D&AD Competition Brief Book
02
R e s e a rc h , D e v e l o p m e n t & F i n a l s
Book 2, D&AD Competitio n B r i e f – R e s e a rc h , D e v e l o p m e n t & F i n a l s
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The Brief
The Brief:
Audience:
We need a digital creative idea that will get people to be more interactive with Spotify on Facebook.
As Facebook users come in all shapes and sizes, and music means something to everybody, we’re looking for an idea that excites existing Spotify users. The sort of idea that will encourage them to talk and share. Students are a key audience for Spotify.
We want to get people to use music in their social conversations. We want to remind them that they can discover more about their friends through their music tastes, and discover even more music that they might enjoy.
• Use Spotify logo W ith the new music dashboard feature you can discover artists and tracks that are trending with your friends. It’s the thrill of looking through a friend’s music collection and finding a track that blows your mind.
Proposition: Discover what your world is listening to.
Tone: Sociable, Uncomplicated, Optimistic, Generous, Personal, Friendly
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Checklist of Communications:
B o o k 2 , D&AD Competition Brief – Research, Development & Finals
• The idea should live both within and beyond Facebook (idea of the different channels)
B a c k g ro u n d : Think of Spotify as your new music collection. Your library. Only this time your collection is vast: millions of tracks and counting. Spotify comes in all shapes and sizes, available for your PC, Mac, home audio system and mobile phone. Wherever you go, your music follows.
Music is one of the most social t hings
Users can see an overview of their
there is. That’s why for the past couple of years, we have been obsessed with what the next generation music service should look like. We knew that it had to be free to draw people away from piracy, as well as giving them the opportunity to listen to even more music.
friends’ top tracks, songs that are trending and recommend tracks based on their own listening.
To do this, we knew that the service would have to be inherently social. There’s no better place to do this than Facebook. Thanks to our integration with Facebook in September 2011, Spotify has become a seamless part of the social experience, making it easier than ever to discover and share music with friends. W ith 10 million current users, Spotify is hoping to tap into Facebook’s vast 800 million user base and build long term loyalty and paying subscriptions.
K e y F eatures of Spotify on F a c e b ook: • Music Dashboard - installed on the left-hand side of the Facebook p age.
• The T icker - will tell users what their Facebook friends are listening to right now. Just hit the play button to join in and listen with them. • Feed stories - means Facebook will occasionally share stories based on the music friends are listening to. So maybe “Jeff and Alison both listened to Bon Iver on Spotify”. Click the stories to listen to the tracks.
Summary: F ro m th e b r i e f s u p pl i e d I s e e th e ke y p o i n t s a s b e i n g ; – To e n c o u ra g e i n te ra c t i o n w i th S p o t i f y o n Fa c e b o ok . – To u s e m u s i c i n c o nve r s a t i o n s – D i s c ove r m o re a b o u t yo u r f r i e n d s th ro u g h m u s i c .
• Notifications - will appear in Music Dashboard letting users know if their friends have discovered music from their profile. • Collaborative playlists – users can then set up and add to collaborative playlists within Spotify. It’s like the ultimate mix tape, where everyone’s involved • Installation. All Spotify music posts feature a Play button. Clicking this button will start that song or album in Spotify.
Book 2, D&AD Competitio n B r i e f – R e s e a rc h , D e v e l o p m e n t & F i n a l s
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Initial Development 44 0
A3 Sheets
target market.
To get my initial thoughts and ideas out, I do a lot of things on paper. The following pages are of that work.
Doing some research I found that 72% of Facebook users were between the ages of 13–34. To make it a simple idea that can continue beyond facebook, also picking out the most important areas of the brief for me to focus on.
