05–06 Tools Found.ee 07–09 Special Report Sandbox Summit New York 10-11 Campaigns Avicii, Beastie Boys, Skepta 12–19 Behind The Campaign- Tom Walker

JUNE 12 2019 sandboxMUSIC MARKETING FOR THE DIGITAL ERA ISSUE 230 COVERFEATURE he debate about whether or not email is “dead” still rages, with ideas Tabout user age, content relevance, innovation and GDPR helping frame new takes on the argument. While there are voices proclaiming that, for Gen Z anyway, email as a medium is just too slow, OptinMonster research claims that even today more than three-quarters of teenagers in the US are using email as part of their everyday lives. It really will be a matter of evaluating, on a case-by-case basis, just how well an artist’s audience – segment by segment – responds to communication through this channel.

But why even care about email?

It is easy to presume that all an artist really needs to communicate with their fans is an active presence on a select handful of social media platforms. Yet, organic reach is declining across the board, making it harder than ever to get your message across to all of your fans. Without, of course, having to pay exponentially for the privilege. Yet by nurturing an email marketing list, an artist has an owned means of EMAIL INTUITION communication where the reach of their messages won’t be suppressed by an external algorithm or an unexpected change WHY EMAIL MARKETING IS in the T&Cs of a social media channel. What is critical to remember here is MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER that those who sign up to your mailing list have already demonstrated that The last time we gave this area of digital they are your most loyal fans and are the ones most likely to stream your marketing our cover story treatment was way music repeatedly, purchase tickets, buy back in 2013. However, we believe that email merchandise and so on. marketing is more vital than ever. Here’s why. They are your revenue-driving audience and you need to nurture this relationship

1 | sandbox | ISSUE 230 | 12.06.2019 COVERFEATURE with care. If you are not ensuring you are communicating with them regularly, providing them with personal messages and exclusive content then they might jump ship for an artist who does. George Ezra is a strong example of how to create a newsletter that fans actually look forward to receiving rather than letting it vanish into the depths of their inboxes. Besides his regular newsletter, fans can also sign up for a weekly journal, giving them a personal insight into his week, with occasional some merchandise items. Some artists This is one of the more creative exclusive content. have also cleverly integrated their sign- aspects of email marketing. Subject Marlen Hüllbrock, marketing executive ups within specific campaign activations, lines should always be clear and at music:)ally, says, “This is key to a making it a necessary part of a wider straight to the point – but still successful email marketing strategy. competition rather than straightforwardly enticing. Subscribers have to Think about how you can asking fans to sign up. On platforms like want to open your emails. establish that connection with Wyng , for instance, artists can create There is, however, a fine line between your fans and further build your these micro-experiences for their fans. a subject line sounding enticing and it brand, whilst rewarding them Putting a prominent sign-up form Finally, it’s important to let fans know coming across like spam. Choosing a with something exclusive.” on an artist’s website is one of the first what they can gain through signing up, so subject line like “Tickets Going Fast! Thanks to marketing automation, we steps to enable this. Having a pop-up is artists should make sure to communicate Buy Tickets Now! 50% Discount Today can also make sure to send personalised a way to capture visitors’ emails as they this where possible. Only!!!’ will most likely end up in all messages in order to move your fans land on the site. At the same time, don’t email clients’ junk or spam folders. Or be further down the funnel. There’s valuable underestimate the power of offline and Content checklist deleted instantly. data to be collected based on how your physical sign-ups. When meeting fans in Depending on the email marketing fans interact with your email content. person after a gig, you can leverage the So how do you actually create an email tool, it can be possible to customise the Plus having said data on your most loyal moment of this emotional connection to campaign that your subscribers will pay preview text or opening description. fans means you can build highly specific nudge them towards your mailing list. attention to and engage with? Having an engaging description can lookalike audiences in order to further Make sure to segment those fans help increase the open rate of emails as grow your fanbase. accordingly, understanding that they are it shows up as a preview to your email highly engaged fans who went to see before it even opens. Building your mailing list the artist live. ActiveCampaign is one Many email marketing tools, such platform which offers this as a way to as MailChimp and HubSpot , utilise a When it comes to actually building your send highly targeted emails. drag & drop builder, making designing mailing list, the first thing to mention is Another prominent technique is using email layouts easy and customisable. It that it’s never too early to begin. Even as competitions to incentivise fans to sign up is important to note that different email an artist who is just starting out, giving to a mailing list. There’s no limit to your clients will showcase the content in an your fans the opportunity to connect with creativity when it comes to the prizes, email differently. For example, the same you and keep on growing your mailing list but it can be something as simple as a email campaign could look very different ahead of your release campaigns is crucial. handwritten message, a signed CD or in Gmail and Outlook respectively.

