Dive Brief:

• Mars Wrigley candy brand M&M's is bringing back its limited-time Messages packaging with a multichannel campaign that is integrated with audio streaming platform Spotify. Each M&M's Messages pack has a printed message and a special code that opens a complementary Spotify playlist when scanned with a smartphone camera, per an announcement.
• The 28 different M&M Messages packs have humorous phrases like "Have a great day pretending to do work," which is paired with a playlist "to make you feel like a boss." Scanning a pack that says "Slay Girl" opens a list of songs by "powerful female artists," according to the announcement.
• In addition to the Spotify integration, M&M's plans to show some of those messages on stock-car driver Kyle Busch's No. 18 M&M's Toyota Camry when he races at Atlanta Motor Speedway and Bristol Motor Speedway next month.

Dive Insight:

Mars Wrigley aims to deepen consumer engagement with the latest iteration of its M&M's Messages packaging, which the candymaker introduced last year "to help people connect and find humor in everyday life." The integration of those messages with a matching playlist on Spotify bridges the physical and digital elements of the effort, and adds another dimension to the customer experience (CX) that helps to reinforce positive feelings toward the brand, especially among its target audience of younger consumers who are early adopters of audio streaming. The theme of sharing M&M's is consistent with the brand's "Come Together" ad for last month's Super Bowl that ranked in the top five of USA Today's Ad Meter.

"Music and M&M's have an incredible power to help us connect to one another and celebrate life," Allison Miazga-Bedrick, Mars Wrigley senior brand director, said in a statement. "Incorporating music into M&M’s Messages packs are a new way for us to help fans share their true selves and connect with others, which helps us live our purpose of better moments and more smiles."

M&M's is the latest brand to integrate a campaign with Spotify, whose global user base expanded 27% to 320 million last year, with 24% of its monthly average users (MAUs) in North America. The company in 2017 introduced scannable bar codes for music sharing, opening the door for integrated campaigns. Most recently, Italian pasta brand Barilla launched a collection of Spotify playlists whose run times equaled the cooking times of different pasta types. Beauty brand Estée Lauder last year created playlists to accompany nighttime skincare rituals based on a listener's Spotify streaming history, and offered a chance to request a product sample through a Google Home device.

The Spotify integration is M&M's latest activation to feature digital content. During the holiday season, M&M's again sponsored a series of short short movies inspired by a festive occasion, adding social media distribution to reach younger viewers. The "Bite Size Holiday" series consisted of four holiday-themed shorts produced by Disney's advertising sales group and 20th Digital Studio unit. M&M's for the past few years also has sponsored short horror films for Halloween, including the renamed "Bite Size Halloween" series that aired on several Disney-owned video channels.

In addition to the Spotify integration, M&M's is reinforcing its Messages campaign in partnership with NASCAR driver Kyle Busch. The candy brand will give race fans a chance to prizes inspired by the M&M's Messages packs, per its announcement. The partnership, like a recent campaign by Busch beer, suggests that marketing around live sports is rebounding to pre-pandemic levels.