Here I was summarising the brief into a concise idea, Picking out keys points I could focus on, as well as defining the
B o o k 2 , D&AD Competition Brief – Research, Development & Finals
C o n t i nued points from the Brief: The first page here, is just expanding on the brief taking further points out, – Engage as many people as possible; an idea that doesn’t necessarily confine itself to just one demographic. – Get people to interact and liter ally communicate with music by using spotify; for people to intuitively use
spotify to express themselves. – For the output to be an easy, fun, enjoyable, friendly and personal thing. The second page is expanding upon the proposition ‘Discover what your world is listening to’. Also the tone of the output should be Sociable (warm, open, outgoing, approachable), Uncomplicated (simple, clear, straightforward, accessible, easy), Optimistic (hopeful, positive, cheery,
bright, friendly), Generous (giving, open minded, free) Personal (unique, individual), Friendly (warm, outgoing, accessible, open, relaxed). My solution needs to cover and encapsulate all these meanings and ideas.
Book 2, D&AD Competitio n B r i e f – R e s e a rc h , D e v e l o p m e n t & F i n a l s
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D e v e l o p i ng ideas and s o l u t i o n s:
what people do currently and think how
The second page is where I started to
can Spotify help them do that more”
The first pa ge is a collection of quotes taken from in interview with Nicki Lambert about the brief, she is the European Marketing Director for Spotify. Some of the quotes are:
“Don’t think too hard or be complex about it.”
put initial ideas down, some of the main ones were creating imagery of people literally communicating with music. Ideas about sharing music about setting it free, creating a parody about music being in slavery by just being owned by one person, that music is set free in sharing it. A parody campaign about it being like a revolution, to change the way we listen to music.
“The best ideas have come out of observing the way that people behave – think about what you do, how you interact with your friends ... look at
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“ W ith music being such a social thing it’s a massive opportunity to work with Facebook” The interview was really helpful being able to focus on the most important parts of the brief.
B o o k 2 , D&AD Competition Brief – Research, Development & Finals
C o n t i nued development:
used in spotify, an open playlist that anyone can add to.
On this next page I started to focus in on more specific ideas, the previous pages were more general ideas about marketing ideas. An idea about integrating making playlists on facebook, so when a n event is created on facebook, people can start creating a playlist together to be
It could be any event, a party, a long drive, a relaxed evening, a kids party. All the playlists could be kept and the most listened ones could comprise a top ten-esque list of all playlists.
Summary: A f te r i n i t i a l re s e a rch a n d re a d i n g a ro u n d th e b r i e f, a s we l l a s i n i t i a l i d e a s a n d d e ve l o p m e n t . – To re s e a rch i n to e x i s t i n g S p o t i f y fe a t u re s a n d a p p s , a s th e y a l re a d y h ave a ra n g e . – T h e n e x t s ta g e w i l l b e to re s e a rch g e n e ra l l y i n to o th e r a d ve r t s / c a m pa i g n s to s e e h ow o th e r s e n g a g e p e o pl e w i th a n e w i d e a . – To d e ve l o p i d e a s o u t o f th a t re s e a rch to c o n t i n u e o n to th e n e x t s ta g e .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotify http://www.kenburbary.com/2011/03/facebookdemographics-revisited-2011-statistics-2/
Book 2, D&AD Competitio n B r i e f – R e s e a rc h , D e v e l o p m e n t & F i n a l s
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Research – Existing Spotify Apps 88 0
Spotify already have a lot to offer the
You can change the colour and line
user, and it will only keep growing. This is research into what Spotify already does.
spacing of the text, you can get it as an app on your smart phone.
They have a range of apps available that can be added to the sidebar in Spotify, here I’ll have a look at those apps, and describe the benefits, and note any ideas of expansion I have.
Tunewiki
You can look up the lyrics online and search for others, but the coolest thing of all, you can look at the ‘Song Map’. Where it takes you to the tunewiki webpage with a google maps window, it locates your current location and shows you everywhere else that the same song is being played all around the world! That particular feature has no practical use, but that doesn’t stop me using it for every second song I listen to. This is a simple app, it doesn’t try anything fancy (apart from the Song Map, obviously) it is a bit of a gimmick, but would come into it’s own at a party. To ensure everyone was in sync with each other.
The first app is one called ‘tunewiki’, this app is designed for Karaoke, it identifies the song playing and provides the lyrics. You can sync the lyrics with the music so they’ll scroll across the screen as the song plays.
