An independent creative strategy proposal for Spotify
By SDD/ — Marketer & Creative Strategist
Think beyond the obvious.Live the experience
This independent project explores an opportunity for Spotify to make music discovery more unexpected, personal and culturally expansive.
The ambition is to move beyond familiar listening habits and encourage people to explore sounds, artists and musical worlds they may never have considered.
The result is a global creative platform built around one provocative thought.
Spotify has become part of the way people discover, experience and share audio.
Its relationship with listeners extends beyond accessing music: it involves personal preferences, listening habits, cultural influences and the ongoing discovery of new sounds.
This creates an interesting strategic opportunity ↘
How can a platform that understands what people already like also encourage them to discover what they don’t know they might love?
They return to favorite artists, genres and playlists. Their listening habits become part of their identity.
Familiarity creates comfort, but it can also limit exploration.
Explore how Spotify could encourage people to move beyond their established musical preferences and become more open to unexpected discoveries.
These are strategic audience hypotheses, not validated research personas.
We seek familiarity, but we are fascinated by the unexpected.
Some of the things we end up loving are the things we never went looking for.
Spotify has the opportunity to turn personalized listening into a gateway for unexpected discovery, encouraging people to explore beyond their familiar tastes and experience the excitement of finding something they never knew they would love.
Spotify helps people discover unexpected sounds, stories and perspectives that expand their world.
A platform that opens new paths from familiar preferences toward unexpected discoveries.
The creative approach is based on questioning the limits of our musical preferences. Rather than telling people what to listen to, the campaign invites them to reconsider how much of music they have yet to discover.
The ambition is to transform curiosity into exploration.
We all have an idea of what we like. Our favorite artists, genres, sounds and playlists help define our musical identity.
But what about everything outside those preferences?
What if the music we haven’t discovered yet is precisely what could surprise us, move us or become our next favorite? Spotify becomes the starting point for exploring beyond the familiar.
The film is the Key Visual The Unseen brought to life. A woman lives in a familiar, ordered, predictable world. While listening to music she discovers a luminous green opening, approaches it and crosses through. On the other side she finds a universe of unexpected sounds, colors and spaces, and the music transforms her perception. The opening is the metaphor: a window into the unknown.
Mia, the same woman in all 12 shots: young adult, short dark wavy hair, subtle freckles, small gold hoop earrings and an oversized black sweatshirt. Black straight trousers and plain black over-ear headphones, no logos, complete the look. Subtle, natural acting.
Reference sheet (views and portrait) generated with AI from the campaign character; it is a continuity guide, not a real photograph.
From cold grey to color: the film takes on color as the opening expands.
Blacks, charcoal and cold greys. No green.
Green #1ED760 appears as an anomaly.
Green, violet, blue and amber enter through the opening.
Enveloping light and balanced colors.
Deep black, the green opening and editorial type.
Each frame is the specific moment of its sequence. Shots 05 to 09 are a single continuous movement: the opening always appears on the same wall and grows progressively.
Wide shot: alone in an ordered, predictable space, she puts on her headphones.
Tracking shot: she walks her usual route; everything repeats.
Details of the wall's lines and her profile: patterns and symmetry.
A tiny green slit of light appears on the wall: the first anomaly.
The opening expands; green light transforms the architecture and reaches her face.
The opening reveals depth and an unknown universe: the most memorable moment.
She approaches the opening; the camera follows, curious and quietly amazed.
She crosses through the opening: fluid transition, continuity of movement and direction.
The new world unfolds: architecture, light and color respond to the music.
She experiences the new environment: the music transforms atmosphere and perception.
Emotional close-up: she has found something she never imagined; the world softens behind her.
Your taste has a blind spot.Cut to black: the vertical green opening, the campaign line and the signature.
Music drives the transformation. The voice enters only where the image allows it and falls silent at the crossing (shots 07–08).
60-second conceptual film produced with AI from the storyboard: shots generated with Kling 3.0 Omni and Google Flow, shot 12 built by code, original music (ElevenLabs Music) and a synthetic voice-over (ElevenLabs). The storyboard frames are also AI-generated images; shot 04 is retouched. Independent conceptual proposal by SDD/, not affiliated with Spotify.
Asset 02 · Key visuals & living poster
Visualize what remains hidden within familiar listening habits.
Represent the unexpected connections between different musical worlds.
Show how discovering new sounds can expand personal perspectives.
Art-direction concepts with AI-generated editorial imagery. Final executions would be produced with commissioned photography.
