DECEMBER 14 2016 sandboxMUSIC FOR THE DIGITAL ERA ISSUE 170

THE YEAR’S BEST MUSIC MARKETING CAMPAIGNS SANDBOX 2016 SURVEY

thE year’s best music marketing campaigns

t’s that time of year when sandbox presents the best music Contents 16 ... FESTIVAL ESTEREO PICNIC 29 ... VERONICA MAGGIO marketing campaigns of the past 12 months. This year, we 03 ... THE 1975 17 ... GIRLI 30 ... MELANIE MARTINEZ were overwhelmed with entries (genuinely) and so present 04 ... 18 ... DAVID GRAY 31 ... SHAWN MENDES I 05 ... MARC ALMOND 19 ... HAMILTON CAST 32 ... METALLICA 40 of the best here. Each entry has been written and submitted 06 ... RICK ASTLEY 20 ... HONNE 33 ... MØ by the teams responsible and all data and scoring also comes 07 ... AURORA 21 ... DANIEL HOPE 34 ... from them. The entries we have included come from labels 08 ... BASTILLE 22 ... KENT 35 ... TOM ODELL 09 ... BEAR’S DEN 23 ... KLINGANDE 36 ... PASSENGER of all sizes, artists, services and more – sitting as a beguiling 10 ... 24 ... LANco 37 ... THE RAVEONETTES snapshot of how exciting the sector is. Special thanks to Ed 11 ... BIRDY 25 ... LISSIE 38 ... RALEIGH RITCHIE Miller for another sterling design and layout job and we we look 12 ... JEFF BUCKLEY 26 ... 39 ... SECRETLY GROUP forward to doing it all again with the best campaigns of 2017. 13 ... CNCO 27 ... JAMES VINCENT 40 ... SHINEDOWN 14 ... DAUGHTER McMORROW 41 ... ALAN WALKER Start your engines. 15 ... DISCO DONNIE PRESENTS 28 ... MADNESS 42 ... WARD THOMAS

2 | sandbox | ISSUE 170 | 14.12.16 SANDBOX 2016 SURVEY THE 1975 POLYDOR/HIT

TEAM MEMBERS INVOLVED

Tom Hoare – Senior Digital Marketing CAMPAIGN BREAKDOWN Manager, Polydor CAMPAIGN BUDGET £25,000+ Olly Rice – Head of Marketing, Polydor Records AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC Jack Melhuish - Marketing Director, Polydor AGE: 14-34 Records FEMALE: 73% Ed Blow - Marketing Manager, Dirty Hit MALE: 27% Jamie Oborne - Owner, Dirty Hit LOCATION: UK OVERVIEW OF CAMPAIGN SUCCESS RATING: 9 In June of last year, the band kicked off the campaign for their second by “going dark” on all social accounts, deleting their their services; Vevo, Tumblr, Twitter and more were examples of social media channels entirely. Coupled with platforms we were able to leverage support from in this way. a hand-typed note from frontman Matthew The 1975 have constantly embraced social media, direct email Healy with cryptic language that alluded communication with fans, teasers, digital breadcrumbs and digital to farewells and changes, the move threw continued to innovate with hand-typed content with the band and Zane. The level innovation throughout their career to cultivate a fiercely loyal fans into a hysteria as they speculated as to notes from Matty that offered clues to songs’ of support which this engendered from fanbase and an eye-catchingly unique aesthetic. whether or not the band were breaking up. meanings and forthcoming announcements. Apple was a key reason behind the band’s Gradually, a new visual aesthetic for The band’s use of direct emails to fans in digital success. The band also partnered KEY LEARNINGS the band was revealed, first through social order to super-serve them with unique with Tumblr to run a series of Tumblr IRL profile imagery being changed to a block of content and let the band’s most engaged pop-up shops in London and New York City The 1975’s enormous social media followings (1.8m on Facebook, solid pink, before elusive mailers were sent users seed out content throughout the which brought the digital campaign to life 1.2m on Twitter, 1.4m on Instagram, 800k on Vevo) and the to the band’s database of over 200k with fanbase through evangelism was a key and allowed fans to experience a physical ferocity of their social fanbases are testament in themselves to new neon pink sign imagery, the only copy aspect of the campaign, as was the use of incarnation of the band’s Tumblr page – the success of the band’s strategy of combining the elements being a link to download an image file of the countdowns appearing on the band’s website essentially a curated storefront with original detailed above to build an intensely loyal digital fanbase at scale. new neon sign. Slowly it was built to a point to fuel speculation and anticipation online. artwork, exclusive merchandise and more. Looking beyond social metrics, however, it’s clear to see how the where speculation about the band’s new On top of the album release, the band Around the launch for the video for band’s success extends beyond the URL into ‘IRL’ – a #1 album on direction reached a digital fever pitch, before partnered with Apple and Beats 1 to ‘A Change Of Heart’ in April, the band both sides of the Atlantic, with one of the highest week-one sales the campaign’s first major asset, the track perform a live-streamed show from atop embraced an innovative strategy of figures in the OCC this year and one of the best-selling and video for ‘Love Me’, was launched in a skyscraper in downtown Los Angeles, seeding pieces of exclusive content related released this year, selling out The O2 in three hours, and playing late October. broadcast live on Zane Lowe’s show on to the video around various partners major festival slots at Coachella, Glastonbury and others across As the campaign progressed, The 1975 Beats 1 and featuring lengthy interview in order to leverage key profile across the world.