B o o k 2 , D&AD Competition Brief – Research, Development & Finals
S o u n d rop
Soundrop lets you discover, share and experien ce music instantly with your friends by taking the original concept of the jukebox and bringing it to any webenabled device and smartphone. Soundrop is easy to use. All you need are Spot ify and Facebook accounts. Drop a playlist from Spotify into Soundrop to open your spot. Your friends can join your spot directly from Spotify or their smartphones, and act as DJs by voting tracks up or even adding new tracks. You can also choose to join a friend’s spot and take your tur n as the DJ or simply enjoy the spot like a radio station.
Soundrop relies on music from Spotify,
want to go to, you can head over to
but your friends do not need a Spotify account to join in the fun. Soundrop’s mobile site works as a remote control for friends to vote for their favourite songs or add tracks to your spot.
Songkick’s website, register an account and build up a personalized calendar of which ones you’re going to and which you’ve been to in the past, complete with set lists, photos and other media.
This is really restoring some the original social aspect of music of people coming together to appreciate music. The the original jukebox.
This just makes seeing your favourite artists live so easy, you don’t have to sign up to emails or check gig lists. It does it all for you! You just sit back and plan all the concerts you want to go to.
Songkick App Moodagent App
Songkick scans your playlists and tells you when the artists you have saved are playing concerts near you, after you ’ve saved you locations. Then, when you know which ones you
Moodagent is an app within Spotify that picks just the right songs to match your current mood. Moodagent knows the mood and musical qualities of almost any track and generates perfect
Book 2, D&AD Competitio n B r i e f – R e s e a rc h , D e v e l o p m e n t & F i n a l s
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playlists.
Last.FM
which features scrobbling stats about artists and users can launch a Similar Tracks playlist from the song currently playing in that tab
You can als o search the Spotify library directly from the Moodagent interface and select any track as a starting point for your mood based playlist. The playlist can be modified to suit your listening needs in various ways. Say you want to start off with the slow songs from the playlist and gradually want to listen to faster songs.
This offers a very similar thing as moodagent but with a much bigger foundation.
Pitchfork
Play any track in Spotify and drag it to either the Moodagent logo in the Spotify sidebar or the Moodagent drop zone, and you’ll instantly get a tailor made playlist of matching songs.
Spotify integrated Last.fm scrobbling into their service almost from day one, but scrobbling on its own really didn’t connect the two services meaningfully enough.
This is a very effective app, it quickly assembles a playlist, similar to itunes’ Genius.
You can sign in to Last.fm, or start a new profile, the overview page displays the listener’s recent top albums, some recommendations, their recent tracks and some of their loved tracks The Albums and Recommended tabs in the app will offer a deeper insight into those lists. The app will also allow users to build playlists of recommendations, top albums, recent tracks and loved tracks with just one click
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It also powers a Now Playing screen,
B o o k 2 , D&AD Competition Brief – Research, Development & Finals
Indie rock review site Pitchfork’ app on Spotify contributions are based entirely around editorial curations, offering playable versions of its “best of” lists. You can also check out the latest reviews from the site and play albums directly from those pages. While Pitchfork has previously had
partnerships with sites like Lala, this is easily the deepest software integration we’ve seen from the site, and it will no doubt pl ay well among regular readers. This is quite similar to We Are Hunted app, I’m starting to see more and more overlap between the available apps, I’ll need to think of a completely different approach...
Beiber tur ning 18. This app keeps you up to date with the latest news in the music world, as well as some amusement in some quirky and interesting playlists. Though I struggle to see this app being used on a large scale, it’s more of a gimmick than an app someone woul d use day in day out.
stars. Interested parties can read the full review and play music directly from them. The magazine has also built playlists around its sometimes controversial lists, including the recent “Best Guitarists.” The app’s strongest selling point, however, is probably the inclusion of curated playlists from big names like Mick Jagger and ?uestlove.
Fuse
G u a rd i a n Rolling Stone Creates up to date playlists, for example Davy Jones the lead singer for the Monkees, dies on the 29th of February 2012. So Fuse created a monkees playlist in tribute, Fuse creates playlists, from top 10 NME articles too a birthday playlist for Justin
Rolling Stone takes a similar approach as Pitchfork, not surprisingly, offering up editorial curation for users searching for some guidance. RS is a bit more selective with its reviews, however, only listing ones with three or more
This is another review app, it doesn’t add any new aspects than any other music review app, this is just exclusively the guardian’s reviews.
