Tic Tac becomes 1st sponsor for Spotify’s new live music event series

Dive Brief:

• Tic Tac is the inaugural sponsor of Spotify’s new experiential series, Hear for It, which includes both real-world and online components, according to news shared with Marketing Dive.
• Beginning the first week of December, Tic Tac’s Hear for It fan event will run activations and musical performances across two consecutive nights at The Mint, a historic music venue in LA. The companies said the first night, billed as “Vol 1: Sounds Refreshing,” will reflect Tic Tac’s mintiness through the smooth sounds of pop singer-songwriter Ella Vos, while night two — or “Vol 2: Sounds Delicious” — will celebrate Tic Tac’s fruity side with the music of Surfaces, a group specializing in cross-genre, feel-good music.
• The audience for The Mint event will be targeted via audio ads and communications, and entry will be first-come, first-served. The music will also be available through two branded Tic Tac playlists on Spotfiy.

Dive Insight:

With Hear for It, Spotify steps further beyond audio streaming as it looks to build out relationships with brand partners and cater to the music fans who favor its platform. Marketers have invested heavily in developing more robust experiences to engage ad-averse consumer groups like Gen Z and millennials, and Spotify providing a channel for forging those connections could create a new revenue stream as the company faces stiffer competition from rival streaming platforms.

Spotify said Hear for It consists of two types of experiences: Moments, which are occasions for brands to sponsor music used in the real world, and Discovery, where Spotify’s platform intelligence is used to find artists that embody a location or a “micro-genre,” which is then showcased in a brand-sponsored performance. The Tic Tac sponsorship will include elements of both formats.

Given its massive music library, relationships with musicians and labels and ability to target ads at millions of monthly active listeners, Spotify has the potential to build out a strong experiential offer in the same way that media publishers have moved further into the sponsored events and conference space. However, Spotify pushing into sponsored events comes as its advertising business faces pressures on other fronts.

Business Insider reported that Spotify laid off roughly 30 employees this week, most of them in ad sales. One source said the staff cuts would free up investments for other areas that weren’t specified. Spotify also recently took a $10 million revenue hit as a result of switching off Google Sales Manger this summer, according to AdExchanger.

Spotify has been making other bets to bolster its business, including through a bigger focus on podcasts — it acquired the network Gimlet Media and production studio Anchor earlier this year — and advertising innovations. Sponsored or brand-curated playlists have been deployed by marketers like KFC and Microsoft, and New Amsterdam Vodka rolled out the platform’s first branded podcast series last year.

Tic Tac has similarly been exploring avenues beyond traditional marketing, including through experiences. A celebration last year of the brand’s 50-year history included an open house in London where visitors could create their own unique flavor combinations and visit a cocktail bar inspired by existing flavors.