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TEAM MEMBERS engaged with the campaign have been oriented content. In exchange, we secured: INVOLVED recorded for later use to help spread a Radar feature; reblogs on the ‘music’ future information to the most engaged vertical of Tumblr; posts on Tumblr’s social Maddy Smith - senior digital campaign fans about upcoming singles, tours and channels; push notifications to engaged CAMPAIGN BREAKDOWN manager, Capitol Records UK campaign initiatives. 5SOS followers; and gratis CAMPAIGN BUDGET: £5,000–£10,000 Jamie Leeming - digital marketing Upon release of the single, we then inventory. To round out the entire coordinator, Capitol Records UK launched a Spotify ‘share-to-unlock’ campaign we also partnered with AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC microsite, giving fans the ability to unlock Musical.ly, where the band set up their AGE: 14-18 OVERVIEW OF CAMPAIGN the official . The aim was account for the first time and posted a FEMALE: 80% to encourage fans to login and share highly personal and engaging video using MALE: 20% The aim was to raise awareness and the song to their Facebook and Twitter ‘Girls Talk Boys’. The partnership with LOCATION: UK, US & Australia drive streams for the new single ‘Girls accounts. Using Spotify as the primary Musical.ly enabled the video to be featured Talk Boys’, which was featured on partner meant we could influence the in prominent real estate across the app, SUCCESS RATING: 7 the film soundtrack. spread of the new single to a new with takeovers occurring on the trending The campaign started with the band audience and collect information on hashtags, main competition banner and announcing through their own social which fans are Spotify users – the latter popular songs segments of the platform. channels that they would be releasing a of which has since enabled us to more single from the Ghostbusters soundtrack. effectively segment email communication KEY LEARNINGS This was followed up over the subsequent by prioritising different retail partners week by a variety of content that included based on what we know fans use. The aim was to re-educate the younger a fake advert offering the band’s service Sharing the track through our microsite demographics about streaming; the as ghostbusters, videos of the band being also automatically saved the song to the best way to migrate them across is to slimed and behind-the-scenes pictures users’ collection. During the share-to- incentivise them. Dark social is a key new from the music video, where the band unlock campaign, we generated further trend for the coming year – as evidenced recreated a budget version of the new excitement towards the music video by by our use of Superphone. Ghostbusters film. partnering with MTV and providing them Following the initial announcement, with exclusive BTS content from the video we decided to play on the Ghostbusters shoot to premiere on their Snapchat tagline “Who you gonna call?” by channel, the results of which were partnering with US-based Superphone, staggering. who enabled fans in the UK and US to After the video release, we continued freely ring a phone number and hear a the theme of media partnering by offering pre-recorded message from the band. Tumblr an exclusive 36-hour premiere of The message tricked them into thinking the BTS footage from the video shoot. As the phone call was real and then played the band has achieved Most Reblogged an exclusive 30-second snippet of the Tumblr two years in a row, this was the unheard single. All phone numbers that perfect place to showcase more fan-