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This can be avoided by using an inbox list or when they open an email. preview functionality, which is offered by Nonetheless, relying on IP addresses companies like MailChimp. It previews is not recommended as these are not a what the campaign will look like in perfect measure for location due to VPN different inboxes, which can help mitigate usage. Timing email against problems that stem from the blasts depending various email clients treating content on time zones differently. can be helpful, as Much like any other text-based sending emails when channels, less is more. When someone is most planning a campaign, having a clear call to likely to read it (e.g. action within the email makes it easier for around lunchtime) the recipients to carry out the specified can increase open request. rates. MailChimp Images are useful to include as offers a tool called they increase the visual aspect of the Timewarp which email. At times, however, emails will not well: pre-sale codes for concert tickets; audience; and the more information the allows you to do be downloaded automatically by the discounted tickets for repeat buyers; better. However, there might be a trade exactly that. Location segmentation subscribers depending on their internet discounted merchandise for subscribers; off here. Forcing users to give up a lot can be useful when marketing a tour, connection and email client; so having important news; and competitions. of personal data in a post-GDPR age as calling out specific relevant cities in critical information within images may Rewarding subscribers with benefits may cause them to not sign up for your headlines can improve open rates. muddle your message if your recipients like these can work as a valuable newsletter at all; so make sure you only It is also possible to segment are unable to view said images. incentive to keep receiving marketing ask for the information you deem most audiences depending on their Email tools can offer different emails. necessary, whilst still allowing yourself to engagement. The main metrics at play formatting options for your content, create useful segments. here are open rates and click-through such as HTML, rich text and plain text. Audience segmentation Data capture can take many shapes, rates (CTRs). Open rates describe the HTML allows for the creation of a visually the main one being initial sign-up percentage of users who have opened a appealing design, whereas rich text offers When acquiring an email audience, using forms where users first agree to receive campaign, whereas the CTR describes the a number of formatting options – but segmentation will help to correctly target communication. However, there are percentage of people who open your email these are slightly limiting. Plain text, on users and customise future messages other ways of increasing the amount that then click on a link within it. Both the other hand, only gives the option of depending on the recipients. of customer data in order to build more metrics are good tools for determining communicating in text, with no further Segmenting audiences may segments. Using data capture in a survey how effective a campaign is. options for fonts, colours, images or links. help improve open rates and might make people more likely to share By creating engagement-based You could create the most beautifully click rates , as shown by MailChimp’s their information, particularly if there is an segments, you can do things to target and intricately laid out email in the latest user data, which detailed that incentive such as a competition entry for users who haven’t opened your past five world, but if someone has a plain text segmented campaigns get 14.6% more free concert tickets. emails by sending them an email trying to email client, unless the text has a clear opens and 59.9% more clicks than non- By segmenting an audience based re-engage them. Or you can target users message, they aren’t going to click segmented campaigns. on location, it is possible to tailor who have opened your last five emails through. Audience segmentation starts as the campaign depending on where but haven’t clicked through by adding in a As for content, music:)ally finds that soon as you start building your audience. subscribers live. Location data can be ticket discount to encourage link clicks. email marketing containing content Having a detailed and useful data capture captured through users’ IP addresses, for Having a high email open rate with and offers such as the following work form will help collect information on the example, when they subscribe to a mailing a low CTR indicates that there is a good