Book 2, D&AD Competitio n B r i e f – R e s e a rc h , D e v e l o p m e n t & F i n a l s
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B i l l b o a rd
Share My Playlists
50 playlists, there wasn’t a huge diversity. The majority were dance/ house/club playlists for parties. The other types of playlists were ones, for background listening at a party and general background music. As well as sharemyplaylists.com’s playlists.
The billboard top charts app. You can see what’s most popular each week by exploring Billboard’s popular music charts directly in Spotify. Billboard captures the most popular songs ranked by radio airplay and streaming, so you can feel the pulse of what’s hot in music today. I like this idea, it really will keep you up to date with the latest music, though it might not encourage people to find new music, I only the most popular would get more popular.
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This app showcases original playlists submitted by users as well as the most popular playlists from ShareMyPlaylists. com. The app can also create a playlist based on an artist or band you are listening to. It’s also simple to share your playlists - just drag & drop a playlist directly from your Spotify sidebar into the app and it’ll be published on the ShareMyPlaylists.com app. This is a brilliant idea! (I mainly think that because I had the same idea earlier in my research, sigh...) There’s obviously a lot of users, though as I scanned through the top
B o o k 2 , D&AD Competition Brief – Research, Development & Finals
To p 1 0 Top 10 is a similar type of app as Share My Playlists, but more concise and focused, once again I’m disappointed as this is similar to another idea I had. Top10 makes it easy for you to share your own Top10s with friends that are into the same music. All you need to do is pick a topic, add the tracks you love
and invite your friends to make their
Spotify Radio
version. Everyone’s contribution builds the Top10 so you can compare. This is a really successful app as you can see the amount of diversity in the playlists, because it limits each one to 10 songs, it makes the whole thing more succinct and easy to drop in and out of.
A f te r re s e a rch i n to e x i s t i n g S p o t i f y fe a t u re s a n d a p p s .
This works along similar lines as last fm but it’s a lot more simple, you place a song and it creates a playlist as it g oes.
1 2 3 To p Lists Top lists does two things it show s you your top 20 played songs, and the UK’s top 100 played songs. It’s not just the UK, you can look up the top 100 in every country that has spotify, as well
Summary: – I t ’s ve r y cl e a r th e re i s a l re a d y a l a rg e ra n g e o f fe a t u re s ( i n cl u d i n g my i n i t i a l i d e a s o f s h a r i n g a n d c re a t i n g pl ay l i s t s – i n m a ny d i f fe re n t fo r m s ) – A d i f fe re n t a p p roa ch w i l l b e n e e d e d p o s s i bl y a m o re o p e n i d e a th a t i s n’ t j u s t c o n f i n e d to a n o th e r i d e a fo r a n a p p. – M ay b e a n i d e a th a t i s b o th a fe a t u re a n d a n a d ve r t , c o u l d i t c o m b i n e th e two i n to c a m pa i g n .
as being able to see a world wide top 100. Spotify Program
Book 2, D&AD Competitio n B r i e f – R e s e a rc h , D e v e l o p m e n t & F i n a l s
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Research – various adverts 14
My thought process so far has followed
O2 Flexible Hours Ad.
the idea about music being social and communicating with music, I think that the main and strongest selling point. As Nicki Lambert said, “Spotify was bor n out of music being a really social thing” My first thoughts were to think of an app or feature to add to spotify, but there is so much choice in that aspect. I want an idea that would be different, not to just add to what they’re already doing. So I’ve researched into contemporary ad’s to get some inspiration and ideas on how to advertise spotify and encourage it’s users to socialise with it.
B o o k 2 , D&AD Competition Brief – Research, Development & Finals
O2 believe that with today’s communications and the right tools you can literally work anywhere and not confined to the office. Pd3 creative planner Caspar Mason put that theory to the test on February 29 by working in a mid-air outdoor office suspended on the side of Peter the Pleaters
blind shop on Great Easter n Stre et in
proving it’s point as well as being an
Spotify already posts what you’re
Shoreditch, Hackney.
advertisement.