The key visual in motion for screens: the slit glows, the mist moves and the green light touches her face, in a seamless 8-second loop. Type, logo and signature are locked layers that never distort. With original sound design: turn the sound on.
3:4 · 1080×1440 · 8 s loop · original sound
The visual system should feel contemporary, intelligent, culturally relevant and globally adaptable.
Each format was designed for its reading distance: the billboard reads in seconds, the mupi rewards those who come closer, the DOOH uses motion and the transit piece travels with the city.
The Big Idea at large scale: a single image, a headline that reads from a distance and the green slit as an intervention in urban space. Not an enlarged poster, but a piece designed to be understood in seconds.
The campaign along everyday routes. Unlike the billboard, the mupi is seen up close: a more immersive image, with details that only appear at arm’s length (green light on skin, freckles, the texture of the slit) and a message that invites people to stop and look.
The idea in motion for urban screens. The scene starts in darkness, a thread of green light appears, the slit opens to reveal a bigger world and the composition settles into the headline. A slow, restrained reveal in a seamless 10-second loop.
The campaign moves with the city. A side wrap on the bus carries the headline and Mia’s portrait beside the green slit: discovery can appear at any point of the journey.
These are proposed creative applications, not existing or commissioned Spotify initiatives.
Asset 11 · The Blind Spot Experience How far does your taste really go? An interactive five-step journey: five questions, a slit that opens according to your answers and three musical territories to discover. Declared simulation: it does not connect to Spotify. Live the experience →A mobile-first extension of the Blind Spot Experience.
The campaign moves beyond the desktop experience, bringing unexpected musical discovery into the palm of your hand.
The mobile doorway into the experience. A slit of light, one question and a single action: spark curiosity before asking for anything.
The moment of discovery: an unexpected territory, its references and the natural step into The Blind Spot Mix. A conceptual example, not a diagnosis of the user.
Two-screen conceptual mockups · Declared simulation: it does not connect to Spotify or analyze your listening · Independent proposal by SDD/, not affiliated with Spotify.
Asset 13 · Experiential marketing
No names. No labels. Just music.
An unexpected live music experience designed to challenge assumptions, remove musical labels and turn discovery into a shared cultural moment.
Independent conceptual proposal by SDD/, not affiliated with Spotify. All materials are design examples: there is no confirmed date, venue or artist, and the artists shown are fictional.
The hero image of the event: a dark hall, a monumental stage set and silhouettes that don’t have a name yet. Something extraordinary is about to happen, but we don’t know what.
Concert
without
a name.
No names. No labels. Just music.
A teaser invitation system that keeps the mystery: no artist names, no recognizable photographs and no genres. Labels become the graphic device: tape that covers instead of explaining.
A different kind of live music experience. You won’t know who’s playing. You’ll just know what you feel.
Concert without a name.Date and venue to be announcedConcert
without a name.
A system of its own for the event, with the same grammar as the campaign: black, green, ivory and condensed type. Its signature device is the covered label, removed at the reveal.
Concert
without
a
Archivo Condensed Bold · uppercase · tight leading. The covered label is the system’s one device: until the reveal.
Name
Genre
NameRevealed.
Attendee
No name required.Concert without a nameCrew
Concert without a nameYou don’t know
who’s playing.
That’s the point.
A set design built to hide and reveal: a translucent scrim, a central LED wall and side columns. Everything is technically buildable with truss, modular LED and rear projection.
The most important moment of the event: identity appears only after you have listened. Three visual states for each performance.
No introduction, no genre, no name. Just a silhouette and a screen that doesn’t say anything yet.
The audience listens without labels. Attention is on the sound, not on who makes it.
Mara
Solenne
The set ends, the scrim lifts and the screen changes. The name appears: now you know who was behind it.
The event turned into conversation: how attendees could share what they discovered. Conceptual mockups, not testimonials or real results.
I didn’t know
who was playing.
But I knew I loved the music.
Photography direction: silhouettes, backlight, hands and light. No identifiable faces.Now you
know.
Mara Solenne
I came without
expectations.
I left with a new favorite artist.
Conceptual mockup · Conceptual proposal. @yourhandle / @concertwithoutaname
Five moments, from the first clue to the conversation afterwards.
Finds a mysterious invitation.
Arrives without knowing the artists.
Experiences performances without prior labels.
Finds out who was behind the music, after listening.
Shares what they discovered and keeps exploring music.
A credible, operable proposal with adaptable capacity.
Finale · continue to The Blind Spot Mix
Curatorial criteria: musical universes are described, not names. Any real artist proposed as a reference would need authorization and confirmation; none is named here.
