How Spotify Connects Brands and Artists

On Brand with Nick Westergaard

Jay Norman is the Global Head of Music Marketing at Spotify. His work at Spotify and his background as co-founder of the content shop Verse + Hook has focused on helping brands create and connect through culturally impactful work. We discussed all of this and more this week on the On Brand podcast.

About Jay Norman

Jay Norman is a creative leader, marketer, and co-founder with a 15-year + commitment to designing campaigns merging culture and human emotional experiences. Currently serving as the Global Head of Music Marketing at Spotify, Justin has worked with several international brands, organizations, and artists, creating genre-bending, culturally impactful work. Within his agency career, he has led campaigns and content for brands such as Johnson and Johnson (Listerine, Tylenol, Zyrtec), Stellantis (Dodge, Fiat, Jeep, Maserati), Unilever (Country Crock, Bertolli, Popsicle, I Can't Believe It's Not Butter) JBL, Harman Kardon, McDonald's, and more.

The award-winning content shop he co-founded, Verse + Hook, has crafted work on brands like Pepsi and Kingsford and had an integral role in the composition of campaigns and media featuring artists and musicians in advertising for brands like Jeep, Bacardi, Paypal, NFL, and ESPN.

Episode Highlights

Artists and brands can be strange bedfellows. “Usually it takes the form of an endorsement.” However, as Jay notes, it can often be something much bigger.

The problem? “Brands usually come in asking an artist to be in this thing all about me. In reality, it all comes down to story — what about you makes you interesting?”

“Our algorithm is one of the best pieces of machine learning,” says Jay. He went on to share the powerful brand touchpoint of Spotify's year-end Wrapped project.

What brand has made Darren smile recently? “Barbie,” Jay noted with enthusiasm. “I'm loving that, usually, a brand over-saturating the market backfires. But Barbie reminds us that nostalgia is a powerful tool.”

To learn more, connect with Jay on LinkedIn.

As We Wrap …

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Until next week, I’ll see you on the Internet!

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