4 | sandbox | ISSUE 170 | 14.12.16 SANDBOX 2016 SURVEY MARC ALMOND UNIVERSAL MUSIC CATALOGUE

TEAM MEMBERS present all the contents and information a branded velvet eyeliner pouch as a nod INVOLVED about the product, giving fans an exclusive to the release title. As the tickets were preview of the booklet and collect very limited, we live streamed the event Maja Matacz - digital marketing manager, retargeting data. To sustain engagement to Marc’s Facebook page. The stream UMC between the announcement and release, has reached 90k people and received an Mark Wood - marketing manager, UMC we created a selection of Facebook lyric overwhelmingly positive feedback from Jonjo Lowe - creative content coordinator, cards and worked with Universal’s editorial the fans. UMC team, uDiscover, on a series of six written features covering various aspects of KEY LEARNINGS OVERVIEW OF CAMPAIGN Marc’s career, plus a filmed interview for their YouTube. Personally curated by Marc himself, Trials We also partnered with Amazon Front As this is a high-end product, our primary Of Eyeliner is the first and the definitive Row and Sony Xperia, providing them with goal was to target Marc’s super fans and career box set, showcasing a musical exclusive video pieces, which reached over ensure we communicate the incredible journey through best-loved album tracks, 50m fans. On the week of release, rather quality of the box to them. Working all of his singles, rarities and one-off than posting a conventional unboxing with fan communities and experts to collaborations. From the beginning of video, we filmed Marc opening his box get under the skin of what the fans get the project, the primary objective was to set for the very first time. Marc’s genuine from their following of the artist and involve and engage Marc in every aspect delight and excitement resonated well how they respond best to marketing of the campaign and to reach not only his with the fans, delivering over 40k views in initiatives was essential in structuring devoted fanbase, but also more casual, 24 hours. To celebrate the album release, this campaign. The unboxing video is by cultured music fans. The announcement we held an exclusive event – Marc In far the best performing piece of content strategy included a dedicated landing page Conversation with Simon Price at The on Marc’s Facebook page, with reach over and an ad in the programme at Marc’s Magic Circle in London. The most engaged 1,000% higher than the page average. It Leeds gig that night. We also announced fans were given a personalised invitation has demonstrated that Marc not only the release with a video trailer. Marc has to enter the ticket ballot. The event endorses the release but that he is CAMPAIGN BREAKDOWN always pushed boundaries in his (often included an hour-long conversation with personally excited about and sees it as a CAMPAIGN BUDGET: £5,000–£10,000 controversial) music videos – the box set the journalist, an audience Q&A and a live worthwhile purchase for his fans. Since trailer was a 60-second and highly visual acoustic performance. All guests received release, the reach of Marc’s Facebook AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC montage showcasing just that. page has increased by 453% and post AGE: 34-60 Upon announcement, we also engagement by 559%. On announcement, FEMALE: 35% incentivised fans with a free copy of ‘If Trials Of Eyeliner was #1 in Amazon MALE: 65% You Go Away’ EP, strictly limited to the Pre-Orders and Moves & Shakers charts. LOCATION: UK first 500 to order the box set from our The box set is also one of UMC’s D2C D2C store; this sold out within 36 hours. bestsellers this year. The D2C buy link on SUCCESS RATING: 10 The dedicated landing page was used the product landing page generated over throughout the campaign as a way to £30k in revenue.

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This was achieved by using a strong social media engagement strategy, run by Be Hooked, alongside a highly dynamic marketing and advertising strategy run in-house at BMG. Using micro-management of audiences and retargeting data, BMG, alongside consultants Motive Unknown, were able to carefully isolate specific platforms and audiences that were driving the most revenue and redirect budget accordingly, constantly morphing the campaign to provide the most efficient results. This proved most effective during week of release, in which Rick landed a coveted #1 spot, ahead of Tom Odell. Rick’s album is still in the top 20 now and this online strategy is still paying dividends.

TEAM MEMBERS KEY LEARNINGS INVOLVED • #1 album Sam Hill, senior digital manager, BMG • Sales in excess of 140,000 in three months George Gogohija, digital product manager, • Exponential increase in social engagement and followers BMG • Detailed demographic data about Rick’s audience and Darren Hemmings, founder, Motive overlapping interests Unknown Tom Packer, director, Motive Unknown Silas Armstrong, digital agent, Be Hookd George James, MD, Be Hookd CAMPAIGN BREAKDOWN OVERVIEW OF CAMPAIGN CAMPAIGN BUDGET £15,000 – £25,000 Rick’s first album in 12 years, 50, was an AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - GENDER unprecedented success that went in at AGE: 34-60 #1 in the UK chart and has gone on to be FEMALE: 55% a gold-selling album in three months. MALE: 45% Currently it’s the eighth best-selling LOCATION: UK album of 2016. In addition to this, Rick has become a household name again, with a SUCCESS RATING: 10 strong online following based around his social media presence.

