Spotify sold ads to CMOs by writing a personalized song about each one

Spotify's ad business needed chief marketing officers to take digital audio seriously. The standard B2B playbook — whitepapers, feature lists, media kits — treats marketers as procurement officers, and Spotify's own team called that the most boring corner of advertising.

FCB New York's counter-move: since CMOs themselves listen to Spotify, use the platform to reach them. The team wrote and produced original songs about individual CMOs — a country anthem for Mastercard's Raja Rajamannar, tunes for marketing chiefs at Frito-Lay, Kimberly-Clark, Indeed, CVS, General Mills, Haleon, Wendy's and Cadillac — each matched to that person's musical taste.

Each song was simultaneously a gift, a joke and a product demo: to make a track about one named executive, Spotify had to prove it knew that executive — exactly the laser-targeting it was selling. The flattered CMOs shared their songs, carrying the pitch into their own networks.

The campaign won the first-ever Gold Creative B2B Lion at Cannes Lions in 2022 and returned for a second series the same year. At The One Show 2023 the series landed 31 shortlisted entries, helping FCB New York lead the festival with 86 shortlisted pieces overall.

Pitch the medium by serenading the buyer with it

A song about you is unpitchable-by-competitors: only a platform with real targeting data could credibly make it.

Naming real CMOs converted media targets into willing distribution — they shared their own tribute tracks.

It sold a feeling (audio is fun and personal) that rate cards and reach tables cannot convey.

Making the demo the gift collapsed B2B's distance between case study and campaign.

The best B2B pitch is the product used on the buyer: personalization that flatters one named person demonstrates targeting power better than any reach statistic.

Round two in September 2022 added Mastercard, Haleon, Wendy's and Cadillac CMOs after what Spotify's Ann Piper called 'glowing — and tickled — responses' from round one. The work was recognized across the Clio Awards, ANDYs, D&AD and The One Show, and became a template for B2B work that behaves like consumer creativity.