Spotify sculpts Cardi B, other hip-hop stars for latest RapCaviar pantheon

Dive Brief:

Spotify is bringing back the RapCaviar Pantheon activation with a new class of honorees including Cardi B, Jaden Smith, Juice WRLD and Gunna, according to details shared with Marketing Dive.
The artists will be celebrated for their impact on hip-hop and will be the subjects of life-sized sculptures capturing their personalities. The sculptures in the Spotify Installation will be on display at the Brooklyn Museum in New York April 3-7. The Pantheon was created by Spotify's in-house team.
The campaign follows the inaugural Spotify RapCaviar Pantheon in 2017, which featured life-sized sculptures of 21 Savage, SZA and Metro Boomin. It was inspired by the ancient Roman way of celebrating and immortalizing influential people in ways that embody their achievements.

Dive Insight:

The relaunch of the Spotify RapCaviar Pantheon is part of the streaming platform's efforts to celebrate innovative artists and cultural disruptors. The 2019 class of honorees and installation could also help the platform deepen its connection with hip-hop fans and boost awareness of its influential RapCaviar hip-hop playlist, which has more than 10 million followers, according to the streaming company.

Brands often erect unique pop-up experiences like Spotify's sculpture display to engage with consumers in real life and make lasting impressions. Younger consumers, a key user group for the streaming platform, often enjoy experiential campaigns for the chance to interact with brands in an authentic way. The stylish sculptures of hip-hop's most influential artists could create significant social media buzz as visitors snap and share photos of the activation online, further extending the campaign's reach.

Spotify continues to roll out strategic partnerships and marketing campaigns to grow its paid subscriber base, highlight its unique features and target various segments of music fans. Most recently, Oscar winner Jordan Peele's "Us" film launched a takeover of Spotify's TV & Movies hub to promote the film. The campaign includes playlists curated by Peele and star of the film, Winston Duke, along with a specially curated two-hour listening experience. In December, the company also announced a long-term, cross-promotional content partnership with "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" to include curated themed playlists, video clips and the "Ellen on the Go" podcast.

The music streaming giant often leverages listener data to drive its campaigns. Around the holidays, Spotify launched the third iteration of its "Wrapped" effort, which pulled anonymized data from users' playlists and listening habits to create out-of-home (OOH) billboards. Last year, Smirnoff created the Smirnoff Equalizer on Spotify to analyze the number of male versus female artists that a user listened to and offered personalized sliders to help people learn about female artists. The campaign drove 630 million impressions with 90% earned over a six-month span.