Spotify Lures Fans to Reserved With a Promise: No More Extreme Lengths Necessary

Would you sell your soul to the devil or summon an internet witch to conjure a spell to see your favorite musical act in concert? A hard no for most, but some diehard fans wouldn’t think twice. 

Spotify illustrates the lengths fans go to in an animated spot that promotes its new experience, Reserved, which rewards an artist’s most dedicated followers with a chance to buy tour tickets before the general public.

Directed by Jocelyn Charles through Paris-based production company Remembers, the animation leans into hyperreality by exaggerating scenarios like waiting in an infinite line in the desert, selling your hair, or missing a beloved grandma’s funeral, all rendered with vibrant intensity. 

Remembers’ team drew the film’s backgrounds by hand with markers, then animated the spot frame by frame on a computer. The ad features original music by sound studio Citizen. 

The campaign also includes outdoor ads, which were animated by Hornet using Remembers’ illustrations. They will appear near concert venues through contextual out-of-home and on transit and train wraps across New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago, and Atlanta, alongside CTV, OLV, and paid social online. 

Through Reserved, eligible Spotify Premium subscribers get a window to buy two tickets before general sale opens. Spotify introduced the feature in June with the first slate of artist tours, including Role Model and Rod Wave. 

“Great Lengths” isn’t the first time the streaming platform has celebrated diehard fans. Last year, it honored the quirks of major fandoms with its “Fan Life” campaign. The ads paid tribute to the visual motifs tied to specific artists, such as pink cowboy hats for Chappell Roan song “Pink Pony Club” or pet albino alligators for Doechii’s album, Alligator Bites Never Heal. 

The next edition expanded the ads into films capturing the wildest fan rituals for devotees of Pitbull, Bad Bunny, Charli XCX, Lil Uzi Vert, Rezz, Sleep Token, and Megan Moroney.

Spotify is partial to a well-placed, contextual ad. Ahead of the Grammy Awards in January, it paid tribute to the Best New Artist nominees (Katseye, Addison Rae, Olivia Dean, and Leon Thomas) with billboards in their hometowns featuring childhood photos that captured their early passion for music.