Continue to The Blind Spot Mix →It begins with a recognizable behavior: returning to familiar music.
It connects naturally with Spotify’s discovery experience.
It turns an abstract behavior into a provocative and recognizable idea.
It creates opportunities to explore music beyond conventional genre boundaries.
It can live across brand communication, social, digital, cultural and real-world experiences.
The strength of the idea is not limited to its headline. It is the creative platform that can emerge from the underlying human tension.
These are measurement hypotheses for a conceptual proposal. There are no results: the campaign has not launched.
Outdoor and DOOH with the slit, teaser reels. Show, don’t explain.
Hero film, feed, Stories, carousel and The Blind Spot Experience.
The Taste Test, out-of-genre collaborations and Concert Without a Name.
From a cultural observation to an integrated creative platform.
We live surrounded by recommendations, habits and choices that remind us of what we already like. That isn’t a problem: it’s a comfort. But a taste that only repeats itself stops asking about its own edges.
The opportunity isn’t to question what we love. It’s to remember that what we love can still change.
Some of the things we end up loving are the things we never went looking for.
Conceptually, the role of a music brand moves from confirming taste to widening it: a curator of the unexpected. It is a creative proposal, not a description of what any platform does today.
The Unexpected Curator · proposed brand role
It turns a cultural observation into a simple, relevant tension: what we know we like versus what we don’t know we’ll love.
It sparks curiosity without judging anyone’s taste. A blind spot isn’t a flaw: it’s the part we haven’t seen yet.
It is flexible enough to live in any medium, format or experience: a line that works as a poster, a question, a door and an invitation.
That is how a sentence becomes a creative system.
Key Visuals, Hero Film, OOH, Social Media and Living Posters.
→Campaign Microsite, Mobile Experience, The Blind Spot Mix and The Blind Spot Challenge.
→The Blind Spot Booths, The Blind Spot Installation, Concert Without a Name and Interactive OOH.
→Musical discovery, curiosity, participation and cultural exploration as a conversation, not a campaign.
The territories describe the proposed platform; not every execution is developed on this page.
I start by doubting the obvious answer. Not because it’s wrong, but because it’s the one everyone else already sees. For me, strategy isn’t about finding an answer faster; it’s about noticing the opportunity that is still invisible and giving it a form people can feel.
A human insight is only useful when it becomes an idea; an idea is only useful when it can become an experience. That is the work: connecting rigorous thinking with creative exploration until a small observation can travel across a poster, a screen, a room and a conversation.
A great idea doesn’t just get attention. It opens up new possibilities.
Sometimes the most interesting discoveries
are not the ones we look for.
They’re the ones we never knew
we were missing.
Because our taste is always evolving.
And there’s always something beyond what we already know.
Your taste has a blind spot.
Discover what you don’t.
SDD/Think beyond the obvious. Discover what’s next.
Independent conceptual proposal by SDD/. Not commissioned, approved or affiliated with Spotify. Strategy and executions are proposals; no real results are claimed.
This project demonstrates an approach to creative strategy that combines multidisciplinary marketing experience, strategic thinking and creative exploration.
It starts by questioning an established behavior, identifying an opportunity and translating that opportunity into a creative platform with potential for multiple expressions.
The objective is not simply to create a different message. It is to find a different way of looking at the challenge.
Marketer & Creative Strategist · Think beyond the obvious.
Independent conceptual project. Not commissioned, produced, endorsed or affiliated with Spotify. Spotify is a trademark of its respective owner. Imagery, video, music and voice-over are AI-generated for concept visualization.
The Blind Spot Experience · © 2026 SDD/
From what you hear to what you’re missing.
The same typographic system, margins and signature across every piece, verified against each Instagram format’s safe zones.
Recognize, question, discover.
The Big Idea in Instagram’s language: three posts that work on their own but together tell a story. What we listen to, what we’re missing and the unexpected waiting for us. Same typographic system, margins and signature; three different photographic concepts.
Intrigue, reveal, discovery.
The campaign as a fast, immersive vertical experience: three consecutive Stories. An uncomfortable question, the blind spot revealed and the invitation to go beyond the familiar. All copy sits within the Stories safe area.
Hook in the first seconds.
Two 15-second vertical videos with different approaches: a visual reveal that introduces the Big Idea and an emotional experience about discovering something you never looked for. AI video clips, typography and end card by code, and original sound design. Turn the sound on.
A journey in six steps.
Recognize your taste, question it and open up to new possibilities. Six slides moving from darkness and the familiar to light and discovery, with one typographic system and the same signature. Swipe through it.