Data isn’t always used to make great ads. Or even make great connections. But in 2016, as Jon Austin, executive creative director of Host/Havas, points out, Spotify showed how great a data-led campaign can be. Here is Austin’s, I Wish I’d Done That:

Right now, Spotify and creative expression have a bit of a murky and divisive connection. 

But in 2016, I think we can all agree they absolutely nailed it with their campaign, Thanks 2016. It’s been weird.

At a time when data was (and still is) primarily used to steer and focus the creative, Spotify celebrated the artistic expression not of their creators, but of their audience, through a campaign where the data was the creative.

Beyond being deeply personal (Dear person who played ‘Sorry’ 42 times on Valentine’s Day. What did you do?), it was hyper-local, hugely attitudinal and super topical (Dear 3,749 people who streamed ‘It’s the End of the World As We Know It’ the day of the Brexit vote).

It flexed effortlessly across different countries and cultures. And it was all wrapped up in some truly beautiful copy.

While no subsequent piece of work has hit the same stride (except perhaps their yearly Wrapped playlist), Thanks 2016. It’s been weird has gone on to shape Spotify’s data-writ-large style of creativity and spawn hundreds of doppelgänger campaigns.

For me, what makes this such a brilliant, enviable piece of work, is that despite being a platform quite literally filled with Bowies and Blondies and Jimis and Lemmys, they made the listeners the rock stars.

Bravo, Spotify. 

More of that kind of creative expression, please.

Last week, Austin sent The Stable his agency’s latest campaign. It’s a recruitment campaign for the Australian Federal Police. You can all imagine how predictable (read: dull) that might have been. It’s so not. I wish I’d done this: