Sandbox - thE year's best music marketing campaigns - MUSIC MARKETING FOR THE DIGITAL ERA - Music Ally
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sandbox
MUSIC MARKETING FOR THE DIGITAL ERA
DECEMBER 12 2018
ISSUE 218
thE year’s best music marketing campaigns
SANDBOX 2018 SURVEY
thE year’s best music marketing campaigns
E
very year we are overwhelmed
by the number and the quality of Contents 16 ... FRANZ FERDINAND 30 ... BARBORA POLÁKOVÁ
entries for sandbox’s round up 03 ... 5 SECONDS OF SUMMER 17 ... JERRY GARCIA 31 ... RAY BLK
of the best marketing campaigns. 04 ... AMAZON MUSIC 18 ... TOM GRENNAN 32 ... RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS
That is not just hot air; there were a 05 ... THE BEATLES 19 ... GUNSHIP 33 ... ROBYN
staggering number of submissions 06 ... TONY BENNETT & DIANA KRALL 20 ... CALVIN HARRIS 34 ... SIGALA
this year, making the picking of a final 07 ... ANDREA BOCELLI 21 ... ISLAND CO. LAB 35 ... JORJA SMITH
40 an especially arduous task this 08 ... BRING ME THE HORIZON 22 ... MYLES KENNEDY 36 ... ROD STEWART
time around. Here, then, are the best 09 ... BRIT AWARDS 2018 23 ... DAN MANGAN 37 ... SUPERORGANISM
40 campaigns of the year – listed in 10 ... BURY TOMORROW 24 ... KARA MARNI 38 ... TANK & THE BANGAS
alphabetical order but with special 11 ... JOHN COLTRANE 25 ... METALLICA 39 ... TROJAN 50
awards for the ones that had that 12 ... DEEZER 26 ... M.O 40 ... TWENTY ONE PILOTS
something extra, that something 13 ... DISNEY 27 ... NICK MULVEY 41 ... THE WOMBATS
unique, that something new. It is, we 14 ... GEORGE EZRA 28 ... NINA NESBITT 42 ... YEARS & YEARS
must say, a hell of a list. 15 ... FIRST AID KIT 29 ... NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALL MUSIC
2 | sandbox | ISSUE 218 | 12.12.18
SANDBOX 2018 SURVEY
5 SECONDS OF SUMMER CAPITOL RECORDS UK
Team members involved city, pop-up shops and video tour diaries.
Our content objective was to always be
Marla Altschuler, Hannah Maldon & Kinga reactive and timely.
Nowicka – Cantine (digital agency) 3. Cocktails chats – a twist on the album
Maddy Smith – head of digital, Capitol UK track-by-track where the band got drunk
Becky Thomas – campaign manager, whilst explaining the album process – was
Capitol UK by far our most successful content thread.
Kate Sullivan & Abbie Hollebone – Each video has averaged over 350k views
digital managers, Modest! Management with 3m views across all seven videos on
YouTube and Instagram TV.
Overview of campaign 4. Flash sales that gave fans short
windows to access limited-edition
The release of 5SOS’s third studio album, merchandise and digital bundles to drive
Youngblood, marked a shift in direction pre-orders into album release. Social
musically and aesthetically for the band. media was key to announcing these
In a multi-layered campaign, we aimed drops and ensuring they all sold out
to re-engage the existing fanbase whilst and eventually contributed to the band Our biggest learning was to never ask or expect from fans. They give
reaching new audiences through a more securing their third US #1 album and so much already so we followed their lead and dropped tools for fans
mature style and vision. making history. to propel the album themselves rather than explicitly asking them to
Content was key to new discovery, 5. Global Snapchat lens for ‘Youngblood’. create assets. For example, one of the main flash sale merchandise
engagement and the retention of existing The stats were overwhelming and helped items included childhood photos of the band with the Youngblood
fans. At every step of the campaign a within the fanbase. The activity trended drive Shazams for the track particularly in signature branding on top. We provided fans with all the main album
moment was created to excite fans and worldwide before the video had even been the US. Overall the lens had 262m plays 5SOS branding so they could create assets. Fans placed themselves
drive conversation. It was imperative released and resulted in 145% increase in and 185m views over three days. within the artwork using their own childhood photos, just like the
that everything came from the band average daily engagement, 335% increase band. This created huge extended visibility across digital, reaching
themselves, with their own voice front in daily likes and a 628% increase in Results & key learnings outside of fans with the band interacting.
and centre. Below are a few examples of average daily @ mentions.
activations where these key values were 2. Content evolution. The aesthetic for • Youngblood the album went to #1 on the
put into action: this album developed throughout the Billboard charts, making history with 5SOS ! campaign breakdown
1. ‘Want You Back’ video teaser. A tweet campaign. With the input of full-time being the first band to have their first three
was sent from the band’s account with creator Andy Deluca, we delivered daily albums hit the top spot. CAMPAIGN BUDGET £15,001–£25,000
the video release date and a still from the photo and video pieces from the band’s • 1m album sales globally and 1.5bn album
AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC
video. Every fan who engaged with this travels, a frequency needed to keep the streams.
tweet was delivered a personal response audience engaged. These daily content • ‘Youngblood’ the single has had 1n AGE: 14–18, 19–24
from a member of the band with an posts were amplified by geotargeted streams across all DSPs. AUDIENCE GENDER (M/F): 56% / 77%
unreleased gif from the video shoot. This activities such as local Snapchat filters, • ‘Youngblood’ #1 at US radio for five LOCATION: Global – primarily UK, US and Australia
caused huge discussion around the video individually designed tour posters for each consecutive weeks.
3 | sandbox | ISSUE 218 | 12.12.18
SANDBOX 2018 SURVEY
AMAZON MUSIC
Team members involved Carrie Underwood,
twenty one pilots,
Steve Boom – VP, Amazon Music Lil Wayne, Nicki
Tami Hurwitz – VP of global marketing, Minaj and Imagine
Amazon Music Dragons, with TV to
Josh Fein – senior marketing manager, come. Additionally,
Amazon Music select digital, radio,
Colin Gaul – group creative director, Amazon and display ads have
launched in the UK
Overview of campaign and Germany.
Each creative
In August of this year, Amazon Music features a voice
launched its largest-ever multi-media utterance to engage
advertising campaign, titled A Voice Is All Amazon Music
You Need, highlighting the powerful vocals on Alexa, while
of iconic songs while demonstrating the highlighting the
simplicity of using your voice to find the power of voice. New
music you love. The multiplatform media ad creative featuring
plan – inclusive of TV, radio and digital – additional artists and
was developed with global independent songs will continue
agency Wieden+Kennedy, to celebrate the to roll out throughout
growth of Amazon Music and its lead in the rest of the year.
voice innovation.
