Spotify’s Bridget Evans says brands need “participation,” not media buys, to earn Gen Z loyalty

Spotify is pushing back against a familiar playbook in brand marketing. Speaking at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Bridget Evans, Spotify’s global head of business marketing, argued that modern sponsorships cannot be reduced to purchasing impressions or temporary visibility. Brands, she said, have to contribute to the experience itself, because audiences can quickly tell when a company is simply “renting space” versus building something meaningful with fans.

Evans’ comments came as Spotify staged Spotify Beach at Cannes, a three-day event focused on culture and fandom. The programming included a daytime session titled “Building What Money Can’t Buy: New Rules of Brand Loyalty,” featuring Coach CMO Joon Silverstein, artist Troye Sivan, Cosmopolitan and Seventeen editor-in-chief Willa Bennett, and Evans. The discussion tied identity to what people wear and what they listen to, framing loyalty as something rooted in self-expression and community rather than transactions.

Silverstein used the panel to preview an upcoming collaboration: this fall, Spotify and Coach will team up for a “global cultural partnership.” Silverstein described it as more than a conventional brand collaboration, saying it is designed around self-expression, connection, and community. She linked the fit between the brands to each company’s role in consumers’ personal stories, with Coach expressing identity through style and Spotify through music, and said the work is meant to go beyond either brand alone.

In an interview after the festival, Evans said Spotify Beach was built to mirror how people experience Spotify in everyday life. She described the platform as something people approach with intention, discover surprises, and connect with artists and ideas they may not have expected, culminating in an emotional pull. The goal, she said, was for Spotify Beach to produce the same kind of feeling, with fans, creators, and brands showing up together as active participants.

That distinction between participation and sponsorship anchored Evans’ advice to brand partners. She said traditional sponsorships are transactional, typically involving a logo placement and a finite period of exposure. Participation, by contrast, requires brands to offer something that actually enriches the experience for fans. Evans’ view was that “what do you actually have to offer fans?” is the key question, and that the most interesting outputs tend to drive better results than simply trying to get a message across.

Evans also pointed to how “loyalty at scale” can show up in behavior rather than measurement. As an example from the company’s own data, she cited a 235% global increase in Spotify playlist creation related to a football tournament over the prior month, totaling more than 1.6 billion playlists. She framed the point as evidence that fans extend a moment by building and creating, with Spotify positioned as their constant companion during the event window.

Beyond the platform-level explanation, Evans offered concrete examples of what she considers brands showing up as participants. She referenced activations around NBA All-Star with NBC Peacock and RapCaviar, Hilton sponsoring Spotify’s annual Best New Artists celebration, and a surprise corporate rave organized with LinkedIn and DJ John Summit. She also cited Mountain Dew’s Fresh Finds Country effort at CMA Fest. Her takeaway was that the most effective brand involvement resembles an earned place in cultural energy, not a campaign bolt-on.

For consumers, Evans linked the shift to a broader generational dynamic. She said Gen Z is craving connection and that trust is difficult to obtain, adding that Spotify’s relationship with listeners is “daily” and built on understanding what people care about across ordinary moments like commuting, winding down at night, or working out. In her view, brands that try to move at the speed of every trend but do not have anything substantive to say may miss the deeper connection required for affinity.

One caveat is that Spotify’s Cannes remarks did not provide financial details or specific performance commitments for its Coach partnership, nor did they outline exact programming, deal economics, or measurable success criteria. The company also did not clarify whether the partnership includes particular Spotify products or advertising formats, focusing instead on the concept of a cultural collaboration and how to design brand involvement that feels organic to fans.

Looking ahead, the main thing to watch is how Spotify and Coach operationalize the “participation” framework into tangible fan-facing experiences this fall. Whether that takes the form of creative programming, creator involvement, or platform integrations, the test will likely be how fans experience the collaboration and whether it resembles the “Spotify in real life” concept Evans described, rather than a standard campaign with limited shelf life.