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TEAM MEMBERS without taking them away from their INVOLVED Facebook experience. There were challenges that came with this, but David Heath - senior digital marketing we were able to deliver incredible CAMPAIGN BREAKDOWN manager, Universal Music Group results here. It helped cap off the CAMPAIGN BUDGET £5,000–£10,000 Chris Kershaw - senior marketing campaign nicely by allowing us to manager, Decca Records piece together the most significant AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC Benedict Curran - streaming manager, moments from the previous year and AGE: 18-24 Decca Records a half. FEMALE: 59% Jon Fisher - founder and director, MALE: 41% Pretty Good Digital KEY LEARNINGS LOCATION: Global

OVERVIEW OF CAM- Over the last 12 months, we’ve seen SUCCESS RATING: 9 PAIGN incredible growth across Aurora’s socials channels – both in follower We set out on this streaming-focused brighten to reveal the artwork. Then numbers and overall consumption. We’ve campaign with the intention of building we created a world-first collaborative, had lots of big “moments” to talk about front and centre, we’ve created a platform for Aurora that we can a set of tools that enabled fans to share interactive homepage takeover for Spotify. (such as our fan-driven creatives) – but our be confident will deliver us fantastic results going forward. And, of their love for this unique artist. We used Users could choose a moth, then click a goal was always to prioritise streaming. course, everyone who meets her or sees her perform live falls in love the Warriors & Weirdos fan page (Aurora’s button to release it into the light. Spotify Creating a long-term connection between with her. So we’ve had massive support from partners and friends website fan club) to give them the two users will have seen the number of moths listener and artist across key streaming across the industry to help us get to where we have. things they wanted most: proximity to the growing throughout the day, while a platforms was integral artist; and access to exclusive content. counter underneath tracked the exact to success. This helped us forge a real relationship number. We started the with them. The Warriors use this This allowed us to capture the attention campaign at zero, so community to share stories with each of Spotify users, even if they had no idea it’s easy to see how other and enjoy photos, videos and written who Aurora was. For the release date, we far we’ve come. To letters from Aurora. Aurora was able to wanted to find a way to tie everything date, we’ve amassed leave her own comments and replies we’d done together into one neat package. 67m Vevo views and whenever she wished. We wanted to show people how Aurora over 350k subscribers. Aurora loves moths and collects dead had weaved this mysterious narrative Spotify numbers are ones. We wanted to bring her unique way into everything from her artwork to her equally impressive. of looking at the world to every part of the songwriting. So we built one of the first- Aurora now gets over campaign; even when it came to ad space. ever Facebook Canvases and promoted it 1.6m listeners per When we announced the album, we asked to fans and lookalike audiences. month and has almost people to tweet to help switch on a bunch The format makes it possible to tell a 200k followers. By of lights in a room that would gradually longer story that isn’t otherwise possible putting streaming

7 | sandbox | ISSUE 170 | 14.12.16 SANDBOX 2016 SURVEY BASTILLE Spotify / Virgin EMI

TEAM MEMBERS INVOLVED

*Spotify unless stated Jamie Herbert - consumer marketing Marian Dicus - head of North America consumer marketing Scott Marsden - head of global media marketing support generating 14m impressions and 505k Ed Suwanjindar - strategy advisor website interactions. The campaign was a great illustration Laura Kirkpatrick - director of UK label of the power of a truly collaborative partnership, harnessing relations Spotify’s global audience and listening data to create a Kevin Brown - head of artist & label unique album release experience, combined with the market services (international) knowhow of the local label team. The entire campaign was Matt Ott - label relations manager also conceived, developed and executed within a four-week Lucas Corley - artist insights analyst period, allowing us to capitalise on the level of anticipation Robert Waite - european social marketing and talk value in the lead up to the album launch. One manager unexpected outcome from the Eye Of The Stormers site was Carlyn Sylvester - social marketing the propensity for fans to ‘crowdsource’ one another to push manager their city to the top of the Wild World streaming list, driving Holly Brooker - marketing manager awareness of the album launch and streams accordingly. Alex Bodman - global creative director Davis Nadjecki - global brand producer Sara Kayden - global brand producer Candice Greenberg - senior brand manager combination of both on- and off-Spotify example of an execution only Spotify CAMPAIGN BREAKDOWN Martin Berggren - art director (freelance) promotion, including an industry first in could deliver, harnessing the power of its CAMPAIGN BUDGET: £25,000+ Rasmus Wangelin - global ACD / design the form of a fan-powered interactive global audience and data to bring artists Will Oswin - designer experience, Eye Of The Stormers. The closer to their fans in new and unexpected AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC custom-built microsite visualised streams ways. The site was complemented with AGE: 14-34 OVERVIEW OF CAMPAIGN of the album in the form of storms extensive out of home and social activity FEMALE: 50% (inspired by the self-proclaimed title of across key global markets. MALE: 50% The 9th September marked the highly Bastille’s fans – ‘Stormers’) and the city LOCATION: UK/US anticipated release of Bastille’s new with the most engaged Bastille fans KEY LEARNINGS album, Wild World, and with it came an (measured on a per-capita basis) were SUCCESS RATING: 10 innovative Spotify album launch campaign treated to a live intimate performance The album went on to become the 10th developed in partnership with the band’s by the band attended by their most biggest week-one UK album release UK-based label. The campaign featured a engaged streamers. The site was a great since streaming records began, with the