Each advertisement is a striking Results & key
visual interpretation of songs paired learnings: N/A
with isolated vocals from notable artists,
showcasing the emotional power of
simply asking for a chart-topping vocal
performance. The result is an ear- ! campaign breakdown
grabbing, eye-catching musical rendition
of legendary tracks that end with a
CAMPAIGN BUDGET N/A
listener asking Alexa to play the featured
artist. A voice is all you need to make that campaign, with songs including: Kendrick Since its initial launch, Amazon Music AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC
happen. Lamar & SZA’s ‘All the Stars’; Ariana has run online creative and billboard out- AGE: N/A
At launch mid-August, digital creative Grande’s ‘No Tears Left to Cry’; Kane of-home across the US in cities – including AUDIENCE GENDER: N/A
featuring a variety of top artists across Brown’s ‘Lose It’; and Freddie Mercury of LA, NY and Nashville – featuring artists LOCATION: US, UK, Germany
various genres began appearing in the Queen’s ‘Somebody To Love’. such as Kendrick Lamar, Ariana Grande,
4 | sandbox | ISSUE 218 | 12.12.18
SANDBOX 2018 SURVEY BEST
CATALOGUE
MARKETING
THE BEATLES UMC / Universal Music Group
Team members involved historically
laid-back
Katie Alley – head of digital, UMC streaming
Lee Jenson – director of marketing, UMC audience.
Orla Lee-Fisher – SVP global marketing The
Guy Hayden – VP international marketing YouTube
Jack Thomson – senior marketing manager, live stream
USM has
Olly Walsh – director of digital, USM amassed
Doug Barasch – senior director, UMe commissioned brand new, over
Tom Smith – VP marketing, UMe full-length music videos 150k streams to date and will be edited
Jeff Jones – CEO, Apple Corps Ltd for ‘Glass Onion’ and ‘Back into digestible segments to be deployed
Jonathan Clyde – director of production, In The USSR’ that premiered with Apple across The Beatles’ other social channels to drive traffic and
Apple Corps Ltd Music and YouTube respectively. sustain viewership of the full-length asset. The campaign trailer
Jeremy Neech – digital director, Lisa Salem – A core theme for this project was the has smashed 1m views and beyond The Beatles’ undeniable social
digital marketing producer (both Motherlode impact and influence of the album and we fanbases, we delivered over 600k impressions to UK cinema-goers
Media) eventised this discussion with a live stream in only seven days. Our content and communications plan has so far
Darren Evans, Caroline Jones, Nick Barratt – from YouTube Space in London during driven more than 500k clicks to retail and streaming partners overall
Able Media Sam Okell and Kevin Howlett. The first of its release week. The concept saw a panel of and is currently tracking at over 15k clicks a day. The tweet to unlock
Richard Barnett – Trunk Animation kind, this truly immersive experience was current artists, broadcasters and journalists promotion garnered 15m impressions and 150,000 engagements
James Swindells – Loud Beings designed to engage a mobile streaming debating with Giles Martin and host Matt around #BeatlesMarkItFab.
audience and sustain listening across Everitt as to “Could The White Album Be The poster from the original packaging provided a colourful asset
Overview of campaign the entire album which was delivered to Made Today?”. We globalised this moment from which we produced a brand new promo video for ‘Glass Onion’
streaming services. but taking real-time questions from fans which feels fresh and modern. As part of our sustainment plans, we
We adopted a range of strategies – from local This multi-format product included a watching live around the world, as well as are launching a tool to allow fans to create their own version of the
events to social content and digitals tools – to mass of unheard and unreleased outtakes those in the room. classic poster by plugging in their own social media profiles.
market arguably one of The Beatles’ most and acoustic Esher demo versions, alongside
eclectic albums and definitely one of the the 2018 mix of the album, which gave us a Results & key learnings
most creatively challenging artworks. wealth of avenues to explore when it came ! campaign breakdown
A campaign highlight was taking a literal to marketing cross-platform and cross- At the time of writing, this charted at #4
blank canvas artwork and producing an demographic. Another first on this project in the UK album charts, the White Album
industry-first enhanced playlist experience was releasing all three versions of each Spotify enhanced playlist has passed 85k CAMPAIGN BUDGET £25,001+
for this album on Spotify. This consisted of a instant grat track to showcase the breadth followers and accumulated over 3m streams AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC
series of looped visual assets to accompany of the album and versions available. We took in a week. This activation was an industry AGE: 19-24, 25-34, 35-44
audio tracks from the album, interspersed fans back to the studio and created visual first and was successful at bringing to life AUDIENCE GENDER (M/F): 60% / 40%
with in-depth interview footage with representations of band members talking elements from the physical booklet, as LOCATION: Global
producers and experts including Giles Martin, between tracks on the outtakes and also well a shared audio visual experience for
5 | sandbox | ISSUE 218 | 12.12.18
SANDBOX 2018 SURVEY
TONY BENNETT & DIANA KRALL Verve Label Group / Fame House
Team members involved Is Here to Stay. A limited number of fans were also offered the
ability to purchase tickets to an intimate performance by Tony
Alex Hines, Aaron Desire, Haley Furman, Bennett and Diana Krall at the Rainbow Room in NYC on 12th
Kyla Buck – all Fame House September, where they performed songs off their new album.
As a capstone to the Love Is Here to Stay campaign, the team
Caitlin Colletti, Megan Mark, Justin Jesena, built a virtual tour showcasing George Gershwin’s history using
Michael Allen, Hadley Spanier, Google Maps, milestones in Gershwin’s history, tracks from the
Mandy DallaCorte, Danny Bennett – all Verve album and narrated historical moments.
Label Group
Results & key learnings
Overview of campaign
Debuted #11 on the US Billboard Top 200
Legendary artist Tony Bennett has one • #1 US Top Jazz Albums (Billboard)
of the most celebrated careers in music • Smule Campaign: 151k views, ~8k submissions
history, stretching over more than 70 • Reddit AMA: Views: 200k
years. In 2018, Tony Bennett teamed
up with jazz icon, Diana Krall, to release the album’s tracklist were posted across Following the release of the album,
a duets album, Love Is Here to Stay, each artist’s social channels to continue a video of the full song was released
consisting of songs from Tin Pan Alley to build anticipation amongst fans. featuring fan submissions singing
songwriter George Gershwin. The album Additionally, we hosted an email for entry alongside Tony Bennett. Tony Bennett
was first announced on Tony Bennett’s sweepstakes giving away a hand-drawn shared the video on his YouTube channel
92nd birthday across Bennett’s and sketch from Tony himself featuring the and social media platforms as a thank you
Krall’s social media accounts, along with album tracklist. to fans for their involvement. On album
the album’s cover art. Leading up to the Next, the campaign utilised singing street date, Tony Bennett took over Travel
announcement, fans were able to submit app Smule to launch the ‘Duet With & Leisure’s Instagram Stories featuring
their birthday wishes to Tony Bennett Tony’ campaign where fans could record his travels, artwork and new album,
and he shared a few fan birthday wishes themselves singing along to the album Love Is Here To Stay. The direct-to-fan
on his social media channels. From there, title track, ‘Love Is Here to Stay’, alongside e-commerce offering further reflected this
Fame House and Verve Label Group Tony Bennett himself. Fans recorded
themselves singing Diana Krall’s parts on
theme of bringing fans into the creative
process.
