Tag: coach

Spotify’s Bridget Evans on How Brands Can (and Should) Tap Into the Fan Experience

June 30, 2026

Last week at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Spotify Beach brought fans, creators, and brands together for three days of conversation focused on culture and fandom.

Our daytime sessions kicked off with Building What Money Can’t Buy: New Rules of Brand Loyalty, a conversation featuring Coach CMO Joon Silverstein, artist Troye Sivan, Cosmopolitan and Seventeen Editor-in-Chief Willa Bennett, and Spotify’s Global Head of Business Marketing, Bridget Evans. Together, they explored how fashion, music, and identity intertwine to spark cultural connection.

During the session, Joon revealed that this fall, Spotify and Coach will be teaming up for an exciting new global cultural partnership.

“This is much more than a traditional brand collaboration,” said Joon. “It’s a cultural partnership built around self-expression, connection, and community. One of the biggest things we’ve learned about Gen Z is that what they wear, what they listen to, and the communities they belong to are all part of the same personal story. That’s what makes this partnership feel so natural. At Coach, self-expression lives in style. At Spotify, it lives in music. And what we’re building together goes beyond both.”

For the Record sat down with Bridget after the festival to talk about the new partnership, how brands can tap into fandom, and the secret to connecting with Gen Z.

Spotify Beach has become a destination during Cannes. What is the team trying to create there?

We want it to feel like Spotify in real life. People come to the platform with intention, they discover things that surprise them, they connect with artists and ideas they didn’t know they needed, and they feel something. We want Spotify Beach to do the same thing.

What made Coach the right partner for this moment, and what does this partnership say about the kind of relationships Spotify wants to build with brands?

Gen Z is craving connection, and both of our brands have earned a place in their lives. Coach does that through how consumers express themselves and how the brand shapes their identity. On the Spotify side, we’re an essential daily companion. Music is a catalyst for real connection, on and offline.

So when we looked at what Joon and her team have built, it just made sense. We’re excited to bring our flavors of fashion and music together in a way that feels real. That’s the kind of partnership we want to build more of. It’s not a media buy or a logo placement. Instead, both brands actually have something to contribute to the fan.

From your perspective, what’s changed the most in how brands need to show up now?

There was a time when showing up with a big enough activation meant something. Now, you can’t buy your way into culture. People see through that pretty quickly, and it’s become more competitive than ever. And brands that haven’t caught up to that reality show up at Cannes and wonder why their message isn’t landing, whereas the ones who’ve figured it out are building real relationships.

You’ve made a distinction between sponsoring culture and participating in it. What’s the difference, and why does that matter?

Traditional sponsorship is transactional. You pay to be there, you get your logo placement, and then it’s over. Participation is something different. It means you actually have something to contribute to the experience. The fans know when a brand is just renting space versus when it’s really adding something. Gen Z especially.

When we talk to partners about what’s possible on Spotify, we’re really asking is: What do you actually have to offer fans? Not just, What do you want to say to them? The work that comes out of that question is almost always more interesting, and it tends to drive better results, too.

You’ve described Spotify as the soundtrack to people’s lives, both in big moments and ordinary ones. Why is that so powerful for brands trying to connect with Gen Z?

Because the ordinary moments are actually where identity gets formed. Your commute, the late night wind-down, a workout—those are times when you’re alone with what you love, and Spotify is there for all of it. For Gen Z especially, that depth of relationship builds real affinity. Our research is pretty clear that they feel like Spotify gets them. That kind of trust is rare.

AUX, Spotify’s in-house music consultancy for brands, seems to signal a new model for brand partnerships. How would you describe it to someone who hasn’t followed the evolution of the work?

We draw on over a decade of editorial expertise, data, and artist relationships to help brands figure out how music can be incorporated into their marketing strategy. And it goes well beyond placement. It’s about connecting brands with artists and fans inside cultural moments that already have real energy.

