As F1 fans held their breath for what would ultimately prove to be one of the most nail-biting races of the 2023-2024 season, Spotify returned to Singapore’s illuminated Marina Bay Street Circuit for its second consecutive year—and offered no shortage of entertainment fit for the occasion.

Earlier in the week, Spotify Advertising and the South East Asia music team co-hosted the Spotify Lounge—an exclusive industry label mixer celebrating Singapore’s 10th year anniversary as well as regional and local talents—while for the race weekend itself the Spotify F1 Sky Suite nodded to iconic touchpoints of the famous night race, with a Spotify twist. The exclusive area included an immersive experiential design, a music pitwall, album artwork from local artists, and much more over the course of three spectacular evenings at Pit Straight.

Across the weekend, the Spotify global and regional sales teams hosted over 50 senior executives from top brands such as Coca-Cola, Disney, L’Oreal, and Visa, as well as agency holding groups including Hakuhodo and Dentsu from Japan.

Ads.spot caught up with Brad Grealy, Spotify’s Head of Sales in the Asia-Pacific region, to hear how the weekend unfolded and how enterprise brands and agencies can take advantage of Spotify’s accelerated growth in an ever-evolving ads landscape.

Hi Brad! Tell us about yourself and your role at Spotify. What were your favorite moments of the Singapore F1 this year?

I’ve been with Spotify for several years, and I was fortunate to take on a new role in 2022 overseeing our Advertising Sales business in the Asia-Pacific region, based in Singapore. It’s been an amazing experience both personally and professionally, given the diversity of culture which exists here. Thanks to the continued growth of our ad-supported audience in the region, we are increasing the size of our local teams and developing our product roadmap to meet the unique needs of advertisers in this part of the world.

F1 is a great opportunity for us to spend time with valuable advertising partners, labels, and artists—and of course watch the action-packed race together. This year, we finally saw the pendulum swing away from Red Bull who had been dominating the season. Also, watching Post Malone’s first performance in Singapore was a very memorable experience—he was super interactive and engaging with fans, though he had a lot to say about the humidity!

Can you highlight how the ads landscape is changing in the Asia-Pacific region?

With the growth of Spotify’s ad-supported audience, marketers have an opportunity to reach Gen Z audiences at scale as they enjoy their favorite content on Spotify while on the go. People are listening to and viewing Spotify content for over two hours a day,¹ while streaming music and podcast content in general have been the fastest-growing forms of entertainment consumption in terms of time spent over the last year.² In short, Spotify is able to offer a more immersive, multi-format entertainment experience that can soundtrack the entire day.

Why is Spotify Advertising an invaluable business partner at this time? And what conversation stands out the most from the agencies and brands that we hosted this year?

Given how challenging it can be to cut through the noise, Spotify Advertising helps marketers connect with audiences while they’re in a very attentive and engaged state of mind. In fact, volume two of Spotify’s Sonic Science research found that one in three listeners focused all of their attention on audio when tuning into Spotify—and that 60% of listeners’ ad engagement carried over from the audio content heard immediately before.³ This year, many brands were referring to “Attention” as a leading metric by which they’ll measure the return on their advertising investment for the first time—and our recent Sonic Science report highlights the potential for success Spotify offers in this regard.

This year we invited Eric Nam, Sezairi and Warren Hue to mingle with partners in the Spotify F1 Sky Suite. What are the benefits of showcasing our relationship with creators at an advertiser event like this?

Our primary mission as an Advertising business is to help brands connect with audiences and creators in meaningful ways. Having top-tier talent like Sezairi, Eric Nam and Warren Hue with us this year illustrates how Spotify is at the center of music culture, and how advertising on Spotify benefits local creators in Asia-Pacific. And in addition to being amazing artists, both Sezairi and Eric are a lot of fun and very outgoing individuals.

This is the second time Spotify has hosted at the Singapore F1. Why is this an important tentpole moment for the region?

Singapore is an amazing city, and when Formula 1 comes to town it really doubles down on all the cultural value it has to offer. The event attracts influential guests on a global scale, all here to soak up the excitement and embrace the local culture. Wherever there’s this much energy and impact, Spotify wants to be there.

Ads.spot also chatted with creators Eric Nam and Sezairi who joined Spotify partners for the thrilling night race in Singapore.

How was your experience in the Spotify F1 Sky Suite? What was your highlight of the night?

Eric: It was a great evening experiencing the night race in Singapore alongside some of Spotify's global partners. Meeting people throughout the night, watching the race, and it culminating in a spectacular fireworks show was a great experience. Spotify's suite was definitely the place to be!

Sezairi: For me attending F1 is always an amazing feeling. I get a kick from seeing the city I grew up in converted into a race track. The highlight was definitely being in the Spotify F1 Suite right across from the pit stop.

Fans are getting more comfortable with their favorite artists partnering with brands; can you speak to how that's developed?

Eric: I think working with brands is a core pillar of an artist's career. Not only is it an opportunity to create very impactful synergies between art and business, but to me it's very meaningful as it signifies that a brand recognizes what my work and I stand for, and trusts me to properly represent their brand. I think fans also understand this dynamic—that brands working with their favorite artists is not only good business, but validating of their decision to stan for a good artist or person. Fans aren't naive and understand that oftentimes brand partnerships are needed to help support artists, particularly independent or up-and-coming artists who do not have the support of major labels or massive fandoms.

In a time where interests continue to become more niche and communities are becoming increasingly diverse, I think having a multi-segmented approach to marketing is incredibly important and that's where artists of all different types can play integral roles.

Sezairi: To be honest I think it’s because the fans are much more cognisant of the fact that their favorite artists need multiple streams of income in this day and age. In my view, there’s also a sense of pride when their favourite artists collaborate with a brand that is synergistic with the vision of the artist.