Coca-Cola has always used music as a means to connect with people, drive brand love and partner with global events from the Olympics to the World Cup. But as a soft drink brand, Coke's tie to music was never inherent to their product offering. 40 years after the iconic "I'd like to buy the world a Coke" musical television spot, they decided it was time to change that.
Introducing Placelists. A location based social music platform that combines the music you love with the people you love in the places you love to hang out. A joint application built with Facebook and Spotify, Placelists allows users to define the real-time soundtrack of any place at anytime from anywhere. It's like a mobile jukebox for any location in the world.
Coke wanted to test ways to strengthen that connection by using innovative technology to create a music platform that would serve as a launchpad for future marketing efforts and build brand love.
The solution: Placelists, a new way to share and discover music with friends… through physical places. Created for teens using Spotify and Facebook, Placelists is a location-based jukebox that combines the music you love, with the friends you love, in the places you love to hang out.
Teens are the planet's most connected creatures and passionate consumers of music. Their worlds are measured in miles, and places along the route from home to school are where meaningful connections are made. Now those connections can be amplified with music.
Placelists launched as a responsive browser site, Spotify application and standalone iPhone application. By leveraging the Facebook and Spotify platforms, social amplification of user actions is built into the app, making it social at the core. Spotify powering the music experience and providing access to millions of songs married with Coca-Cola's scale and reach made Placelists a reality. By also working closely with Facebook, we leveraged the power of their 1.1 Billion connections around the world, Facebook places, Facebook stories and the power of the Open Graph in the most effective ways.
From the beaches of Rio to Echo Park in L.A., 150,000+ music fans tuned in to over 20,000 Placelists, building brand love and strengthening the connection between Coca-Cola, teens and music. Teens discovered new music, inspired by places around the world that they may never have been able to find on their own. They shared songs they love with other music-loving teens across the globe, building collaborative, real-time playlists. Primary actions within the app (tuning in, adding songs, voting) generated Facebook stories and users shared their Placelists, inviting friends to join. Local markets used Placelists to promote Coke-sponsored artists and local music events, and the Placelists platform serves as a destination for on-pack marketing touting the Coke + Spotify partnership.