! campaign breakdown
collaborated on marketing the album,
with a focus on bringing the fans into the the track ‘Love Is Here To Stay’, giving fans Within the first 48 hours of the
creative process. a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to duet pre-order, fans had the opportunity to CAMPAIGN BUDGET £25,001+
This began with the rollout of a trove with one of the most illustrious vocalists purchase an exclusive album package AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC
of behind-the-scenes teaser content in history, Tony Bennett. Fans could then that included a print of Tony Bennett’s AGE: 45-59, 60+
featuring footage of Tony and Diana share their duets to their own social own painting of his view from his NYC AUDIENCE GENDER (M/F): 48% / 52%
constructing the album together in the media, generating further awareness for apartment, alongside a collectible VIP LOCATION: Global
studio. Lyric graphics and videos from the album. lanyard and a digital pre-order of Love
6 | sandbox | ISSUE 218 | 12.12.18
SANDBOX 2018 SURVEY
ANDREA BOCELLI DECCA RECORDS (UK), VERVE (US), SUGAR (IT)
Team members involved Sì is Andrea’s first album of new music in Facebook placements optimised for awareness, and reused data to
14 years, so it was vital that the strength of push fans through the marketing funnel. This meant we enjoyed
Sophie Hilton – director of marketing, Decca the new songs was forefront; and the album Facebook ads which performed above benchmark across the board,
David Heath – senior digital marketing included duet partners such as Ed Sheeran, encouraging strong social growth. At the forefront was our Facebook
manager, Decca Dua Lipa, and Andrea’s son, Matteo Bocelli. Canvas creative; a customisable and immersive storytelling format
Toby Hawkins – senior digital media planner, We also knew that the track ‘Fall On Me’ which gives us a way to tell the full story of the album and which
Fused would appear on Disney’s The Nutcracker achieved an incredibly low CPM.
Graham Parker – president UMC, Verve soundtrack. This presented enormous Our Facebook Live Q&A reached 904.1k people and achieved
Holly Adams – SVP strategic marketing, opportunities to leverage with our digital 159.3k engagements. It was a huge moment for us at a key time for
Verve spend and led us to develop creatives that awareness, overperforming at a rate of 28x above benchmark.
Hadley Spanier – head of marketing, Verve would resonate with these audiences, The multi-language ads were also a huge success, and saw us
Michael Allen – VP digital, Verve tapping into new fanbases too. We took achieve an incredibly efficient CPM rate at half of benchmark (£9.14
Caitlin Colletti – director digital marketing, a storytelling approach, relying on video against a benchmark of £18.53).
Verve that focused on the connection between We ran a search and display campaign through the Google Display
Megan Mark – manager digital marketing, Andrea’s music and his family. we produced, which were recorded in Network, focusing on The Nutcracker, and audiences of shows where
Verve Central to the campaign was Andrea’s multiple languages including Italian, English, Andrea had made TV appearances (such as The New York Times,
Justin Jesena – director digital analytics, duet with his son, Matteo, which culminated Spanish, and even Russian. To exploit this, CNN, and Billboard). On YouTube, we ran TrueView ads, and took
Verve in a music video for ‘Fall On Me’. This we ran ads targeting users based on their advantage of a new feature where we could target user uploaded
Emily Frost – senior digital media planner connected perfectly. Just one month after device’s language settings. For example, content featuring our music with YouTube Cards, directing viewers to
Francesco Pasquero – Sugar Music launch it has become one of Andrea’s Russian fans living in the UK would have official content and retail.
Alberto Locatelli – Sugar Music most-viewed videos of all time. To celebrate, seen Russian language versions of our Our global Linkfire link generated circa 300k clicks over the course
Luca Oldani – Scozzese YouTube presented Andrea with their golden advertising. of the four-month campaign.
button award, marking the milestone of We carefully reused data throughout In its opening week, Sì became a #1 album in both the UK and US
Overview of campaign 1m channel subscribers – the first ever the campaign and remarketed to fans with album charts. Andrea Bocelli’s first #1 album ever, and 20 years after
classical singer to achieve this feat! newer and more relevant content, including the last classical album topped the UK chart.
The campaign began with an in-depth We also filmed a Facebook Live clips from Andrea’s appearances on US
report from our internal insights team to Q&A two days before and UK television. We never ran one piece
understand Andrea’s audiences and their release, solidifying of video for more than a few days, and
habits – online and offline. This would the father and son consistently refreshed the visuals, meaning ! campaign breakdown
help us decide a creative direction bond portrayed in the the frequency amongst our audience
as well as plan and allocate media video. showed huge increases in brand lift.
CAMPAIGN BUDGET £25,001+
spends. Key findings included that Andrea’s
our core audience consumes reach is Results & key learnings AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC
news online in a web browser, global and AGE: 19-24, 25-34, 35-44, 45-59, 60+
uses Facebook as their primary this was Once we had developed our creative AUDIENCE GENDER (M/F): Slight female skew
social network and consumes reflected strategy, we focused on platforms where LOCATION: Global
music online using YouTube. in the assets we knew our audience would be. We built
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SANDBOX 2018 SURVEY BEST
CRYPTIC
CAMPAIGN
BRING ME THE HORIZON RCA UK
Team members involved Results & key learnings
Nick Antoniou – senior digital marketing The campaign lead to the single premiere on Radio 1 as Annie
manager, Sony Music UK Mac’s Hottest Record. Following the set-up of the ‘Mantra’ teaser
Will Stevens – marketing manager, campaign, we launched the album pre-order across the band’s
Sony Music UK socials and introduced their new official website, as well as their
Sophie Graham – international marketing official stores.
manager, Sony Music Across the band’s website and official stores, we’ve had almost
Raw Power Management 1m page views and 7,000 product sales with Instagram being the
second-highest revenue driver after the band’s website and mailers.