Think of NBC Peacock around NBA All-Star with RapCaviar, or Hilton sponsoring Spotify’s annual Best New Artists celebration. LinkedIn and John Summit threw a surprise corporate rave to celebrate his sophomore album. At CMA Fest, Mountain Dew brought Fresh Finds Country to life with a live rooftop show featuring emerging artists.

Each of those is a brand showing up as a participant rather than a sponsor. The Coach partnership we announced at Cannes is the most ambitious version of that yet.

If a brand wants to build “fandom,” what does success look like beyond standard media metrics?

Loyalty at scale isn’t measured in impressions—it’s visible in action. When fans are truly loyal, they want to consume and create. On Spotify, fandom means building something around the things they love.

Over the past month, we’ve seen a 235% global increase in playlist creation on Spotify related to a certain football tournament. That’s over 1.6 billion playlists! Fans aren’t just watching the matches, they’re extending that moment with Spotify as their constant companion.

Of course, we’re finding ways to be a part of the conversation in ways that make sense. To celebrate the opening day kickoff, we teamed up with Celsius energy drinks to host a pregame party at Academy LA. With DJ performances, interactive activations, and custom merch, it brought together music and sports in a way only Spotify could, connecting the world’s biggest football stage to the artists and sounds fueling fan excitement.

When a brand earns its place inside one of those moments, that’s where you build loyalty. That’s what you’re looking for. And you’ll feel it before it shows up in a campaign report.

What’s one thing you think too many brands still misunderstand about culture and connection today?

That speed is the same as relevance. There’s this pressure to react to every trend the moment it surfaces, to always be in the conversation, to never miss a moment. And what I see is brands moving so fast that they never actually have anything to say. Real connection takes some patience. It takes actually understanding who your audience is and what they care about before you try to show up for them. The brands I admire most right now are the ones that have been consistent enough that when they do show up in a cultural moment, people believe it. That consistency is really hard to shortcut.

Check out our full Spotify Beach 2026 recap to learn more about our daytime panels and evening performances.

Coach Sydney Carter Breaks Down Her Biggest Style Inspirations, the Joys of Owning a Dog, and the Importance of Being Yourself

October 30, 2023

When it comes to the most-loved features on Spotify, personalization tops many users’ lists. Through Spotify playlists like Discover Weekly and Daylist, editorially curated standouts like Fresh Finds, and new playlist-enhancing features like Smart Shuffle and Jam, we love helping listeners discover something new. And our listeners’ thirst for auditory adventures continues to grow, with nearly 2 billion music discoveries happening on Spotify daily.

Creators around the world also love discovery and turn on their fans to favorite playlists, products, and people. In For the Record’s ongoing Discovery Monday series, we connect with content creators and pick their brains about recent finds, whether it’s new music, podcasts, TV, food, beauty, technology, or fashion.

This month, we’re talking to basketball coach extraordinaire Sydney Carter. After reaching the highest levels of the game as a player, Sydney is now making a name for herself as one of the best-dressed coaches in women’s basketball. But more than just helping her teams succeed on the court, Sydney has become a fierce advocate for gender equality and representation in sports and life.

What’s your favorite way to discover new music on Spotify?

I’m starting to get hip to a lot of things because these young kids, they’re listening to all this type of stuff and I’m still stuck on ’90s R&B like Aaliyah. But I typically like to search for an artist, find a playlist, and then go from there. And then you’ll have different artists in that same genre that are in the mix, so I get into new stuff by listening on shuffle. That’s the easiest way for people like me.

Are there any new podcasts that you’ve listened to or discovered lately?

I love Amanda Seales’ podcast Small Doses. And then I love the podcast Don’t Call Me White Girl. Mona, the host of DCMWG, just makes me laugh. She talks about things you hear in social media and just puts her own thing on it, which I love.

Are you an audiobooks fan? What’s your favorite way to listen?

