Spotify has gone through a serious overhaul in its advertising business over the past few months, and we’re not talking about minor course corrections or cosmetic changes to please investors. The platform everyone knows for audio is reinventing itself in a very concrete way as a multi-format channel, betting on video, automation, and artificial intelligence to convince advertisers it’s worth far more than a simple audio media buy. 🎯 This repositioning involves new technology, more robust proprietary data, and a commercial pitch that has shifted significantly in tone over the last few quarters. The core idea is to grab a bigger slice of major brands’ media budgets — something that had been slipping through the company’s fingers.
This move didn’t come out of nowhere, and there’s a pretty clear context behind it. CEO Daniel Ek himself publicly admitted that the company’s ad division was moving too slowly compared to user base growth and the platform’s actual potential, which became a direct trigger for a complete restructuring of how Spotify positions itself for brands. Today, the conversation has changed quite a bit. The platform is going to market with new tools, stronger first-party data, and formats that go way beyond the classic jingle in the middle of your favorite podcast. 📲 The big question hanging over all of this is simple but powerful: will media buyers make Spotify a fixed line item in their plans, or will it keep being that optional investment when there’s leftover budget? The answer to that is being built right now, piece by piece.
The person who laid this roadmap out in detail was Brian Berner, vice president of advertising partnerships at Spotify, who recently appeared on an episode of the Digiday Podcast during the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Berner was straightforward in saying the strategy has become more multi-format, but he also made it clear that executives have absolutely no intention of alienating audio. In other words, the expansion is additive, not substitutive — and that detail makes all the difference in how you read this move.
Video has officially entered the equation
For a long time, Spotify was treated by advertisers as a purely audio channel, and that significantly limited brands’ appetite to invest more consistently on the platform. After all, the media market has always placed a much higher perceived value on visual formats, especially when the conversation is about brand awareness and reach at scale. Video carries a different weight in media planning discussions, and Spotify knows that very well. That’s why expanding into this format isn’t just about adding inventory — it’s a strategic repositioning that opens doors to budgets that previously never even made it to the negotiation table.
Receive the best innovation content in your email.
All the news, tips, trends, and resources you're looking for, delivered to your inbox.
By subscribing to the newsletter, you agree to receive communications from Método Viral. We are committed to always protecting and respecting your privacy.
According to Berner himself, a big chunk of growth is coming precisely from these new spaces: We’re seeing a lot of growth within everything that’s visual, within our high-impact sponsorships, within video, within experiences, the executive said. And he reinforced the core point of the strategy by adding that this growth is additive and doesn’t come at the expense of audio. In other words, Spotify wants to expand the menu without losing the main dish that has always been its calling card in the advertising market.
On top of that, Spotify has a data point that few channels can offer with such precision: it knows exactly what you’re doing while using the app. Whether you’re working out, studying, driving, or relaxing, these contextual signals are gold for any advertising targeting strategy. When you combine that with a video format, sponsorships, and live experiences, delivering the right ad at the right moment gets much closer to the ideal that every media planner chases but rarely finds in such an integrated way within a single digital environment. This combination of context, format, and scale is the strongest argument the platform has been taking to agencies. 🎬
Automation and AI as the engine of the ad business
Automation has always been a promise in the programmatic market, but Spotify is building something very tangible on this front. The company rebuilt its entire ad tech infrastructure and launched the Spotify Ad Exchange, expanding its programmatic base precisely because the market is increasingly moving toward automated media buying. Marketers want the classic plug and play instead of dealing directly with media companies on a case-by-case basis. As Berner himself put it: We built that plumbing. We just want to make it easy for brands to access our signals, our formats, and understand how Spotify is performing as part of their overall media mix.
Artificial intelligence entered this equation in a very practical and functional way. Spotify started using generative AI to help with ad script creation and even voice-over narration, suggesting copy based on audience profiles and the expected consumption context for each ad unit. This drastically lowers the barrier to entry for brands that previously didn’t have the budget for professional audio production — one of the biggest obstacles reported by small and mid-sized advertisers when considering the platform. With AI assisting in production, the creative and approval cycle gets shorter, which is especially relevant for industries that work with short-term promotions or tight seasonal windows, like retail and travel.
But there’s an important detail here: technology alone doesn’t sell. Marketers aren’t convinced by ad tech that just looks good on paper. CMOs are increasingly on the hook for real business results, and the do more with less crowd keeps their eyes glued to return on ad spend. That’s where measurement becomes the centerpiece of Spotify’s argument. 🤖
Measurement and first-party data as a differentiator
One of the points Spotify has been emphasizing most strongly is its measurement capability built on proprietary data — what the industry calls first-party data. The Spotify Pixel has become a central bet for the company precisely because it enables a much tighter and more accurate understanding of conversions. Our specialty is first-party measurement, so the Spotify Pixel has been a big focus for us because it allows a better closed-loop understanding of conversions, Berner explained. For any marketer, this clearly signals a performance play — not just a brand awareness one.
With more robust attribution tools and more transparent reporting, it becomes much easier to justify the investment internally and connect campaign results to the business metrics that marketing teams need to present to their leadership. This data transparency is a decisive factor in transforming Spotify from an experimental channel into a recurring one within annual advertising plans. 📊
Audio remains strong and the future looks promising
Despite all the expansion into video and visual formats, Spotify is being careful not to abandon what has always been its strength: audio. And the numbers explain that caution. According to eMarketer projections, podcasts are expected to generate nearly an additional billion dollars per year in the United States by 2029. In other words, audio continues to be a massive growth engine, and it would be a strategic mistake to push it aside in the name of a race toward video.
For those on the advertiser side, Spotify’s evolution as an advertising platform represents a real opportunity to diversify channels at a time when traditional digital media environments are increasingly saturated and expensive. The cost per attention on conventional social media has risen considerably in recent years, while the Spotify environment still offers a pretty favorable signal-to-noise ratio — since users are in active consumption mode and often wearing headphones, which creates a communication intimacy that’s hard to replicate in other formats.
In the current landscape, where every dollar of ad spend needs to be backed up by data and where users are increasingly selective with the attention they give to ads, Spotify has arrived at a strategic moment with a proposition that blends scale, context, and technology in a way few channels can offer in an integrated package. The platform still has ground to cover to solidify this perception in the market and turn intent into a fixed budget line, but the building blocks are being laid with a speed and consistency that didn’t exist before. The advertising industry is paying attention, and that alone is already a significant shift. 🚀