8 | sandbox | ISSUE 170 | 14.12.16 SANDBOX 2016 SURVEY Communion Records/ BEAR’S DEN Caroline International CAMPAIGN BREAKDOWN CAMPAIGN BUDGET £25,000+ TEAM MEMBERS is the band created potato-stamped INVOLVED special-edition vinyl (something they AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC have done on every release), all of AGE: 18-34 : Communion Records which sold out before release. They FEMALE: 57% Management: Rowan Brand played an underplay gig at the ICA MALE: 42% Labels and radio/TV: Caroline International three months before album launch to LOCATION: UK Online PR: Stay Loose create a special sneak peek for their PR Press: Rachel Hendry super fans. The band also played four SUCCESS RATING: 8 Publisher: Communion Publishing in-stores across the UK on the week of release and several in-stores around OVERVIEW OF CAMPAIGN Europe. We were keen to experiment with a We created a splash page where fans could watch the video and then We focused on three key pillars with this Facebook Live stream, so we hosted an share on socials who their favourite character from the video was campaign: staying focused on the quality album listening party three days before with the hashstag #dewonthevine. The fan interactions were very and authenticity of the music, continuing to the album release. We live streamed successful. foster a very close relationship with fans and from their studio where they started by amplifying the power of live music. introducing the album and then playing MARKETING the album in full, introducing every We spent advertising across the board – online, print, outdoor and CAPTURING CONTENT UPFRONT song and then panning out to the radio. Using our unique position as a label and live promoter, we One of the problems that we face with sound desk for every song while they were able to integrate the marketing for both the live and record Bear’s Den is that, despite strong album typed out answers to fan questions campaigns very tightly, enabling us to amplify the overall message and ticket sales, there was not a traditional build up a good run of pre-orders and got online. This was an incredibly well-received about the return of Bear’s Den. To do so we experimented with new online or print press base for the band. coverage on sites like The Evening Standard. and positive session. Fans were blown away online formats such as Facebook carousel and to create a strong joint So, in order for the band to tell the story of During this time, they also needed to and very complimentary on what an original marketing campaign. this album, we took it upon ourselves to announce the departure of their old member, way it was for them to have their first listen capture the making of the album to both Joey. This was handled very respectfully and to the album narrated by the band. The post KEY LEARNINGS allow us to tell that story via social media amicably on socials with support from the reached over 1m people (the band had fewer and give press some really special content fans which helped turn a potential negative than 100k likes at the time). • Second album, Red Earth & Pouring Rain achieved chart positions: so they could start telling the story. We into an intriguing point of interest about the For ‘Dew On The Vine’, the second single, UK #6, Netherlands #5, Belgium #9, Germany #26. (Their previous captured a large amount of content in studio new album. we created a very tongue-in-cheek video album didn’t chart in the top 50.) to use during the campaign. We filmed that featured the entire band, crew and • Sold-out UK tour, largest European and US tours to date in 2016. 20+ short video snippets in studio talking FOSTERING CLOSE CONNECTION TO FANS friends of the band having a ping pong • Other Stage slot at Glastonbury 2016. about every song, capturing the recording The band come from a very DIY ethos and tournament. We shot a vignette for every • Live stream was incredibly successful across the board especially process and explaining some of the album their fanbase was built over early years character to introduce the band and crew to the album live stream (Unique viewers: +18k, Post reach: +1.1m) influences. This video content was then very of gigging constantly and creating a real their fans. We then followed up by creating a • Over the period of the campaign online numbers increased as successfully trickled out across socials over a connection with fans. We wanted to stay competition to play ping pong with the band follows: Facebook (+23%); Twitter (+21%); Instagram (+73%); Mailer three-to-four-month build up to release and true to that. One of the ways we did this before their shows in London and Bristol. (+11%); Spotify monthly listeners (+18%); Spotify followers (+36%).

