Dive Brief:
- Life insurance company John Hancock is expanding its Boston Marathon sponsorship by partnering with Spotify to create custom playlists and offer motivational tips from the John Hancock Elite Athlete Team, a news release announced.
- The Run Elite Playlist lets trainees set the pace and length of their run and access songs that match their running style that are created by a member of the Elite Athlete Team. Users can also access a custom playlist based on their listening habits.
- Some of the athletes that have created custom playlists and recorded running tips include Olympians and marathoners Shalane Flanagan, Meb Keflezighi, Desiree Linden, Molly Huddle, Tatyana McFadden, Sara and Ryan Hall and Dathan Ritzenhein.
Dive Insight:
John Hancock's partnership with Spotify lets the insurance company extend its 2018 Boston Marathon #TogetherForward campaign by targeting runners with curated playlists that match their personal styles and listening habits. The company is positioning the campaign as a way to help runners meet their goals during the rigorous training in the lead up to the marathon — the type of instructive, practical and lifestyle-focused marketing that consumers increasingly value over passive brand advertising.
Other marketers have started to leverage customized playlists on Spotify as the online music streaming service continues to prove popular, including through 71 million paid subscription members. Diageo-owned Smirnoff vodka earlier this month teamed with the platform to launch an Equalizer API that analyzes users' listening habits to uncover the number of male versus female artists they've listened to over the past six months. The feature then offers up a customized playlist that represents musicians of both sexes equally.