3 | sandbox | ISSUE 230 | 12.06.2019 COVERFEATURE subject line and description which audiences in such a way that when an feature globally. By embedding the video encourages opens, but the content within individual increases engagement they in an email, as opposed to providing an the mail is poor. Perhaps the links are too are automatically moved into a different external link, Vizu.al claims clicks and difficult to find, there may be too much engagement segment and start receiving views are two-to-five-times higher. text; it could also be unclear messaging or different marketing emails. This is a really valuable feature for messaging that isn’t targeted enough. In an era of GDPR and privacy artist marketing emails which often A low open rate with a high CTR concerns, where people are more willing require a strong visual element to means that the subject line and to unsubscribe (and where it is easier engage fans. Vizu.al also offers features the description aren’t interesting to do so), managing unsubscribers is beyond video embedding, including audio enough for people to open the almost as important as bringing in new embedding, an animated GIF builder, email or the recipient might subscribers. image carousels and countdown clocks to not be familiar enough with When an individual has decided to 60% of market share amongst email encourage people to act quickly. the sender. But for those who do unsubscribe, there is still an opportunity marketing platforms. Its flexible pricing Vizu.al’s “secret sauce” is, according open, they deem the content good enough to prevent them from unsubscribing; structure, widespread integrations with to the company, its ability to “auto- to click on links or follow calls to action. and if that fails, try at least to capture other platforms and user-friendly drag & detect more than 100 unique devices, data which can help to improve email drop templates have seen it increase in email clients and operating-system Audience development marketing in the future. However, popularity since being established in 2001. environments – in real-time – and serve this must be approached with caution Other providers like HubSpot up different formats to offer everyone a However, having an effectively segmented to ensure that the relationship isn’t offer email marketing as part of a one-click-to-play experience.” audience isn’t quite enough. Each damaged further. comprehensive suite of marketing tools, This one-click-to-play feature is key for segment needs to be nurtured differently Briefly reminding someone what they with its premium packages including a driving engagement in email campaigns in order to ensure persistently high will be missing out on if they unsubscribe website builder and content management where people can become disinterested all engagement. and asking them to select an option for system, cross-campaign analytics and an too quickly. The approach that teams take why they unsubscribed is a good idea. advanced CRM platform. towards targeting each segment should Presenting someone with three different TailoredMail is an example of a Where now? depend on how the audience has been pop-ups about why they shouldn’t company which has developed tools more segmented in the first place. For example, unsubscribe and asking them for a specifically with the music industry in For some (depending on their perspective), if the audience has been segmented paragraph on why they unsubscribed, mind. Its Vizu.al tool sells itself on the email marketing might be seen as dying; by engagement levels, a traditional followed by four other multiple choice ability to seamlessly embed videos in and for others (also depending on their marketing funnel mentality can be questions, is not such a good idea. Not emails, which it claims is an unrivalled perspective), it might be seen as thriving. employed. only will this damage their perception In a more practical sense, monitoring how People with lower open rates and of the artist or brand, it will also reduce your audience is responding to this form of CTRs can be served marketing emails the amount of useful data you acquire as communication is key in deciding whether with attention-grabbing subject lines, people will simply click away. or not this is a core channel for your artist, prominent artist branding and links to if it’s relevant but not the main focus, or streaming services, encouraging them to Tools perhaps if it’s completely obsolete. engage more in the future. Email marketing still has importance Those with higher open rates and CTRs There are a range of email marketing in today’s fast-paced world, but the can be served emails with pre-save links tools out there, each with its own CRM challenge is creating relevant and and exclusive offers on merchandise systems, segmentation tools, email intriguing content and messages to serve or tickets. The aim of this is to move templates and analytics. MailChimp is the your most loyal customers in return for fans down the funnel and set up your most prominent, accounting for roughly their personal information. :)

