening increases on the platform when people are considering switching telco providers—a key time for telcos to build awareness.⁷

In fact, our research shows that those considering switching telco providers are 158% more likely to listen to two to four hours' worth of podcasts each day, and they're 31% more likely to listen to two to four hours of music daily.⁸ To target these listeners, telcos can speak to their ultrafast speeds—e.g., "With 5G, never miss a moment of the music you love."

Ultimately, an effective telco advertising strategy may look a little like this:

1) Use targeting tactics to find your ideal audience for specific use cases.

2) Differentiate yourself with a unique selling proposition.

3) Amplify your impact with a multi-format advertising campaign.

4) Layer your campaign by adjusting its scale.

This telecom marketing strategy can help telco companies of all shapes and sizes deliver on their goals—whether that means driving brand affinity, reaching target audiences with new offers, or driving traffic.

Since completing the research with WARC to better understand telcos' challenges and objectives, Spotify has fine-tuned its advertising tools to create an environment even more conducive to telcos' needs. Learn more about how you can discover new, engaged audiences with digital audio ads.