I like ide as like this, before we even understand what the whole thing is about we’re intrigued. It’s different, and catches people’s attention for that reason. I like this concept because it’s
It was the second image that caught my attention, having the big speech bubble above him. Explaining what he’s doing, it gave me the idea to do the same with spotify users.
listening to facebook. What if I did it in a more obvious way, to post a picture of a speech bubble in spotify’s branding, saying what they’re listening to like a top 3 of that week. Or just an interesting advert about spotify that people would want to share. Here’s a quick sketch that shows what I mean, that it could be a much more engaging image that appears on the news feed on Facebook. It would possibly be much more effective than the current method of a list of the songs that person has just listened to. This idea has potential I’ll need to develop it further.
Book 2, D&AD Competitio n B r i e f – R e s e a rc h , D e v e l o p m e n t & F i n a l s
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B B C Wo rldwide Touching the Stars
more of what I got from this, that
Maybe there’s an idea in communicating
communication is so visual, I stopped listening to what he was saying because I was watching the hand.
with spotify and how good and effective it can be and that being spoiled by more people not doing it. But I’m not sure if this really fits in with what they want, this is more of a marketing campaign, not an idea for a feature.
I had ideas about videos about effective communication where there is someone explaining something or just a monologue. And there’s things distracting you or disrupting them.
BBC Worldwide is running “Touch the Stars,” a worldwide marketing campaign to introduce the BBC iPlayer (Global), an interactive iPad app offering access to a comprehensive catalogue of BBC programming. The campaign highlights the tactile viewing experience of the BBC iPlayer (Global) with television spots, interactive ads and Poke Ricky, a Facebook app that urges users to p oke Ricky Gervais in the face. This is a bit disconnected, but I liked the concept of disrupted communication. I think that’s
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B o o k 2 , D&AD Competition Brief – Research, Development & Finals
B e i j i n g Sports Radio Speech B u b b l es
or smart phones. To show people communicating through music.
Continuing on the idea of speech bubbles and communicating in different ways, I found this series of posters. Beijing Sports Radio, China’s premier sports radio station, want to increase their audience by making the public aware that they can listen to live commentary of the world’s biggest sporting events on Beijing Sports Radio. A s people speak many different languages in Beijing the advertising campaign need to feature a simple, striking message that anyone can understand. Sporting visuals for tennis, golf and boxing were changed to incorporate speech bubbles, the universal symbol for talking. W ith the idea of having spotify speech bubbles on facebook to advertise it and show what people are listening to. To expand that idea I could make a series of posters of people walking around with speech bubbles, of what they’re listening to on their mp3 players
Book 2, D&AD Competitio n B r i e f – R e s e a rc h , D e v e l o p m e n t & F i n a l s
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Summary:
Yo u A re Your Words The Fifth Edition of The American Heritage Dictionary is being celebrated with an interactive experience built around the concept ‘You Are Your Words.’ The words we use are about more than just communicating – the y tell the world who we are. Through emails, tweets, posts and other forms of communication, our words define us more deeply and broadly than ever. The site brings this concept to life in a very dynamic and personal way, by engaging people to create a selfportrait in their own words. V isitors to youareyourwords.com can upload a photo or us e their webcam to take a picture of themselves. They can then connect to Facebook or Twitter to pull in words from their social stream, or enter words that best define who they are. A server-side application composites the user’s words with their photo, crea ting a unique word-based self portrait. This is a similar concept to what I’m thinking about, it makes the point that we literally are our words. The words
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A f te r f u r th e r re s e a rch i n to o th e r k i n d s o f c a m pa i g n s , a n d s ta r t i n g to d e ve l o p i d e a s . – S o m e o f th e s e i n i t i a l i d e a s h ave p o te n t i a l , th e n e x t s te p w i l l b e to m o ck u p i d e a s to s e e h ow v i a bl e th e y wo u l d b e .
we use tell the world about who we are. Music in and of itself is a form of communication of expression, and listening to music shows who we are. It’s also used as a way to understand ourselves, we’ll listen to music to reflect our attitude or emotion at a particular time. Music is so versatile, and we use it in so many ways.
