Give people a date to wait for.

Every year, around the start of December, a large part of the internet posts the same thing: their Spotify Wrapped. Top artists, top songs, minutes listened, laid out in bright cards made to fit a phone screen. People share it without being asked, argue about it with friends and screenshot each other’s. For a few days, Spotify’s brand is everywhere, and most of it is posted by its customers.

Other services have built their own versions of a year in review since. The data isn’t hard to copy. What’s harder to copy is the date: millions of people already know Wrapped is coming, and some of them start listening differently in November to change what it will say.

Why it works

Wrapped isn’t really about Spotify. It’s about you: your year, your taste, your slightly embarrassing top song. People share it because it says something about them. Spotify just made the mirror.

And it comes back. A one-off campaign has to fight for attention every time. A ritual gets attention booked in advance, because people remember last year and expect the next one. Each year makes the following one easier.

What a smaller business can borrow

You don’t need listening data from millions of users. You need something you already know about your customers, a format that’s easy to share, and a date you keep.

–A yearly recap for each regular: the coffees, the classes, the repairs, the books they bought from you.

–A fixed day: the same week every year, announced ahead, so people start to expect it.

–A format made for a phone screen, with their name on it and yours small in the corner.

Keep the product out of the middle. The recap should make the customer look good, interesting or funny. If it reads like a sales message, nobody posts it.

Start small

A personal recap can be a handwritten card, a short message or a one-minute video naming your ten most loyal customers and what they’ve been up to with you. Pick a date this week, put it in your calendar for every year after, and do the first one even if it’s rough. Rituals get better by being repeated, not by being perfect the first time.

These are other brands’ campaigns, not our work.

Be the obvious choice, not another copy.