Overview of campaign The reaction across the band’s socials was incredible, with more
than 20m impressions over those two weeks which is the most
Bring Me The Horizon have been on a the band ever had in one week. On launch, we also delivered 75,000
rocket of a journey over the last few years, decode and piece together the puzzle left emails with a 26% open rate. The album reached a total of 5k pre-
selling over 2m albums globally to date by the band. With support and interest orders in these two weeks which was 1k more than total pre-orders
and playing sold-out shows in over 40 from press such as Kerrang! and NME, of their previous album, That’s The Spirit. The campaign resulted in
countries, including two sold out nights at it was on everyone’s minds that Bring peaking at #10 on the iTunes chart, entering the iTunes Top 50 in 44
The O2. Me The Horizon were set for a climactic countries and the pseudo video trended at #1 on YouTube.
To promote the band’s comeback return. On Spotify, the track was streamed 5.3m times and was added to
single, ‘MANTRA’, and to support them The campaign set-up had everything: 15 New Music Friday playlists, including #4 in the UK and #6 in the
in maintaining this momentum as well from finding 10 different voiceover actors, US. It was also added as the first track to Rock This, as well as to a
as pushing them further, we launched a recording 45 minutes’ worth of audio We kept updating the voice message further 33 Spotify lists with ‘MANTRA’ in #1 position in 13 of those.
mysterious two-week global outdoor and messages, setting up 12 different phone every 72 hours to encourage fans to keep Similarly, on Apple Music the band received support across the board.
digital campaign. lines in 10 countries… to getting posters calling. The more they stayed on the line, All this aside, the campaign has firmly re-established Bring Me
Centralising the theme around a fake displayed around the world, building the more clues and audio teasers they The Horizon as one of the leading alternative bands produced by the
cult, posters were displayed across the four websites, hiring actors pretending would get. UK and has since made them a household name.
globe which pointed the public towards to be part of the cult before the band’s The fanbase was fully reignited and
a website and a hotline, which received performance at Reading Festival. The new listeners were on board, making
over 40,000 calls in two weeks. What campaign successfully combined together
tangible and digital experiences, bringing
Bring Me The Horizon a household name,
As a result, the press coverage has
! campaign breakdown
was waiting for them was a mysterious
website urging them to “Join a Cult” called the overall theme of the lead single into been constant. There has been amazing
MANTRA and an answering machine the real world. support across the board including an CAMPAIGN BUDGET £5,001-£10,000
which played unsettling voice messages The phone line was hugely successful, NME feature and a Kerrang! cover and AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC
and teased snippets from the band’s receiving more than 40,000 calls in two interview, followed by being made Greg’s AGE: 14-18, 19-24
upcoming single. Each time it was called, weeks, with an average call duration of Tune Of The Week and Annie Mac’s AUDIENCE GENDER (M/F): 60% / 40%
different teasers played, provoking five minutes. On launch we had more than Hottest Record on Radio 1 upon release, LOCATION: Global
enthusiastic fans across the internet to 100 people on the line at the same time! earning its place firmly on the A-List.
8 | sandbox | ISSUE 218 | 12.12.18
SANDBOX 2018 SURVEY BEST LIVE TV
& SOCIAL
BRIT AWARDS 2018
MEDIA EVENT
BPI / SOMETHIN’ ELSE
BRITs in real time as we broadcasted live on every
platform (Musical.ly, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube
and Twitter) – a first for a UK awards show. Content
was also syndicated to artists to spread the celebration
surrounding the winners and performances.
Results & key learnings
Our success is measured by follower growth, engagement
and video views – always driving to a peak on awards night.
involved going live on all platforms, We also evaluate the quality of artist involvement. Our goal is to
curating regular social stories on make The BRITs relevant to a younger, global, social audience.
Instagram and Snapchat, delivering We secured 57 social activations with BRITs talent in the build-up,
exclusive video content on Facebook and including a digital exclusive performer announcement during a Liam
YouTube and providing always-on artist Payne Twitter Q&A. This one activation generated 2.2m impressions
updates on Twitter. These activations and 211.6k engagements.
were accompanied by the audience-facing One KPI was to increase live stream views on event day: we
call to action; “Celebrate with us on 21 achieved our largest live audience ever with 8.1m views across seven
February”, designed to drive a single streams. Our YouTube live stream views alone increased by 57%. We
‘tune-in’ message for the night itself. reached another KPI by breaking 3m social followers.
Team members involved Overview of campaign Our strategy focussed around @BRITs’ At the awards we worked with 60 individuals to capture exclusive
social audience and pop music fans. content, including for our Instagram Story which saw a 482%
Giuseppe De Cristofano – director of In 2018, we provided The BRIT Awards’ Throughout the campaign, we gave our increase in views. We dominated nine out of 10 UK trends on Twitter,
digital, BPI digital audience with the most audience more opportunities to engage appeared in three out of 10 worldwide trends and generated over
Dorothy Hui – VP of digital, Sony comprehensive experience of the show in with their favourite BRITs talent. We also 1.8m engagements. In the week following, we had 17.9m Facebook
Adam Cardew – digital director, Sony its 38 year history. optimised content for every platform; video views.
Between October 2017 and February developing the relationship with our
All from Somethin’ Else 2018, we utilised the best social platform followers and promoting the awards.
Tom Young – executive producer features, mimicked how our audience We recruited a 15-strong influencer ! campaign breakdown
Nan Davies – executive producer interact and engaged with our biggest squad and worked with over 50 nominees,
Lee-Anne Richardson – head of production fans to embed ourselves in their feed, performers, presenters and guests to
Zosia Morris – senior producer utilise them as evangelists and grow @ amplify big moments and key campaign CAMPAIGN BUDGET £25,001+
Tom Pollard – video producer BRITs’ personality, brand and audience. messaging. By leveraging these accounts, AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC
Will Hardy – social producer Central to this approach was our we led their consumers to the @BRITs AGE: 14-18, 19-24, 25-34
Grace Medford – social producer “excitement you have to share” mentality content that would be most relevant. AUDIENCE GENDER (M/F): 30% / 70%
Niomi Fraser – assistant social producer where we created must-see, shareable On awards day, consumers experienced LOCATION: UK
Chris Blacklay – designer moments across all platforms. This the excitement and celebration of The
9 | sandbox | ISSUE 218 | 12.12.18
SANDBOX 2018 SURVEY BEST
USE OF
GEOLOCATION
BURY TOMORROW Sony Music/Music for Nations
Team members involved to meet the band during soundcheck they needed to share a
pre-loaded text tweet in order to win. This tweet included venue
Julie Weir – label head specific information such as date, time, ticket links and also
Joel De’ath – marketing manager included a link to the tour playlist on Spotify.
