Spotify  showcased a new way for brands to engage with its users at Dmexco today. A promo slot called Bag Check will enable a brand to choose an artist they want to work with. That artist will then voiceover a short animated ad of around 30 seconds in length in which they run through the items they take in their bag with them when they go on tour. In amongst things like sunglasses will be a product from the brand sponsoring the promotion. A mocked-up video used to explain how it works featured Swedish singer Zara Larsson, together with some of her favourite things, including a book on astrology, a journal, and a packet of Tazo tea, though the voice on the video was not Larssons and Bertozzi was keen to stress that this was a made-up example for demo purposes, and that no date has been set for the launch of the Bag Check ad offering.  

In his presentation, Spotify’s VP, head of sales Europe, Marco Bertozzi, also said the company was working to put more video content on the platform, and to make it easier for users to find it. Currently, you have to browse to the video section, but going forward, Spotify will start to include video content on some of its more popular playlists. This is available in the US initially, but other users can access a video of Sam Smith singing his latest song, Too Good at Goodbyes, via 40 (unspecified) playlists across 50 countries.

“Music isn’t just about audio” Bertozzi said. “It seemed an obvious next step for us to start thinking about how we could expand into other areas and video gives us that platform, allows us to engage with our users through interviews, documentaries and other original content.”

Berttozzi also revealed that 2m playlists are created globally on Spotify every day, and that Spotify users spend an average of two hours a day on the platform.