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When sandbox first featured found.ee So, are people taking other actions back in 2015, we were keen to see how a (like visiting Fader etc.)? Or are they only platform that began as a link shortener engaged on streaming? The idea behind could evolve further. Fast forward to all this is that there are at least these 2019 and, following an investment 45 pre-defined audiences that someone from Concord Music, the company has working in music might find interesting just revealed its relaunched marketing and can inform their marketing strategy platform, mainly centring around what with – obviously also offering to create new it calls Audio Everywhere and Audience custom audiences in the process. Hobbs Everywhere. says, “In the past you had to go into Google Ads and build these audiences yourself. We The former allows anyone to advertise want to ensure that no-one misses out on on DSPs (currently Spotify and iHeart, an opportunity to reach people; therefore with Google Play Music coming soon) the most important audiences come pre- without the requirement of a minimum populated on found.ee.” spend. The latter puts its emphasis on You can also grant different levels of building granular audiences that can be access to the platform, such as allowing a (re)targeted across 99% of available web team member to inventory (outperforming Google). show.co as well as ticketing and email read campaigns The redesign of found.ee happened widgets. but not to edit with two goals in mind: to provide teams Jason Hobbs, CEO and founder of found. them. with an easy-to-use data management ee, says that when sending fans to smart Understanding platform to launch and optimise their links, they usually see a drop off of around that team members campaigns; and to provide automatically 50% because it adds another step in their and partners generated audiences to their users. journey. Therefore, these embeds become need to exchange Every account comes pre-equipped really valuable, generating streams information quickly with a found.ee pixel that’s already setup alongside the service destination choice and easily, the and integrated within any shortlink you for the fan. platform has a create on the service. But you can also Found.ee has seemingly worked built-in summary add your Facebook and Google pixels so hard to build a specialist proposition for page creator that that you can capture audiences across the music industry: the platform is only you can screengrab the web. available for music cases. and which will soon With found.ee’s pages builder, you As its features are specifically designed music service, ticketing website or music blog. be downloadable as a PDF to share with can turn these short links into landing for the needs of music marketers, any These audiences also define whether or not those who need to be in the know. pages that link out to various service account comes with 45 automatically pre- someone has, for instance, “high propensity Moreover, you can give access to your destinations. They also provide embeds defined audiences, looking at things like to streaming” or has “high propensity to artist’s audience within a specific time from YouTube, Spotify, SoundCloud and whether or not someone has visited a certain purchase tangibles and experiences”. range. This can become really interesting

5 | sandbox | ISSUE 230 | 12.06.2019 TOOLS for the live business, granting the up immediately on the music websites promoter access to your artist’s audience these fans are on. Banner ads are reviewed so they can run more targeted campaigns within a few hours while audio ads are for certain live shows, with the access reviewed within 24 hours because these period expiring automatically. are reviewed by the streaming services A goal for the platform was also to themselves. return artists their data, making it possible There’s more in the pipeline for found. for a label to release an account back to ee, with Hobbs revealing that, within the the artists should the two entities stop next two weeks, a pre-save functionality working together. This data will then covering Spotify and Apple Music will be be owned by the artist rather than the added. platform. Comparing found.ee to other smartlink Apart from targeting audiences with platforms, feature.fm is the only one ads on DSPs, found.ee also has direct that also offers advertising opportunities deals in place with assorted music sites – allowing sponsored songs on Deezer and such as Billboard, Rolling Stone and 8tracks as well as placements on music Pitchfork. Hobbs highlights that you websites. However, the difference in scale can’t get access to these websites via between placing your songs on Deezer Google Ads and that going direct to these versus Spotify is an apparent advantage on publishers would mean you’re paying a the side of found.ee as well as its $17 CPM, whereas found.ee can get you on USP of offering access to such sites as there for a $3 CPM. Rolling Stone. Due to its direct deals, found.ee is Furthermore, as opposed to the likes buying the media inventory for cheaper of Linkfire or smartURL, found.ee lets you so that users effectively don’t have to have a fully branded domain while using pay a fee for their services. Hobbs further its platform should you wish to do so stresses that found.ee is the only platform (meaning no found.ee subdomain). that has these direct deals in place, It would be nice to see more flexibility referring to the fact that you were able to when creating the landing pages (i.e. buy audio ads on Spotify through found.ee using different fonts), as well as making before Spotify had even launched its own the pre-save functionality available on self-serve platform. more DSPs. Taking a leaf from feature. According to the platform, it is beating fm or ToneDen, offering fans rewards for Google Ads by a margin of 50% (based on undertaking specific actions could also be the benchmark reports it is conducting). integrated within its very comprehensive By using machine learning, found.ee platform. understands where people might want advertising. The report section will show Concord Music in March 2018 which now For Hobbs, the core appeal here is to click and automatically removes those you your best-performing ad unit so you sets up all of its labels on the platform. that audiences and advertising are at the with a bad CTR. This results in an average can tweak your campaigns accordingly. For smaller artists interested in found. heart of found.ee. “You don’t need $5k to CPC of $0.15 (across 100 campaigns), Found.ee has been used by artists ee, the platform recommends using a get on Rolling Stone anymore – you need which brings it into the range of Facebook such as St Vincent and Nathaniel Rateliff mix of audio ads on DSPs to target those $5,” he says. “And you can take your data advertising, albeit with highly curated and it saw a minority investment from cities you will play live in and following with you.” :)