Tom Critten – marketing assistant With over 1,000 entries, streaming figures quadrupled as a
result of the viral upsurge in tweets sharing the streaming link
Overview of campaign and excitement during the upcoming tour. Also as a result of
people being made aware of the tour dates regularly the majority
Utilising Google Maps and location- of dates along the tour sold out post the release of the third
tracking technology, we created a band- section of this initiative.
branded map, hosted on the band’s official
website. Results & key learnings
Using the iconic design of the Black
Flame sigil, we invited fans to “Claim Their • We gained a visual representation of the distribution of Bury
Flame” in which they pre-saved the Tomorrow fans globally.
album playlist on streaming services, • We gained in total 3,500 followers to the Black Flame album playlist
placing a geographical stake in the • We quadrupled streams to that playlist with our third incarnation
ground above their location, showing promoting the tour playlist (with Black Flame tracks at the top)
their dedication to the band and add gold branding to their previous black • We increased organic engagement with Bury Tomorrow on socials
excitement for the upcoming album. flame and gave fans a chance to ‘collect’ a with map discussions on social media.
During the first week of the higher prestige than other fans promoting • The band achieved their highest chart position with this album
initiative, we garnered 2,057 unique competition. (#21) compared to previous albums (highest #38).
followers to a newly created playlist, This again inspired organic posting • We were able to garner further support with live music companies
and as an aside we benefitted from between fans as they competed to be by offering access to our marketing campaign, whilst also ensuring
1,173 unique mailing list signups. the first to view the video, and the first the album was promoted, resulting in the quadrupling of streams.
These figures now stand at just below to obtain a gold sigil, leading to more • Favourable Spotify playlisting through promoting pre-saves.
double for the entire campaign. particular fans in far-off locations (such excitement around the track.
Visually the black flame sigil engulfed as Iceland) and reward them for being Post-album release, we decided to
the entire world, leaving limited ground fans of the band). Given the success of re-engage the Black Flame map for a third
time. This time attempting to promote
! campaign breakdown
untouched by the flame, giving a visual the campaign we decided to reignite the
representation to the popularity of the initiative around the release of the second streaming figures and ticket sales around
band. It also stimulated conversation single, ‘Knife Of Gold’. their upcoming UK and European tour. We CAMPAIGN BUDGET £25,001+
between fans on social media, by We offered fans the chance to view the included a golden ticket icon above each AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC
screenshotting their own particular flame video 24 hours early, whereby in return location of the gig venues along the tour. AGE: 14-18, 19-24, 25-34
on the map and attempting to connect for a sign-up to the mailing list, the video Fans were instructed in order to win AUDIENCE GENDER (M/F): 60% / 40%
with others in their proximity. would be emailed to them before anyone the chance for early entry to the show, LOCATION: GB / DE / US / ES / BR / AU / NL
We ran organic initiatives to find else. This also offered fans the chance to a further two tickets, and the chance
10 | sandbox | ISSUE 218 | 12.12.18SANDBOX 2018 SURVEY
JOHN COLTRANE VERVE LABEL GROUP/FAME HOUSE
Team members involved fans with the branding of The Lost Album: Both
Directions At Once.
Emily Levy – Fame House Phase two of the campaign included a
Leslie Owens – Fame House Coltrane covers campaign where fans were
Alex Hines – Fame House encouraged to enter a hashtag social media
Oliver Schrage – Verve Label Group campaign by posting their covers of tracks from
Hadley Spanier – Verve Label Group the album to unlock never before seen footage
Megan Mark – Verve Label Group of Ravi Coltrane at Van Gelder Studio where his
Caitlin Colletti – Verve Label Group father, John Coltrane, recorded the album.
Justin Jesena – Verve Label Group
Michael Allen – Verve Label Group Results & key learnings
Danny Bennett – Verve Label Group
Interestingly, nearly 60% of link clicks throughout
Overview of campaign or that matched similar demographic the campaign were attributed to look-alike audiences of fans
profiles of direct fans of John Coltrane. that may not have directly followed Coltrane’s pages, but were
In 1963, world-renowned and Pulitzer Ads utilised a mix of video containing demographically similar to those direct fans. This may indicate that
Prize-winning jazz saxophonist and the new music, images from the box set, direct fans were aware of the album and chose to purchase through
composer, John Coltrane, recorded a accumulated over 1.2m followers who and text about the release to entice fans their preferred means of buying music, and therefore didn’t need the
series of songs that were never released. monitor the page for anecdotes and to explore further. help of advertisements to be reminded to purchase.
In 2018, fans finally had the opportunity highlights from the artist’s catalogue. This creative was A/B tested across Furthermore, clicks to Linkfire were almost evenly split across
to hear these songs via the release of Similarly, fans still Google for each online channel to see which content social media and Google’s search and display network despite a
Both Directions At Once: The Lost Album information, images and videos related to struck a chord with each subset of majority of the budget being allocated to Facebook and Instagram.
on Verve Label Group. Verve Label Group John Coltrane on a daily basis. Knowing fans. Facebook proved to be the most Google display also yielded a more inexpensive cost-per-click,
and Fame House’s goal for this album this, Fame House’s paid media strategy successful platform throughout the indicating that John Coltrane fans may be more likely to purchase
was to drive streams and purchases aimed at reaching fans in these online campaign since it allowed for wider music while browsing the web than while scrolling through their
of the album. To achieve this, Verve locations with the goal of converting them targeting based on interests fans had news feeds.
