STB and Spotify get consumers grooving to SG beat with curated playlist

The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and Spotify have jointly rolled out a marketing campaign revolving around the universal language of music. Titled "Beats of Singapore", the campaign connects the Spotify community across Southeast Asia with Singapore through music and shared passions, and will run until December 2018.In addition, STB and Spotify will jointly curate destination-themed playlists featuring Singapore’s artists and music, in order to further strike a chord with Spotify users and enable them to appreciate Singapore as a destination at a whole new level.The Beats of Singapore campaign will be promoted via in-app advertisements, owned platforms and social media. STB declined to reveal the monetary value of the partnership.In a statement to Marketing, Jacqueline Ng, director, marketing partnerships and planning, STB said music is a powerful medium that connects people regardless of language and geographical barriers, as it evokes emotions about places and memories."This partnership would therefore help further establish Singapore as a place where meaningful connections can be forged, and where people can pursue their passions and create new possibilities," Ng said.She added that with people now consuming music mainly through streaming services, partnering a global leader such as Spotify would allow STB to reach a wider audience and seed the idea of visiting Singapore, even when they are not actively considering travel plans."Spotify also possesses unique insights about the music preferences and listening habits of users. Access to Spotify’s listening data and insights on our target segments would not only allow STB greater precision in our marketing messaging and delivery, but also explore hypotheses and potential correlations that might exist between music and travel," Ng added.The campaign's first phase features a call out to Spotify users in Singapore to contribute to the country's soundscape on the campaign microsite by recommdending songs that are evocative of their favourite places and activities in Singapore. These recommendations will be matched to STB's passion tribes - foodies, collectors, explorers, action seekers, culture shapers, socialisers and progressors. For example, socialisers in Singapore would likely share their favourite nightlife and entertainment spots, paired with tracks that convey the energy of a party in Singapore.Subsequently, Spotify users from Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam will be invited to visit the microsite. Thereafter, they will be assigned a suggested "passion tribe profile" based on their favourite playlists derived from Spotify's data insights. They can then check out the Singapore soundscape and the variety of recommendations on what to see or do in the country. Users can also download itineraries for a trip to Singapore and create their own recommendations for those who share similar passions.Jacqueline Ng, STB’s director of marketing partnerships and planning said the partnership will not only help STB widen its reach, but also bring to the table an "abundance" of new and interesting insights on how it can better engage visitors through music."We hope that listeners will be inspired by our specially-tailored playlists and recommendations contributed by Singaporeans to find out more about Singapore and visit us," Ng added.“Spotify was founded on the basis that personal discovery is one of life’s greatest pleasures. With this partnership in place, we are certainly taking a step further towards music discovery and the celebration of talent,” said Sunita Kaur, VP of advertising, Spotify, APAC.Read also:STB unveils second leg of Passion Made Possible agendaPassion made possible: STB and EDB launch new brand identity for Singapore(Photo courtesy: 123RF)