In addition to the Media Brand of the Year award, Spotify received 10 Lions and 23 ‘shortlists’ at Cannes Lions
It has been a loud week on the French Riviera for Spotify at this year’s Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. In between accepting the Media Brand of the Year award and throwing beachside parties, the brand hosted a series of thought-provoking panels, workshops and discussions with influential movers and shakers at the Spotify Beach House, tackling some of the industry’s most important issues.
The sleek beachside hangout on La Croisette served as the streaming service’s home base for the week, holding discussions and brand immersions every day of the week and oceanside parties on Tuesday and Wednesday nights.
Connecting with partners in its growing ad business, the brand made a bigger splash than ever before at Cannes. It honoured and celebrated creativity, forward-thinking culture, and the best of content of 2018 by focusing on what it does best – connecting fans to culture, and bringing creativity to the world.
The highlight of the week was the brand’s acceptance of this year’s Cannes Lions “Media Brand of the Year” award – an award typically reserved for an individual, but for the first time this year awarded to an overall brand.
Receiving the award on behalf of the company, Founder and CEO Daniel Ek explained, “I appreciate that this award normally recognises a single individual, but I did not embark on this journey alone. We are where we are today thanks to our employees, past and present, who have been the most integral part of our ten-year history.”
Spotify also received 10 Lions and 23 shortlist nominations this year, nearly doubling last year’s medal-count. Awards included a Gold Lion for the “David Bowie is Here” campaign and a series of Bronze Lions for the “2018 Goals” campaign. Spotify is also up for its first-ever, and highly-coveted, Titanium Lion for “I’m with the Banned.”
Another accolade for the brand came with the announcement of Forbes‘ ‘World’s Most Influential CMOs 2018‘ list, on which CMO Seth Farbman was ranked. He participated in a panel discussion and interview with Forbes in which he discussed how CMOs can engage in cultural conversations on behalf of their brands. Farbman was also ranked first on Business Insider‘s ‘25 Most Innovative CMOs in The World in 2018‘ list.
The brand also partnered with Hulu to bring together influential creators across music, television, film, sports and marketing for an intimate evening of exploration and connection around the topic of “authenticity.”
Kerry Washington listened from the audience as God-is Rivera moderated a lively conversation between Miguel, Jessie Ware, Samira Wiley and Ramy Youssef on creativity and influence in the digital age.
In Miguel’s words, “to stay on top of what’s hot in culture, it is about staying genuinely interested in other creative work to keep your edge on culture outside of your own mindset.”
After the discussion, Miguel performed “Sky Walker” which has been streamed over 180 million times on Spotify, “Come Through and Chill,” and a special acoustic version of the song “City of Angels,” which he revealed is one of his favourite songs.
Keeping the party going as the sun went down, the brand hosted two nights of high-energy music at the Spotify Beach. Sounds of “Mr Brightside” could be heard reverberating down the beach as The Killers played a set packed with their greatest hits to a rapturous full house.
Performances by Scottish synth-pop band CHVRCHES and rapper Travis Scott kept the crowd dancing late into the night. Travis even ended the night with a bar-top performance. Celebrity guests Kylie Jenner, Jordyn Woods, Common, Lena Waithe and Adam Rippon were spotted in the crowd.
On the heels of the whirlwind week, the brand carries its ‘Media Brand of the Year’ title forward, poised to continue the conversations started at Cannes well into the future.
The World Branding Forum is an official media partner of Cannes Lions.
