To celebrate the launch of Palo Santo, the new album by Years & Years, media agency UM and technology agency Byte London have partnered to create the first-ever AR experience for Spotify, accessed through Snapchat.

Working in close partnership with Spotify’s UK marketing team, Byte London designed the Lens while UM carried out the media planning and buying programme for the launch with Snapchat. The bespoke Snapchat Lens includes visual elements from the Palo Santo album, including recreating the face paint pattern from the album cover, while a World Lens that brings the album’s spectacular fantasy world into the real one has also been developed.

The launch was timed to coincide with London Pride, targeting music fans aged 13 – 34 over the weekend to encourage people to play and experience Palo Santo’s themes through the Snapchat Lens. The partnership with Spotify enabled users to access new album easily, creating a firm link between the visual power of the Lens and the band’s music.

“Spotify is a really exciting client to work for, challenging us with always coming up with new and innovative ways to excite its audience,” said Cat Carroll, group account director at UM. “This Lens was a true collaboration between all parties, with the usual eight-week process and build reduced down to three weeks to tie in with London Pride.

“We love working with Snapchat and this campaign naturally fits with the platform and with the amazing band. We couldn’t think of a better partnership.”

“We are delighted to have worked with our client Spotify, UM and Years & Years,” said Duncan Bird, lead account planner at Byte London. “The whole album creative concept fitted in so well with an AR lens experience in Snapchat. It is really enabling our target audience to interact with the band’s vision and world in a unique way around Pride.”