How FCB New York Made Spotify a Clio Multi-Grand Winner With Excel

Agency CD Pieter Claeys breaks it down

FCB New York won four Grands at last night’s Clio Awards for its “Spreadbeats” touting Spotify. Planners, buyers and other ad pros who opened the Excel file triggered an explosion of music (by John Summit) and old-school graphic gusto.

Muse caught up with Pieter Claeys, creative director at the agency, to learn how they made spreadsheets fun and, most importantly, put Spotify top of mind.

Muse: What was the genesis of the idea? When/how did the idea occur to you?

Pieter Claeys: We started with a simple behavioral insight: media planners live in RFP spreadsheets. And like every ad platform, Spotify sends out plenty of them. So we asked ourselves, What if we could deliver our message inside those spreadsheets, right when planners are reviewing ad buys? That’s when the idea hit: What if Spotify made a music video in Excel? We came up with it 10 minutes before an internal review and dropped it into the deck at the last minute. There’’s a lesson to be learned here: You’re never really ready for a review, so keep thinking until the very end.

What was the client’s reaction when you proposed it? 

To the client’s credit, they loved it the moment we presented it. Making a music video in Excel may sound wild, but it made a lot of sense. They saw what we saw: It was a smart, direct idea that solved a real business problem. It gave media planners a reason to notice Spotify’s video ad capabilities, right when they were reviewing proposals. Of course, the first question was: “Is this even possible?” So, we kicked off an R&D phase to figure out feasibility. Throughout this whole year, the client really stood by the idea. They saved the idea more than once, pushed it through roadblocks and fought for it with us. We went through the fire together. It’s proof that great work only happens when client and agency are in it together.

What was the hardest part of doing the campaign? 

We had to keep the entire experience under 10MB, because planners needed to be able to email it. That constraint shaped every creative decision. We had to work in the spirit of economy. Ironically, that made the outcome even cooler. We dove into visual techniques from the ’80s and ’90s, when video players ran on far fewer pixels. The limitations pushed us to be more inventive. It just proves that the biggest struggles are often opportunities in disguise.

The idea had to survive a year of technical, legal, and logistical hurdles. It took resilience from everyone involved. At the same time, there were moments of joy: Seeing the first animations come to life in Excel, finding the right artist. It truly was a rollercoaster.

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What were the most surprising responses from actual recipients? 

We did a few test runs with media planners. It was both exciting and nerve-wracking to see how they’d respond. The reaction was overwhelmingly positive. They genuinely loved it. What made it oddly charming was that we built the music video using the same tools planners use daily: macros, conditional formatting, ASCII, graphs and formulas. Doing something like this in the software they rely on made it feel like it truly belonged to them. One moment that really stuck with us was when Microsoft shared it on their Instagram. Seeing the reactions in the comments was a treat.

Any advice for agencies trying to sell through unusual concepts?

If you’re only in it for the final result, you’ll have a hard time. You have to enjoy the process. Being uncomfortable. The hurdles. The weird problems you have to solve along the way. Because if you do, this really is the best job in the world.