Case Study

Spotify Indonesia weaves ‘Scenario Threads’ into its podcast originals launch

Key Results

11.5M
impressions on 1st day

+161%
in MoM brand mentions

236K
total engagements

The opportunity:

With the popularity of podcasts skyrocketing in recent years, Spotify Indonesia (@SpotifyID) knew there was an opportunity to tap into a set of captive audiences. To launch the format in Indonesia, the audio giant decided to create four new series in the country’s favorite genres: horror (Kisah Horor: The Sacred Riana), crime (Pembunuh Berantai & LENYAP), love and relationships (Dear Dearest). To launch these Podcast Originals, they wanted to cut through the noise with a fresh and exciting approach — and that’s when they turned to Twitter.

The strategy:

To launch the podcasts, @SpotifyID wanted to bring the audio experience to life for their listeners, so they used Twitter's Thread feature to create a "scenario thread", an interactive format that’s unique to Twitter. In this first-of-its-kind execution in Southeast Asia, the “choose-your-own-adventure” format featured a series of connected scenario Tweets, which ultimately let the user decide at each junction of the story how they wanted to navigate the next stage of the mysterious, dark tale laid out in the podcast.

@SpotifyID used the Promoted Tweet thread to kickstart the journey and bring listeners to the prologue of the series — a GIF teaser designed to intrigue and capture the imagination. After viewing the prologue, and at each junction after that, users could choose between multiple Tweet options to decide how the story continues. Different choices would lead to different endings, and ultimately, to the podcast itself. 

Then, @SpotifyID tapped on Trend Takeover to maximize the campaign’s visibility and ensure the campaign hashtag #SobatPodcastSpotify would remain at the top of Twitter’s trend list for the entire day. That, along with wide awareness garnered by the individual Image Ads for each podcast, @SpotifyID and the four new original podcasts became the centre of the conversations.

Tags
  • Asia Pacific
  • Media & Entertainment

01

Put innovation at the core

To engage new and existing users, @SpotifyID boldly decided to try a new format — and was rewarded for it. To spark their interest in the podcasts, @SpotifyID used an interactive series of Tweets meticulously threaded together to unravel the story at the audience’s discretion. @SpotifyID cleverly gamified the journey that would ultimately bring the audience to the podcast.

02

 

Own the conversation

@SpotifyID wanted to maximize awareness from the onset, so they used Trend Takeover to roll out a high-impact takeover of the Explore tab for a full 24 hours. @SpotifyID also used the #SobatPodcastSpotify hashtag across the four original podcasts. In the end, @SpotifyID saw that people would naturally gravitate towards their preferred podcast genres.

03

 

Localise and tailor content to the audience

Always aim to create content that taps into a market’s culture, language, and nuances so that local audiences can appreciate and gravitate towards it. In the case of Indonesia, horror proved popular among users, which allowed @SpotifyID to connect with them.

The success:

@SpotifyID’s podcast launch was a huge success, with the #SobatPodcastSpotify hashtag achieving a stellar 11.5M impressions during the Trend Takeover on its launch date and a total of 38.9M impressions across the month-long campaign.

The “scenario threads” and individual promotions for each podcast received overall positive reviews, with many users Tweeting how they enjoyed the fear and suspense that the threads created. 

With an overall Tweet thread engagement rate of 3.29% and 236K engagements, the innovative format was both captivating and effective. The thread for horror fiction podcast “Kisah Horor: The Sacred Riana,” was especially effective: It captured an engagement rate of 3.50%, rocketing past the industry benchmark.* The cherry on top? The campaign generated 324K mentions of the Spotify brand — a 161% increase compared to the same period the previous month.

In 2020, Spotify expanded our podcast offering in Indonesia with four new Podcast Originals spanning horror, love, and true crime. Partnering with Twitter, we discovered that Twitter threads had become a familiar and often viral way of engaging with content in Indonesia. Together with Twitter, we worked on creative ways to own the moment by speaking to genre lovers and introducing them to the podcast listening experience on Spotify. The result of the partnership exceeded expectations, creating excitement and buzz around these podcasts in the market.

Jan-Paul Jeffrey, Head of Marketing, Spotify SEA

Footnote:
*Engagement rate industry benchmark is 3.29%

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