Spotify has awarded its global media account to Publicis, with incumbent UM losing out after the account went to pitch mid-last year.
Publicis created a new bespoke model — named OneVibe — to service the near-$AU370 million account, according to COMvergence figures.
Publicis will take over control of the account in June. B&T understands that this approach will extend to Australia. OneVibe will also take on global and regional brand media management, and support performance marketing initiatives. Spotify’s in-house team will continue handling its social performance spend, it confirmed.
OneVibe is a variation of Publicis Media’s “Power of One” model which pulls talent from across the holding company’s media agencies.
“As Spotify’s business and ambitions evolve, embracing change is key to our creative edge, as is doing everything we can to connect with an ever-expanding global audience of more than 602 million users in more than 180 markets. We look forward to a new chapter of brand media and performance marketing excellence with Publicis OneVibe,” said Marc Hazan, vice president of marketing and partnerships at Spotify, in a statement provided to ADWEEK.
Publicis and UM declined to comment when reached by B&T.
The news of the new account win follows Spotify’s decision to cut 17 per cent of its workforce in December, despite it continuing to make money hand-over-fist. It also recently gave controversial podcaster Joe Rogan a new $380 million podcast deal.
Audio advertising is also in something of a purple patch, despite insiders saying that the channel continues to be under-utilised and under-valued. The Interactive Advertising Bureau’s (IAB) recent State of the Nation report found that more than three-fifths of agencies plan to increase their investment in streaming and podcasts over the next year.
“Last year, we did see some shifts in our client budgets. Obviously some decreased but at the same time, our digital audio investment did increase,” said Ashley Wong, head of digital, data and innovation, Foundation Australia at the IAB Audio Summit.
“We’ve worked with quite a few partners in this space with clients like Diageo and HSBC that do a lot more work in the contextual audience targeting post-read integration space. Then some of our other clients, such as Mercedes-Benz, they do more of an audio extension to radio and more in the retail space. Where they have traditional radio running, they can add digital audio on top to increase reach.”