B o o k 2 , D&AD Competition Brief – Research, Development & Finals
http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/page/2/ http://www.youtube.com/ http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2012/o2flexible-working-hours/ http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2012/bbcworldwide-touching-the-stars/ http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2012/beijingsports-radio-speech-bubbles/ http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2012/youare-your-words/ http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2011/ amnesty-still-making-the-invisible-visible/
Further Development
My next step was to take screen shots of Spotify’s webpages to get a feel for the branding and style of Spotify. I found an eps of the logo, and sourced some textures to match the background to mock up ideas.
Book 2, D&AD Competitio n B r i e f – R e s e a rc h , D e v e l o p m e n t & F i n a l s
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Following this I needed to develop the
Given the layout is designed for
speech bubble idea and fill out the idea and concept to see if it had potential.
landscape photos to appear I developed a wider bubble that I thought might suit the layout better.
Starting by developing the shape and finding the right fonts to fit Spotify’s branding, g iven the dimensions of the Facebook page the idea of having a speech bubble appear, would have to fit the layout of the page.
– Blood Bank - Bon Iver – Higher Love - James Vincent McMorrow – Old Pine - Ben Howard
I continued to finalise the style of images, before mocking it up on a webpage. I developed the style further with the bubbles on the bottom row, using some of the style and texture to match the Spotify branding.
Last 3 songs played
Last 3 songs played
– Blood Bank - Bon Iver – Higher Love - James Vincent McMorrow
– Blood Bank - Bon Iver – Higher Love - James Vincent McMorrow – Old Pine - Ben Howard
– Old Pine - Ben Howard
Thisw eekʼst op 3 – Blood Bank - Bon Iver – Higher Love - James Vincent McMorrow – Old Pine - Ben Howard
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Thisw eeks top 3 singles – Blood Bank - Bon Iver – Higher Love - James Vincent McMorrow – Old Pine - Ben Howard
Thisw eekʼst op 3 – Blood Bank - Bon Iver – Higher Love - James Vincent McMorrow – Old Pine - Ben Howard
B o o k 2 , D&AD Competition Brief – Research, Development & Finals
Top3 – Blood Bank - Bon Iver – Higher Love - James Vincent McMorrow – Old Pine - Ben Howard
After pla cing some of the initial development, I decided that the wider speech bubble detracted from the impact. The circular one is much stronger and more succinct as the text fits better, there is less empty space. I also decided on using the lighter texture shown on the right hand side, it blends better within the webpage and is more subtle.
Top3 – Blood Bank - Bon Iver – Higher Love - James Vincent McMorrow – Old Pine - Ben Howard
Book 2, D&AD Competitio n B r i e f – R e s e a rc h , D e v e l o p m e n t & F i n a l s
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The next stage was to source images
http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/photo/
to mock up images for advertisements, based on earlier research (bottom left), I sourced the other two images to mock up adverts that attempt to interact with the public.
woman-listening-to-headphones-in-living-roomroyalty-free-image/88688898 http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/photo/ man-relaxing-at-his-desk-royalty-freeimage/103165318 http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/photo/threebusinessmen-in-the-city-of-london-high-resstock-photography/92283196 http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/ photo/over-and-beyond-high-res-stockphotography/85476362 http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/photo/sideview-of-a-couple-walking-on-the-beach-royaltyfree-image/stk69481cor
To continue the idea of communicating with music the idea was to have adverts that would have speech bubbles supposedly coming from the people walking past as if they were telling the world what they are listening to.
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B o o k 2 , D&AD Competition Brief – Research, Development & Finals
Finals
The Facebook home page, showing
The following pages show the final
the idea of having speech bubbles appearing showing what that person had been listening to.
adverts showing the speech bubbles interacting with the public, showing everyone, what they are listening to.
Book 2, D&AD Competitio n B r i e f – R e s e a rc h , D e v e l o p m e n t & F i n a l s
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B o o k 2 , D&AD Competition Brief – Research, Development & Finals
Book 2, D&AD Competitio n B r i e f – R e s e a rc h , D e v e l o p m e n t & F i n a l s
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