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TEAM MEMBERS INVOLVED CAMPAIGN BREAKDOWN Jennifer Ivory - VP marketing, Warner Bros CAMPAIGN BUDGET £25,000 + Records Sebastian Simone - marketing manager, AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC Warner Bros Records AGE: 18-34 Will Beardmore - digital lead, Warner Bros FEMALE: 40% Records the three naked members of Biffy, with the MALE: 60% stream giving fans a perfect destination to LOCATION: Global OVERVIEW OF CAMPAIGN discuss their thoughts. This led nicely into working with SUCCESS RATING: 8 For Biffy Clyro’s seventh studio album, we Facebook to arrange a video premiere for knew we had a huge opportunity to come ‘’ quickly reaching over 4m back and make a lot of noise. fans and potential fans. Our campaign preparation started Reaching millions early in the campaign when the band were recording in an LA gave us a wealth of remarketing data moment, achieving a huge reach and huge engagement. studio, where we ensured there was a to target throughout. We profiled Heading into the album release, we kicked off #HuntForEllipsis, film crew capturing amazing content, our fans with a crossover into video a global scavenger hunt for signed copies of the album at physical utilised throughout our campaign and for a gaming and made Twitch an early locations across the world. documentary exclusively available on iTunes. target for a portion of our advertising During the week of release of Ellipsis, we went Live on Facebook We identified early into the campaign budget. Similarly, knowing that Biffy from The Firepit studios at Warner Music UK HQ in Kensington. that Facebook was going to be our focus are Scottish heroes, we utilised Fearne Cotton hosted an interactive Q&A with the band and platform and doubled down our efforts geo-targeting and postcode data to introduced an incredible acoustic session. We worked with Facebook to utilise the majority of their tools at our hyper-target our Scottish audiences. to amplify this content to over 5m users worldwide, which was also disposal. To reveal the track listing, we aided by Fearne’s huge social presence. Kicking off with a teaser campaign in created a sharable gif, rapidly The band are in the midst of their crossover moment, with ‘Re- March, we subtly alluded to the album cycling through all of the track titles. arrange’ being the first track since ‘’ seven years ago title, sending fans into a frenzy by simply Working closely with the band, we to be added to both the Radio 1 and Radio 2 playlist. Biffy will be releasing the new band logo followed by “…” created an album sampler video performing to 80,000 fans on their arena tour later this year. (an ellipsis) and the eerie opening notes and featuring footage directly from the maniacal laughter of ‘Wolves Of Winter’. All band having fun with the songs while KEY LEARNINGS was subsequently revealed with the launch on tour, creating an honest and fun of ‘Wolves Of Winter’ as an instant grat track on Facebook to reveal the Ellipsis album creative for the fans. Garnering engagement through Facebook live moments was very for the Ellipsis pre-order. artwork. The creative reached over 55,000 360 photographs shot during our main impactful and had a tangible commercial output. That also allowed We then carefully utilised our “Biffy live viewers over a five-minute reveal of campaign photo shoot were seeded on band’s personality to shine through and acted as a tool to tell the Clyro is Live for the First Time” notification three “Ellipsis” dots slowly dispersing into band’s Facebook page at a key pre-order story of this campaign.

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beautiful Hong Kong skyline and Victoria Harbour in the background. This was the first Facebook livestream in Asia with an international Warner artist – and the reaction was amazing. Some stats from the Facebook live stream: we reached over 1.8m people, over 1.9k people shared the post and there were 30k reactions to the post as Birdy’s Facebook page likes soared.

KEY LEARNINGS

To be more ambitious in markets like Asia. Although these types of initiatives can take a lot more planning, the fan reaction makes it all totally worth it.

TEAM MEMBERS make some noise and make sure that her fans are well aware that she was going to INVOLVED be in their market. Olivia Spring - junior marketing manager, After teasing the #BirdyHunt all CAMPAIGN BREAKDOWN Warner Music week with various designed gifs and an Luke Smith - digital creative manager, announcement from Birdy herself, the CAMPAIGN BUDGET £0–£500 Warner Music first location was revealed to be Tower Records in Toyko, where we left a signed specific to the Asian market. These were AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC OVERVIEW OF origami bird with two tickets to her available to download through the IMOJI AGE: 14-24 CAMPAIGN Tokyo show for fans to find. We then app and were free for all fans to use. The FEMALE: 65% replicated this across each country that designs, some of which are animated gifs, MALE: 35% Birdy toured Asia for the first time earlier she was due to visit on the tour and the have been collectively downloaded over LOCATION: Asia this year, starting in Tokyo, then moving fan reaction was incredible, with one fan 33m times. through Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan, finding the origami birdy and tickets in The morning before Birdy flew SUCCESS RATING: 9 finishing in Singapore. To celebrate, we less than 10 minutes. to Shanghai we set up a surprise worked on some fan initiatives to really We also created a set of Birdy emojis performance at Tsim Sha Tsui, with the

