More than 500 songs on Spotify namecheck Budweiser in their lyrics. With a new campaign in Brazil, the King of Beers is turning these tunes into actual ads on the streaming platform.
“UninterruptAds,” made with Africa Creative Agency, use complete songs mentioning Budweiser as ads on Spotify’s ad tier, in an effort to minimize the blatant interruption of a typical ad.
Brazilian artist Kafé’s song “My Luv,” for example, will play as an ad during playlists that match its genre style. The only indication it’s an ad is a branded visual, featuring red on white graphics, and a stylized Bud logo.
The goal is to keep the continuity of the listening experience while still providing a nod to the brand. According to a 2023 report, about 60% of Spotify’s 500 million global users listen via the platform’s ad-supported version.
It’s the latest move by a brand to creatively utilize the Spotify platform in a way that doesn’t completely derail the listener experience, but also serves the advertising goal of brand awareness. In 2021, pasta brand Barilla created a series of eight playlists timed to the perfect cooking times for a variety of different pasta shapes. With names like Mixtape Spaghetti, Boom Bap Fusilli, and Pleasant Melancholy Penne, the playlists spanned pop, hip-hop, indie, and classic hits.
As much as marketers are loathe to admit, most interruptive ads are ignored at best and outright hated at worst. Here, Budweiser is acknowledging the imbalance of quality that comes with the contract we accept when we take something for a lesser price in exchange for enduring ads.
In that way, the brand is not only using this opportunity to highlight its cultural relevancy by playing songs that authentically feature its name, but nabbing some positive brand sentiment with a bonus of making the overall listening experience better. Cheers to that.