CANNES — Spotify knows what you want — and when you want it.
The music streaming service will soon be able to serve listeners tailored ads based on what their “curated moments” suggest they are doing at that time.
The move is aimed at attracting more advertising dollars by offering sponsors the ability to focus their ads at the right people at the right time.
For example, sometime during the second half of the year, Spotify will roll out technology that can detect, say, a playlist someone is using while working out at the gym, Jeff Levick, the company’s top global business development executive, told a group at the Cannes Lions confab here.
Levick, out to target mobile millennials, would then have that person listening to a workout playlist receive ads for, say, hamburgers.
“That is something we’re planning for the second half of this year,” he said.
McDonald’s, one of Spotify’s advertisers, thinks it’s a great idea.
Steve Easterbrook, the burger chain’s chief brand officer, appearing on the same panel as Levick, said such curated ads are just the kind of way McDonald’s wants to reach youngsters.
“What could be more personal that curated playlists?” Easterbrook said.
The Chicago-based executive revealed the fast food chain just opened a new San Francisco office to be closer to the tech world and supercharge McDonald’s association with the music industry.
Easterbrook said the burger chain had already had a presentation from Twitter’s ad boss, Adam Bain.
Scott Hagedorn, CEO of data ad firm Annalect, which counts McDonald’s as a client, said youngsters are watching zero terrestrial TV, forcing marketers to follow them to mobile devices with messages that don’t scream and interrupt their listening experience.
Cannes Lions is playing host to several musicians on panels this week, including Kanye West, U2’s Bono, Ellie Goulding, Courtney Love and Jared Leto.
At the same time, Levick told delegates here that when young subscribers switch from hip-hop to classical music, it suggests they might have begun studying the college books — and therefore would be open to different sorts of messages.
Targeting messages to customers at the precise moment they’ll be most receptive is one of advertising’s key challenges.
While consumers used to listen to music in the privacy of their own living rooms, now streaming music services such as Spotify are able to sell marketers on data about listening patterns, artists who are about to take off, and suggestions about what people are doing while they listen.
Spotify is ramping up its efforts to generate ad revenue in anticipation of a possible IPO which has been rumored for fall.
Spotify offers both a subscription and a free ad-supported service, but around 70 percent of its revenue is paid to music labels for royalty payments.