11 | sandbox | ISSUE 170 | 14.12.16 SANDBOX 2016 SURVEY JEFF BUCKLEY Sony / Famehouse

TEAM MEMBERS INVOLVED

Walter Gross - senior director of digital marketing, Sony Entertainment Tom Mullen - senior director of creative & marketing partnerships, Sony Entertainment Adam Rappaport - digital marketing account manager, Fame House Dan Conway - creative services director, Fame House music fan is now able to Marissa Rivas-Velazquez - senior seamlessly scroll through designer, Fame House Buckley’s unique collection. Carrie Paul - art director, Fame Additionally, this project This site deserves recognition for seamlessly bridging the House contains a social share gap from physical to digital and clearly representing a physical element that allows the user to collection online. This project also introduced the music of Jeff OVERVIEW OF stream and share albums from Buckley and his many influences to the current generation of Buckley’s personal collection music listeners – and will continue to for generations to come. CAMPAIGN to their followers across social record collection. Additionally, Sony and media. Jeff Buckley once said, “I don’t really You & I, Jeff Buckley’s first official the estate were looking to introduce the need to be remembered. I hope the music posthumous album, was released on Sony sound and influences of Jeff Buckley to a is remembered.” This project ensures that this past spring. This album contains very new generation of listeners who are used Jeff Buckley’s music and record collection CAMPAIGN BREAKDOWN early demo recordings of Buckley playing to consuming music on streaming services will forever live on and, as he wished, be CAMPAIGN BUDGET: £10,000–£15,000 cover songs, featuring a range of music like Spotify and are far more comfortable remembered. that influenced him. Timeless songs like with ‘the single’ than the vinyl record AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC Bob Dylan’s ‘Just Like A Woman’ and Sly experience. This project marked the first KEY LEARNINGS AGE: N/A & The Family Stone’s ‘Everyday People’ time an artist’s personal vinyl collection FEMALE: 35% are given the unmistakable Buckley was transferred from the physical crates The response from esteemed publications MALE: 65% treatment. to the digital shelves. Spotify was chosen such as The Huffington Post, Vice and LOCATION: Global Sony and the Buckley estate brought in as the digital partner due to its userbase has been overwhelmingly Fame House to help create a unique, sleek and the option to listen to full albums on positive. Buckley fans took to social SUCCESS RATING: 10 way of showcasing the influences found the service for free. media, thanking the creators for bringing both on You & I, and within his extensive Organised in alphabetical order, any Buckley’s record collection to life.

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TEAM MEMBERS the fans were mobile and were interested the relevant social channels. INVOLVED in collecting keepsakes and shouting about Data collected from around the world was what they were doing and where they used to populate a dynamic leaderboard that CAMPAIGN BREAKDOWN Tom Nield, account director, Landmrk were doing it. We also knew that adding a showed which fans were the most devoted CAMPAIGN BUDGET £15,000–£25,000 Rob Hampson, lead designer, We Make competitive element would build exposure CNCOwners. Once the target amount of Awesome Sh even further. unlocks was reached each day, additional AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC Paul King, lead developer, We Make The Landmrk platform was used to content was available online for everybody. AGE: 14-18 + 24-34 Awesome Sh create localised listening premieres in key FEMALE: 49% Ricardo Chamberlain, digital marketing locations across our target territories. KEY LEARNINGS MALE: 51% manager, Sony Music Latin For a limited time each day, a new song LOCATION: US, , South America, Central America from their upcoming album was dropped into a geographical location for fans to OVERVIEW OF CAMPAIGN SUCCESS RATING: 10 unlock using a CNCO-branded map on their mobile phone’s web browser (no app download required). At each of the hotspots, fans used Facebook Connect to #CNCOGO thrilled fans and had them interacting with the band create a personalised medal featuring their on an exponential curve upwards over the course of the four- photo, their name, the listening location day campaign. From the first day, when the chosen track was and the song, which was shareable across discovered by 93 fans, to the last, when the track was discovered by 343 people. Some 111 personalised medals were collected over the course of the campaign. Success on social was a key metric of this campaign, with fans generating some brilliant content and #CNCOGO trending on Twitter in the . Elsewhere on the web, the story was covered by major media outlets such as Billboard, Music Ally and Univision. Over the course of the four-day campaign, there was a total of The aim of this campaign was to engage 132,368 page views, with 18,947 unique users – with an average with fans of CNCO in the buildup to the session time of 2m 42s. release of their debut album, Primera Cita, Primera Cita debuted Top 10 in 15 countries, including #1 in locally across the key territories. We wanted , and . a campaign that would drive pre-sales of Primera Cita is the #1 Latin album in the US – dominating the album and generate a social buzz with a Billboard’s Top Latin Albums Chart in the US. Also, their album story that was PR-friendly. accumulated over 1m streams on Spotify just hours after its release. We chose to reach our target audience by Social media impressions saw an 87.3% lift during the campaign. resonating with one of the biggest trends of Social media interactions with the band saw a 79% lift. Audio streams the time, Pokémon Go. We knew that all of of the album increased by 56.3%.

