Tories use Spotify to target young voters

LONDON - Spotify users will be targetted with a marketing campaign from The Conservative Party next week, marking it the first time that a UK political party has run a campaign on the music streaming service.

Spotify is being used in a Tory ad drive
Spotify is being used in a Tory ad drive

A 40-second ad for the party will launch next Wednesday featuring the Conservative chairman, Eric Pickles, talking about debt. The one-week campaign will also urge the young people to vote Tory at the next general election.

If the campaign is successful, the Conservatives may use the service again in the run up to the General Election by running messages that target listeners by postcode.

One of the attractions of using Spotify is that it allows the party to bypass political advertising rules that do not allow UK political parties to run TV or radio ads outside of election broadcasts in the run-up to a general election.

Jeremy Hunt, shadow culture secretary, said: "We are always looking for new and relevant ways of engaging with people, and I think this Spotify advert adds to an already strong track record of being early adopters when it comes to online communication.

"The growth of Spotify in the UK has been phenomenal. We were particularly impressed with its advertising model and its potential for political campaigning."

The move is not the first time that the Conservatives have experimented with new media - in 2006 Karmarama created a wesbite and viral ad featuring an odious character dubbed 'the inner tosser' with a message about overspending and fiscal responsibility.

Spotify declined to comment.

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