Spotify Hits Japan 2025, celebrating advertising and audio expression, will be held. Dentsu Group companies handled the winning entries in all major categories.

Spotify (company name: Spotify AB / Headquarters: Stockholm, Sweden), an audio streaming service used by over 713 million people worldwide, held the "Spotify Hits Japan 2025" awards on November 10, 2025, to honor innovative advertising and creative work that connects people and brands through the power of sound. The winners in each category were announced.

"Spotify Hits" was established to widely promote and recognize "audio creatives" that combine Spotify's streaming experience with advertising solutions to move users' emotions and actions. This year marked the second time the event was held in Japan. It featured two tracks: a category for established campaigns and an open call category for emerging creators.

The 2025 "Spotify Hits" saw numerous campaigns selected that innovatively utilized audio to address brand challenges and create new touchpoints with users. Creative work that maximized the potential of sound was honored across all five categories, including the Grand Prix "Mic Drop" category.

＜Winning Companies and Works by Category＞
Spotify Mic Drop (Grand Prix) Category
#LoveYourMistake "Knock Turn"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhUS0yzV3v0
Advertiser: Yamaha
Advertising Agency: Dentsu East Japan Inc.
Production Company: Pyramid Film / Massive Music
A campaign that positively reframed "mistakes" made during instrument practice, delivering the message "Love Your Mistakes" through sound. Targeting classical music listeners, it analyzed and drew inspiration from "common mistakes" found in performance data from 42 musicians, based on Chopin's Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2. Musicians from Japan, the UK, and India participated, pioneering a new expressive realm for audio advertising.

Ear Candy (Best Immersive Audio Campaign) Category
Surround Commercial "Circle" & "Circle (Club Activities)"
Advertiser: Otsuka Pharmaceutical (Pocari Sweat)
Advertising Agency: Dentsu Inc. / Dentsu Digital Inc.
Production Company: Big Face / Step / Sound House
Utilizing binaural recording to create an immersive experience where listeners feel as if they are inside the "circle." This new approach, moving emotions through sound alone, successfully increased favorability for the Pocari Sweat brand.

Seized the Moment (Best Moment Campaign) Category
"Words on the Way Home"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPwBkI8GQY4
Advertiser: Suntory (Kinmugi)
Advertising Agency: Dentsu Inc.
Production Company: AOI Pro.
Capturing the everyday moment of "commuting home," this piece expresses the Kinmugi brand's "healing" image through sound. Using a relaxed arrangement of "Firefly's Light" and vocal effects, it depicts the lingering emotion of switching between work mode and relaxation.

For the Fans (Best Audience Strategy Campaign) Category
Iroha 2025 Communication "Tomorrow Will Be Nice Too"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lzp29MQwJ-s
Advertiser: Coca-Cola Japan (Iroha-su)
Advertising Agency: Dentsu Inc. / Dentsu Digital Inc.
Production Company: VML & Ogilvy Japan / WPP OpenX / Platinum / Accenture
Launched alongside Kaze Fujii's song "Makkuro" (Pure White), proposing a comfortable lifestyle. By sharing a musical worldview through multi-format content like audio, video, and playlists on Spotify, it created resonance between the fandom and the brand.

Future Hitmakers (Best Innovative Idea) Category
Ajinomoto Award: "Knorr for Cat Tongues ~ A Playlist That Reaches Just the Right Temperature by the Time You Finish Listening ~"
One Media / Kohei Komiya
KDDI Award: "Lifetime Playlist"
Dentsu Digital Inc. / Hinako Takayashiki / Akiko Okawa / Ryuto Ueki
FamilyMart Award: "Mission from the Food Loss Police: 'Rescue FamilyMart's Discounted Items'"
Hakuhodo / Ryohei Nishimura / Masaya Shimizu
Each project skillfully utilized Spotify's audio advertising format, earning recognition for creative ideas that resonate with younger generations.

<Judging System>
This year's "Spotify Hits" featured judges who are leading professionals in the advertising industry and the audio/media field. After initial screening and final presentations, entries were comprehensively evaluated based on creativity, depth of audio experience, alignment with brand challenges, and advanced data utilization.

Overall Judges
・Michiko Kitahara, Representative Director / Brand Creator, MICHI inc.
Creative Director/CM Planner, Dentsu Inc.: Yusuke Sato
・Koichiro Shima, Executive Officer, Hakuhodo
・TaiTan, Rapper / Creative Director
・Shouhei Hashimoto, Head of Creative Strategy, Advertising Business, Spotify Japan
・Takashi Wasa, CEO, Jukebox Dreams

Additionally, in the "Future Hitmakers" category, marketing executives from FamilyMart, KDDI, and Ajinomoto participated as corporate representative judges.

Spotify stated it will continue to fuse the potential of sound with advertising creativity to support deeper brand-user relationships.

*About Spotify
https://www.spotify.com/
Since its launch in 2008, Spotify has transformed how people enjoy music. Users can discover and share over 100 million songs, more than 7 million podcasts, and over 350,000 audiobooks for free. Paid plans offer ad-free listening, high-quality audio, and offline playback.
It is now the world's largest audio streaming service, with 713 million users across more than 180 countries and regions, including 281 million paid subscribers.