13 | sandbox | ISSUE 170 | 14.12.16 SANDBOX 2016 SURVEY DAUGHTER 4AD CAMPAIGN BREAKDOWN AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC TEAM MEMBERS AGE: 14-34 INVOLVED FEMALE: 65% MALE: 35% Matt Brown – manager LOCATION: UK Will Tompsett – digital marketing (4AD) Jason White – head of marketing (4AD) SUCCESS RATING: 9 Jo Morris – marketing (Beggars) Gerald Youna – streaming (Beggars) Alison Fielding – artwork (Beggars) Adam Berman – Web Dev (Beggars) retargeting etc.), we also developed the 3 Films feature, tied to the three lead videos from the album which were directed by the OVERVIEW OF CAMPAIGN BAFTA award-winning Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard. It featured exclusive behind the scenes images, plus interviews with all parties The group already had a big social media and copies of the short stories that inspired each short film. following, especially on Facebook; we soft We partnered with Spotify for the campaign, leading to huge launched by sharing a new website, which streaming numbers in week 1 and beyond, plus Songkick has been quietly featured a photo of the new album valuable in growing an already strong live following, culminating in cover (a painting by Brighton-based artist a sold-out Brixton Academy show this autumn. Around the show Sarah Shaw). We then targeted ambiguous stage of online promo, with the launch of keep socials busy and ensure that there we invested in Snapchat geofilters, and also used Twitter’s new display ads at the pool of users who Timeline. Something we all agreed on early were constant mentions of the band as Camera app to capture live gifs and videos from the show, giving visited this new site after being referred was that the band are relatively quiet on anticipation for the new album grew. unprecedented access for their international fanbase. from the Daughter socials, as we moved socials, but their fanbase Central to the campaign early to associate the artwork with the are very busy there; has always been word KEY LEARNINGS band and record. We then fully launched so we decided a focal of mouth for a band who the album a week later (after also teasing point of the campaign have a real emotional Disappear was released 15th January, peaking in the Top 20 gifs from the ‘Doing The Right Thing’ video) should be fan-sourced connection with their and improving on the impressive first-week sales of their debut with an album pre-order, new single and a content, which led to the fans, and this mechanism album. In terms of numbers on socials, Daughter have added over Songkick partnership for a limited number creation of Timeline on allowed us to share 200k Facebook and Spotify followers respectively, and trebled their of underplays. The first video also went the band’s site, which the creative works of Instagram following. They continue to have around 2m monthly through the band’s YouTube channel pulls photos, videos, text people and allow them listeners on Spotify and also perform strongly on Apple Music. rather than Vevo, in order to reach the from Twitter, Instagram to feel a genuine part of BBC 6Music were firm supporters, with three A-List singles, which earliest fans, and was timed for 8am UK to and Tumblr posts that use #ohdaughter, the campaign. Almost 12 months after informed an ambitious outdoor marketing campaign on release, hit the majority of their younger fanbase which is the group’s social handle. We release, we still have daily updates. reflecting the strong reviews and general press coverage. The – rewarded with it trending on Twitter were overwhelmed by the response, with As part of this focus on the band’s site album has continued to sell and stream well, with the band playing across Europe. hundreds of submissions – from live as a genuine, evolving hub for exclusive prominent festival sets at Latitude, Primavera and Glastonbury With big support from radio and photos to tattoos of lyrics to embroidered access to Daughter (in order to develop Festivals amongst others. They also won the AIM Award for Best streaming services, we moved to our next album covers – and this allowed us to the aesthetic of the campaign and for Second Album.

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