Label Group and Fame House devised to purchase. Additionally, Fame House expressed on the social network, as well
a comprehensive digital paid media and Verve looked beyond jazz standards as the ability for more dynamic photo
strategy across social media and search/ and classics by serving ads to fans of video content than possible on search
and display. Fans on Facebook were also
! campaign breakdown
display placements, beginning with hip-hop and funk as a way of reaching
the launch of the album’s pre-order in listeners who may be accustomed to exposed to multiple pieces of content
addition to a robust teaser campaign widely used samples of the jazz greats throughout the campaign, allowing for a CAMPAIGN BUDGET £25,001+
featuring never-before-seen journals and like Coltrane. larger story to be told around the album’s AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC
tapes from the album’s recording at Van Verve Label Group and Fame House release. Impulse Records/Verve Label AGE: 25-34, 35-44, 45-59, 60+
Gelder Studio in 1963. Although Coltrane targeted online users that had expressed Group also created a Coltrane Trivia AUDIENCE GENDER (M/F): 70% / 30%
passed decades before the birth of the direct interest in John Coltrane over the campaign where fans could test their LOCATION: Global
internet, his official Facebook page has years, as well as fans of similar artists knowledge of John Coltrane and engage
11 | sandbox | ISSUE 218 | 12.12.18SANDBOX 2018 SURVEY
DEEZER
Team members involved
Global, UK, Brazil and Colombia artist
marketing and comms teams at Deezer
Good Relations – PR agency
Overview of campaign
Music is incredibly personal and can move
listeners to a certain emotion or memory. Deezer’s core message of personalisation, but it was also a key part
However the same song can evoke of supporting and promoting the Deezer NEXT programme. Around
different feelings or have alternative the time each campaign launched, the NEXT musicians involved
meanings for each person. For example, experienced a positive increase in streams of their songs featured in
one may feel heartbreak but another may the campaign as follows (from launch date):
feel empowerment. Deezer’s Music With • 159% increase Zak Abel’s ‘Love Song’ between 16th September
Sole showcased this personal journey and 22nd October
through a digital campaign that visually • 102% increase of Cythia Luz’s ‘Deixa Ela’ between 7th and 9th
showed the different interpretations of November
the same song. • 29% increase of Feid’s ‘Nuestra Canción’ between 16th and 21st
Using the close connection between Deezer challenged the graphic artist in to negativity, Zak’s shoes were covered September
sneaker culture and music, Deezer each region to first listen to the track in warm ‘sunset’ colours to signify the
challenged a graphic artist and a musician on their own, before creating their positive end to his relationship. For The media and press worldwide were also engaged with the story,
in three different countries to use colourful interpretation on a blank sneaker. The every region, the shoes were completely with titles covering the story included Séries em Cena (Brazil)
sneaker designs to show what a song meant musician then described the meaning of contrasting and visually showed the Yahoo! News (UK) and El Tiempo (Colombia) and totalling a reach of
to them personally. All three musicians their song. For example in the UK, Daniel deeper meaning music has to each 156,455,841. The long version of the video generated a total of over
involved in Music With Sole were part of Cordas drew a burning bridge and a toxic person. 185,000 views across all social platforms in Colombia and UK.
Deezer’s support programme, Deezer NEXT, ocean to reflect a bad breakup in Zak’s The designers also created a special
as the development of emerging artists is ‘Love Song’. While Daniel had alluded Deezer ‘Flow’ pair, featuring the songs
hugely important to Deezer’s ethos. The that influenced both artists on their ! campaign breakdown
pairings were as follows: creative path. To launch the campaign,
• Brazil: hip-hop singer Cynthia Luz Deezer created a wide range of assets
with artist Pomb interpreting ‘Deixa including video and a competition for PR, CAMPAIGN BUDGET N/A
Ela’ social and the Deezer community. AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC
• Colombia: reggaeton singer Feid with AGE: 14-18, 19-24, 25-34, 35-44, 45-59
artist Pol interpreting ‘Nuestra Canción’ Results & key learnings AUDIENCE GENDER (M/F): N/A
• UK: pop singer Zak Abel and artist LOCATION: Brazil, UK and Colombia
Daniel Cordas interpreting ‘Love Song’ The campaign was designed to show
12 | sandbox | ISSUE 218 | 12.12.18SANDBOX 2018 SURVEY BEST
FAMILY-CENTRIC
MARKETING
DISNEY UNIVERSAL MUSIC (UMC)
Overview of campaign of the site, encouraging them to pick Results & key learnings
different Disney tracks to sing-along with.
Families love to sing along to Disney One of our innovative creatives was a We reached #1 in the compilations chart
music. This insight may be unsurprising ‘build your own microphone’ asset that we on week one and were pleased to see that
for most people and, as such, UMC put on Pinterest, the creative seamlessly the sales of the albums are sustaining,
has released multiple successful sing- fitting into the platform with a crafty twist dropping only one place in week two and
along titles. As the world has become to promoting our album. We also created three respectively.
increasingly more digital, we have seen Snapchat geofilters around Disney stores. This campaign saw over 5m impressions delivered, 1.4m views
that families like to share their sing-along Our social media assets worked in perfect across different content and platforms with over 60k clicks to
moments with the world, uploading videos unison with our family-centric TV ad retailers via Linkfire. Our approach for stand out creative worked
across social platforms. We therefore which saw kids and parents singing along delivering an engagement rate 377% higher than Universal
saw an opportunity, to marry songs from in costumes in and around the home. Benchmark across Facebook and Instagram in feed with video ads.
across the Disney catalogue with official We had witnessed the phenomenon Using multiple ad formats on one platform was also a great
sing-along instrumental versions in one of UGC featuring kids ‘singing their heart success with our ‘Swipe up to sing along’ Instagram Stories gaining
package for the first time. From nostalgic out’ with Frozen, so we partnered with a 127% higher view through rate than Benchmark. We also saw
favourites like ‘Under The Sea’ to new Disney Junior to launch a competition brilliant success from our first foray into Instagram GIFs, with over
smash hits such as ‘How Far I’ll Go’, ‘Sing asking parents to capture their little ones 55k views on one of the stickers in 24 hours.
Your Heart Out Disney’ has a song for singing ‘How Far I’ll Go’ for a chance to win Silence Media returned a fantastic engagement rate with dwell
every voice to sing-along with – bringing the album and be featured in a new music time 20% longer and a CTR 300% higher than industry benchmark.
together the best-selling compilation video for the track which would appear on Over 27 hours of total interaction time with the interactive packshot
brand with Disney for the first time. the Disney Junior Vevo channel. across premium sites, a great win for us.