During the early part of the pandemic, I got into listening to audiobooks. There was something about that experience of listening to a book that was working for me. So I would do it when I would work out. I was big on riding my bike during COVID. I was at home all day, and so instead of listening to music the whole time, I was also feeding myself with information.

As you’ve evolved from player to coach you’ve also grown into a prominent voice for women’s empowerment for your social media followers. Do you have a mantra or mentality for staying true to yourself and your passions as your journey continues?

I mean, I always like to say that representation matters. That’s my whole thing. I never intended for any of this to happen. I grew up in a time where we didn’t have social media, so it was never like, “Okay, let me do this so I can go viral.” People my age don’t immediately think about doing things to go viral.

There’s so many young women that I’ve seen over the years who are simply not comfortable being themselves. They’re worried about what people think. They’re worried about what social media comments will say. And so a lot of people have just told me, “You make me feel like I can do anything.”

And it doesn’t even have to do with basketball or fashion. They just think they can do anything by looking at me. So I’m very grateful for that.

What is most rewarding about your work helping women college athletes progress on and off the court?

Every day, I get to help a young woman get closer to living out her dreams, whether that’s pursuing a degree or playing basketball. And so the passion that I have for coaching stems from knowing that when I come across a young woman or a young individual, I know that I’m going to do whatever it takes to help them succeed. Or if we’re on the basketball court, I’m going to be able to help them and provide them with the tools they need. And so when you see a kid whose life you were able to touch, and then they go off and they go do things, there’s nothing better than that.

When you’re seeking something new, what tools or resources do you use?

Typically when I’m thinking about just new ways to be myself or just other ideas that I’m trying to come up with, I’ll find inspiration from Google, or social media, or somewhere else and think of how I can make it me. I’ve just gotten to a point where I don’t care if no one else likes what I’m into. I don’t care if someone else thinks this idea is completely insane. If I like something, it’s simply because I like it.

When it comes to fashion, you’re well-known for your sideline looks. How did you become interested in that world?

My passion for fashion started when I was a kid, and there’s a long history of me taking pride in how I look. I grew up in a family of seven kids. And so I grew up seeing my sisters be super dainty and everything, but I was a little rough around the edges. I love playing basketball, but I always wanted to be super prissy. If you ask me, my sisters and my mom were fashion queens. My mom was wearing the high-waist pants before we were, and she got me my first pair of boots when I was in the fourth grade, and I wore them every day. That’s why my family calls me “Boots” now.

And then even when I went on to college, people always knew I was going to come out with something that ain’t nobody seen before. And I might not have had all the money or anything like that, but I was going to find a way to at least find a couple of pieces that worked for me.

Did that change at all once you started coaching?

When I started working under the coach that I played for in college, he was always like, “You wear what you want to wear. You don’t let anybody tell you that this is too much or this is extra.” He was like, “Just be yourself.” I felt empowered by that and we actually started dressing up during COVID when all the other coaches were wearing quarter-zip sweatshirts and khaki pants. He was like, “We ain’t doing that. I don’t care if it’s just me and you on the sidelines, we’re going to look nice.” And so it was me and him dressing up to the nines, and it’s what I’m comfortable in. I feel like I’m putting my best foot forward for our kids if I’m looking my best.

What’s something new that you’ve discovered lately and fallen in love with?

I’ve always loved animals and I just got a dog. She’s about to be eight months old. So I am opening my eyes to the fact that my dog is not just a dog to me. She’s like a human being. And so I think I’m always searching for clothes and all types of toys for her.

And this is not necessarily just about her, but I’m at a point where I’m truly growing up and thinking about what’s next in life, and about having kids in the picture. My family, my sisters are having kids left and right and everybody’s looking at me like, “What you doing?” So I’m really starting to think about solidifying the life that I want and doing all the things that I’m doing with fashion, with my job, with a new animal. So yeah, I think that I’m just discovering all of the blessings of life in itself.

Stay up on Sydney’s courtside couture by following her on Instagram.