Equalising music with Smirnoff
As an industry, we recognize we have a lot of work to do to ensure gender parity, and Spotify is working hard to drive change on our own platform and through Spotify partnerships. So Smirnoff and Spotify teamed up to help listeners hear what unconscious bias actually sounds like.
The challenge
To tackle the music world’s gender imbalance head on, Smirnoff was eager to build a campaign that provoked listeners and asked them to rethink their subconscious streaming behaviors.
The big idea
We decided to build an experience that allowed listeners to not only challenge their own perceptions, but to empower them to do something about it. Using our Streaming Intelligence, we provided listeners with a gender breakdown of their listening habits, as well as a sliding scale allowing them to correct the balance.
The magic
To understand how gender played a role in listener's tastes, we first had to understand the role it played in streaming.
This meant creating an advanced tagging system, categorizing songs, albums, and artists along the gender spectrum. After all, shattering the glass ceiling starts with counting the cracks.
Enter the Equalizer, a microsite featuring a playlist generator that linked to your Spotify account and analyzed your listening history by gender.
Whatever the outcome, listeners would be offered a more balanced playlist tailored to their Taste Profile. Smirnoff even added a slider in case users wanted to explore what a different gender balance sounds like.
Righting the record will take time — but now we've got receipts.