From the outset, we wanted to employ Influencers played a vital part in • Varied media mix allowing cross platform frequency among core
marketing strategies that integrated into the digital strategy on this campaign. audiences
native Disney activity, encouraged parent- We have built a pool of Disney fans • Moment targeting also key for engagement (Twitter targeting half-
Team members involved to-parent sharing and paired a bought at UMC that we’ve established strong term conversation during half-term)
media plan with relatable video creative. relationships with. We sent products
Hannah Chadwick – marketing manager,
Toni Tuesday – digital marketing manager,
Wanting to ensure we would reach
our audience at as many touch points as
to relevant influencers (those with kids,
those who love to sing, UK-based) and ! campaign breakdown
Shannon Conway – digital creative content possible, we therefore created bespoke encouraged them to ‘story’ themselves
co-ordinator, Carolyn Allen-Coyle – A&R content that felt native to each platform. singing and using our Instagram stickers CAMPAIGN BUDGET £10,001–£15,000
consultant (all UMC) From Instagram stories with cute kids and a swipe up CTA. AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC
Mickey Tropeano – digital media planner, asking you to “swipe up to sing along”, Looking back on the campaign, our
AGE: 0-13, 25-34, 35-44
Fused to carousels created from lyric videos, creatives paired with audience-first
Nancy Coburn – marketing manager, Disney framed in a Sing Your Heart Out Disney marketing approach including tactic
AUDIENCE GENDER (M/F): Primarily female parents of
Jamie McCall – marketing co-ordinator, border. These square edits were also remarketing strategies, helped to deliver us young kids
Disney used on Silence Media where we built an a #1 album. LOCATION: UK only
ELS – TV ad interactive banner aimed to engage users
13 | sandbox | ISSUE 218 | 12.12.18SANDBOX 2018 SURVEY BEST
USE OF
PODCASTS
GEORGE EZRA COLUMBIA RECORDS UK
Team members involved
Edd Blower – senior digital marketing
manager, Columbia Records UK
Alex Eden-Smith – head of marketing,
Columbia Records UK
Corrina Kavanagh – audience development
manager, Columbia Records UK
Sheniece Charway – marketing assistant,
Columbia Records UK
Emma-Lee Percy – senior CRM manager, 4th
Floor Creative, Sony Music UK
Ryan Lofthouse, Josh Sanger, Amanda Playle
& Matt Walker – Closer Artists
Overview of campaign
social moments like the Shotgun Burp and continued to extend
It had been three years since George’s his ad creative.
first 4x platinum album was released
and in our research we learnt that not Results & key learnings
everyone had seen the content from
album #1. In the lead up to the first single, ran x6 creatives on launch that aligned and his humour/smile front and centre in • #1 album
we began re-engaging his lapsed fans with our audience targeting. In the 10 his lyric videos was a deliberate decision • #1 single
with online ads, using previous videos weeks between launch and release, and something that resonated – with • 2x platinum singles
such as his live sessions, Ezra Express, our advertising strategy was focused ‘Shotgun’ hitting over 100m views. •Best-selling artist album of 2018
music videos and behind-the-scenes on who the audience was, where they His pet project, the George Ezra & • Database growth of over 54% in one year
footage. are online and how engaged they were Friends podcast, was also an incredible
We also launched his weekly journal, a with George. We then ran a host of format that allowed listeners to discover
newsletter that George writes each week, different ad creatives to take the fans more about him and his guests, talking
honestly about a variety of subjects.
! campaign breakdown
giving his fans an insight into his week deeper into George’s world. Most of
and the occasional exclusive. It has been these ads took learnings from what was Around the album release, Apple Music
running for 85+ weeks. This then bled into overperforming on his socials organically hosted the live Abbey Road video CAMPAIGN BUDGET £25,001+
his March tour and studio sessions, both and were therefore built around George’s sessions. Spotify hosted an intimate AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC
of which were opportunities to capture personality, musicianship or humour. For event at “Tamara’s” for his top fans. AGE: 0-13, 14–18, 19-24, 25-34, 35-44, 45-59, 60+
photos and videos, which we used leading example, one of our best-performing ads Since release, we have continued to AUDIENCE GENDER (M/F): 40% / 60%
to the album launch in January 2018. was a video of George watching his own document George’s global touring story LOCATION: UK
Alongside our pre-order incentive, we advert. In a similar vein, putting George with videos and photos, reacted to organic
14 | sandbox | ISSUE 218 | 12.12.18SANDBOX 2018 SURVEY
FIRST AID KIT COLUMBIA RECORDS
chosen given the respective sound quality Results & key learnings
and intimacy of each medium.
To add the element of surprise, we • Week-one album sales up 70% against previous album, Stay Gold.
recorded entire “sound scenes” binaurally Ruins charted at #3 on release week, eight places above Stay Gold. It
– a first for any music cinema campaign is both the highest-charting folk and Americana album this year.
– that allows the audience to hear in full • The cinema ad was recognised at the Digital Cinema Media Awards
360-degree surround sound. The creative in two categories: “Highly commended” in the Best Use Of Innovation
featured the sisters signing acoustic In Cinema category and nominated for Best Use of Cinema (Small).
Team members involved content and media to count; you need versions of the lead singles whilst walking Competition came from the likes of Sky, Max Factor and Nike so it
to cut through and so surprising your around the Zylia microphone allowing shows that music campaigns can compete with brands with much
Sim Rollison – senior digital marketing audience with something they haven’t the audience to feel at the centre of their larger budgets given the right idea and execution.
manager, Columbia Records seen or heard before is going to be your harmonies.
Bec Adams – senior marketing manager, best route to success. The band’s audience tend to be 25+ and
Columbia Records Live has always been one of First ABC1 – and their cultural consumption
Laurence Warder – director, Sony Music Aid Kit’s strengths and we wanted to leans towards ‘indie’ media, therefore ! campaign breakdown
Kris Winter – audio engineer, Sony Music put performance front and centre when arthouse cinemas (with full Dolby sound)
Liam Jenkinson – media planner, The 7Stars marketing their fourth album, Ruins. The were a natural choice, especially as the
plan was to record the band’s duets using album release coincided with Oscar CAMPAIGN BUDGET £25,001+
Overview of campaign the state-of-the-art audio equipment and season. For the podcast adverts, we AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC
give fans the opportunity to hear their worked with Acast to target film, music AGE: 19-24, 25-34, 35-44, 45-59
Adverts are usually endured rather than vocals in the best possible environments; and culture shows, testing two different AUDIENCE GENDER (M/F): 50% / 50%
enjoyed. When you’re working on a limited an innovative harmony between content tracks to maximise the higher frequency LOCATION: UK
budget, you need every penny spent on and media. Cinema and podcasts were of this channel.
15 | sandbox | ISSUE 218 | 12.12.18SANDBOX 2018 SURVEY BEST
FAN
ENGAGEMENT
FRANZ FERDINAND DOMINO RECORDING COMPANY
Team members involved fresh personal video content from the band
announcing their tours and introducing
All Domino new band members Julian and Dino, while
Bart McDonagh – senior product manager a series of vignettes captured in the studio
Brooke Salisbury – head of marketing wove through the set up period to further
Will Grant – digital marketing manager (UK share the album’s narrative.
& international) The band were strong with numbers
Corey Zaloom – digital marketing manager on Facebook (1.9m), but fairly new to
(North and Latin America) Instagram, and we’ve close to trebled their
Jason Reed – head of digital followers here across the campaign – from
Brandon Becker – head of global digital 60k on announce in October 2017 to 115k
accounts on release in February 2018 and 160k today.
Björn Flòki Bjornsson – digital design Equally their Vevo subscribers have more
manager than doubled during the campaign and their
Glynn Bolter – junior digital designer exclusive music video for single ‘Feel The Twitter has grown by over 30%. It’s just been Facebook that’s proven
Johanna McManus – US product manager Love Go’ and captured social content for tougher to drive scale of growth, which is relatable for many artists.
