Spotify | New Music, New Me | 2016
Why Mom Chops Vegetables to Techno / Spotify "New Music, New Me: Mom's Techno Edition"
Mom is chopping scallions in the kitchen. That's all there is to it — but set it to Takkyu Ishino's techno, and the whole world changes.
The problem
In late September 2016, Spotify launched its service in Japan, moving from invite-only to a full rollout. Japan is the world's second-largest music market, but it's an unusual one where CD sales make up eight out of every ten yen of revenue, and the market itself had actually shrunk from ten years earlier.
The insight
Discovering a genre you didn't know about can change the look of everyday life. This campaign set out to show just that single idea on screen, without any explanation.
The idea
Hip-hop, metal, punk, techno, R&B. Among this set of vignettes capturing everyday moments across five genres, the "Mom's Techno Edition" stands out by far. Vegetables, a big kitchen knife, and industrial techno. It carries the whole thing on one simple idea: the kitchen suddenly becoming a makeshift dance floor. There was also a Twitter mechanism where picking three emoji would get you a song recommendation.
What happened
Produced by Wieden+Kennedy Tokyo and released in December 2016. As Spotify's first campaign in Japan, it was covered by industry outlets including Campaign Asia, LBB Online, and Adweek AgencySpy. No awards or performance figures could be confirmed.
Afterthought
The knife keeps the beat, vegetables fly, and mom gets into the techno. That's it — and yet it hasn't aged a bit. Makes me want to cook while listening to techno too~.
