Global Ads Spotlight: Here's how Spotify's 'Spreadbeats' hit all the right notes
B2B advertising rarely turns heads, but Spotify literally flipped the script by transforming dull spreadsheets into full-blown music videos. The result? A 10MB Excel file that not only played a story but rewrote the brand's perception. Read and watch in our Global Ads spotlight column.
ADVERTISEMENT
What happens when a streaming giant known for audio wants to prove it can do video too? It drops the beat - in Excel.
Yes, you read that right.
Spotify’s B2B campaign Spreadbeats wasn’t just another deck or banner trying to win media dollars. It was an audacious, nerdy, and wildly creative flex that turned real Excel files into fully functioning music videos. Made for media planners, inside their native habitat - spreadsheets.
The idea was as sharp as it was surprising. Most media planners still see Spotify as an “audio-only” platform - great for passive listening, low on visual impact. So, to change that perception, Spotify met planners on their own turf. The company embedded a custom-built, four-minute video for DJ and Coachella act John Summit inside an actual Excel file. No YouTube link, no embedded player-just pure Excel wizardry.
The video, crafted from scratch using Excel’s ASCII characters, Unicode, graphs, and conditional formatting, told the story of E7, a digital entity longing for meaning in a sea of data.
Think Inside Out meets Tron, narrated through cells and formulas. Everything was built manually - no AI shortcuts. Just old-school programming finesse and human creativity.
To make it practical (this was a B2B play, after all), Spotify’s sales team could generate customized versions of the file, personalized with brand names, recipient details, and actual RFP responses. The result? A real spreadsheet, loaded with real ad buying data, that suddenly came alive with music, visuals, and storytelling. A Trojan horse of inspiration.
The performance metrics were as crazy as the idea. A staggering 17:1 ROI, a 5650% spike in email forwards, and an 870% increase in ad engagement compared to their previous campaign. For something as dry as a media plan spreadsheet, this campaign had media folks talking, clicking, and dancing.
Of course, the ad world lapped it up. Spreadbeats swept the Cannes Lions with 9 wins - including a Grand Prix, two Golds, and plenty of metal across Creative B2B, Digital Craft, and Creative Data.
So what did this campaign really prove?
That creativity doesn’t need a big screen, a 60-second TV slot, or TikTok virality to hit hard. Sometimes, it just needs to open in Excel.
In an era where attention is currency, Spreadbeats made a file format fun again - and reminded marketers everywhere that platforms can be reinvented with just the right kind of beat.