Cerne Canning – Red Light Management Apple’s channels – a ‘Glasouija Board’ video Using unique merchandise packs as prizes, we more than doubled
Q&A. A Side By Side audio commentary the band’s mailing list size across the campaign with ‘sign up to win’
Overview of campaign / piece for Alexa and a First & Last Time video competitions – a hugely successful mechanic when working with a
Results & key learnings interview gave Amazon users a unique large social fanbase.
album announcement, the band Facebook perspective on the new material. Superfan There’s never a shortage of ideas when it comes to working with
Always Ascending followed a few years’ live streamed a tiny gig from Paris, which events with Spotify and Deezer furthered Franz. With DSP partnership opportunities and social innovations
hiatus for the band. They’d released Right coupled with the album news saw full fans’ opportunities to directly connect with stronger than ever, and a band who are a label’s dream – creative,
Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action in penetration of their 1.9m Facebook fans the band. deeply involved, hard-working – 2018 proved an especially fun and
August 2013 and toured it globally, had a across 24 hours. We started the campaign with 3m Spotify fruitful time to take the band to market globally.
shift in line-up and spent a year writing and We revived the Franz Ferdinand Fan Club monthly listeners, launched the album with
demoing their new music before recording in - once run by post and email – to beef up our 4.3m and 10 months post-release have
Paris with producer Phillipe Zdar.
This break between albums had seen
Spotify pre-save offering, incentivising the
band’s fanbase to follow them on Spotify
maintained at 4.2m. Based on their Spotify
toplist, we created The Sound of Franz
! campaign breakdown
the major shift in consumption trends and save the album with a gated monthly Ferdinand catalogue playlist and via on-
toward streaming and a multi-territory web experience featuring exclusive videos, platform advertising and social shares have CAMPAIGN BUDGET £25,001+
Ralph Lauren sync on ‘Take Me Out’ was lyric reveals and the opportunity to interact driven its follower count to 22k. AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC
driving very healthy catalogue engagement directly with the band. This attracted north Close collaboration with the band’s social AGE: 25-34, 35-44
as we prepared for the campaign. With of 4k subscribers, who were added to the media agency GH05T ensured the right
AUDIENCE GENDER (M/F): 60% / 40%
multiple key markets to court, ideas with band’s mailing list post-release. mix of social content intersected key time
global scale were crucial to the set-up The band enlisted friend and director zones across the span of the campaign. Live LOCATION: Global, with a particular focus on US, Latin
of Always Ascending. On the day of the Diane Martel to produce an Apple Music footage and throwbacks were balanced with America, France, Germany and UK
16 | sandbox | ISSUE 218 | 12.12.18SANDBOX 2018 SURVEY
JERRY GARCIA RED LIGHT MANAGEMENT
Team members involved which was promoted across the platform
and our socials and featured the new
For Red Light Management & Round music from Before The Dead alongside
Records: Jerry’s later folk & bluegrass side projects
Marc Allan, Kevin Monty, Lauren Goetzinger, including Old & In The Way, the Jerry
Hank Bateman, Evan Cooper, MC Saunders, Garcia Acoustic Band, Garcia Grisman,
ATO Records, Gupta Media along with collaborations with Link Wray,
CSNY (Jerry played pedal steel on
Overview of campaign ‘Teach Your Children’) and
more. We also worked
In May 2018, the Jerry Garcia with our reps and
Family LLC, Round Records programmers at Apple,
and ATO Records released Amazon, and Pandora Results & key learnings
Before The Dead, a collection on spotlighting the new
of Jerry’s earliest known folk & release in platform- musical development. The promotion cycle helped us net currently over 100k Spotify
bluegrass recordings, pre-dating curated playlists, new Our social media plan was to highlight followers of Jerry Garcia in addition to rapidly boosting follower
the formation of The Grateful Dead release placement and social Jerry’s rise as a budding folk and counts on Jerry Garcia social media accounts on Facebook (855k),
in 1965. media promotion. bluegrass musician in the Bay Area folk Instagram (143k). Multiple Instagram stories per week helped us
From the start, we aimed to market As Jerry is considered one of the scene of the early 1960s through sharing build free impressions about the release at about 8k per story while
this release to the core audience most prolific live performers of all time, rare photos and detailed historical notes reach of the account hit about 50k fans in our key demo per week.
of Garcia/Grateful Dead fans (AKA it was only natural for us to team up from the release. We were also able to A strong retargeting campaign with Gupta coupled with D2C
Deadheads), bluegrass fans and also with Ticketmaster to send an email refurbish the oldest-known video of Jerry marketing from our email list along with a consistent and high
enthusiasts of the rapidly burgeoning advertising a discount of the release to Garcia playing music with new audio from quality content plan on social media resulted in about 4k pre-
Americana genre. First, in order to affinity touring acts. We were able to the release which we posted on social orders/first week sales and significant awareness about the
increase awareness about Garcia’s role target a significant number of fans which media to the delight of fans and used in project to core fans and the greater folk, Americana and classic
in the development of the Americana, we generated a very competitive open rate our paid retargeting campaign with Gupta. rock fan communities.
teamed up with The Bluegrass Situation and CTR which led to a significant boost in In addition to sharing anecdotes from
to co-present Jubilee: A Celebration week one sales. Jerry’s friends and collaborators, we
Of Jerry Garcia at the Ace Hotel in Los We also worked with WSM 650, the
original home of the Grand Ole Opry in
also reposted record stores and fans’
photos of their vinyl sets and executed
! campaign breakdown
Angeles, which featured an all-star cast
of today’s most visible artists on the Nashville (a station Jerry listened to as a the retargeting campaign with Gupta to
Americana/roots rock scene. kid) and KZSU Stanford (which originally core Garcia fans along with bluegrass and CAMPAIGN BUDGET £25,001+
On the digital side, we partnered with broadcasted some of the recordings) folk fans on Facebook, Instagram, and AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC
key DSPs to service the music to key to get the release on air in front of Google/YouTube. This sustained output AGE: 25-34, 35-44, 45-59, 60+
fan and genre audiences. We teamed up bluegrass/roots enthusiasts which of content on all Garcia channels greatly AUDIENCE GENDER (M/F): 64% / 36%
with the Spotify curation team to create also made for a unique marketing tie-in increased awareness about the project for LOCATION: Global
a revamped This Is Jerry Garcia playlist given both of the stations’ roles in Jerry’s the duration of the campaign.
17 | sandbox | ISSUE 218 | 12.12.18You can also read