6 | sandbox | ISSUE 230 | 12.06.2019 SPECIAL FEATURE Sandbox Summit New York 2019: the key takeaways This is especially critical today given that playlists are growing.” Photos: Rachel Ramirez that the viewing context of online video To get the most of out things here has changed significantly in recent years. requires us to focus on the humble Duffy said that it is harder to get a “big thumbnail, proposes Duffy, with Vevo hit” on YouTube in 2019 than it ever has working with artists and labels to best been – at least in terms of staying power. optimise this. “High contrast, high Vevo’s analysis shows that the average brightness, artist’s face first and foremost, amount of time that a hit song spent on featured,” is how he explained the formula YouTube’s global chart was 22-24 weeks in to follow. “The brain processes images 2017. Today it’s only eight or nine weeks. before it processes text. Do you think the “The creators on the platform who [text] title of your video featuring a big star are putting out more content with more is going to do the work for you? It’s not.” It’s frequency are able to surface more the thumbnails that do the heavy lifting. frequently in the charts,” he argued. That’s Need proof? In a sample of around 4,000 a challenge for artists and labels who might catalogue music videos that Vevo had now be expected to drop a new music video optimised, the company saw a 10% lift in on a daily basis to compete with vloggers, views. That’s significant, with a knock-on gamers and other YouTubers. effect for newer videos. “Your old videos “How do we create content in and are going to be driving algorithmic links to around the music video?” asked Duffy. your new videos,” said Duffy. At the end of May, we hosted our second How to “growth hack” “You don’t need to have a music video for Sandbox Summit New York event where music videos every track on your album, but you do need Data is dramatically leaders in the music marketing world to know this is a trend that is happening disconnected – still were invited to pick through the issues “Growth hacking” is a Silicon Valley term on the global charts.” du jour and consider where the industry used to cover a range of tactics used He explained where the evolution The Digital Data & The Artist panel was of tomorrow can and should go. Here are by startups when they’re trying to build in music video views is coming from. moderated by Jeppe Faurfelt, co-founder the eight main talking points and the best a big audience quickly, notably in their “Playlists driving views to video content & chief commercial officer at Linkfire, and quotes. The panels were also covered in early years. Drawing on this, Greg Duffy, have risen about 60%. The number one it looked at the need to bring together the detail on our website. To read them all, Vevo’s business operations and strategy driver of views to music video content various silos of data around an artist to start click here. manager, considered how this could be are now playlists,” said Duffy. “Suggested to develop a more coherent and holistic applied to music videos. videos are basically dropping at the rate strategy in marketing and promotion.

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There is still a disconnect here because “Not only are you driving this kind of the market is so fragmented – and that engagement, but you’re also finding those is causing problems and complications. consumers: if you’re running around a city As Kristin Westcott-Grant, CEO of looking for some virtual nugget, I’m pretty Westcott Multimedia, put it, “Because of sure you’re someone I’m going to want to the fragmentation of the marketplace talk to!” he said. within music, it is challenging to track an He added, “The great thing now when individual consumer from a stream to it comes to digital marketing is that the a click of an ad to purchase a ticket on journey is measurable and we can tag it: Ticketmaster [...] Trying to measure the it allows us to identify people who have return on that marketing spend is really shown some behaviour of a superfan. Who challenging.” is that person? And how do we follow up?” Artist advocate Bryan Calhoun argued that, as the entire ecosystem is so big (and The dry stream getting bigger), the unification of data is at paradox continues the mercy of getting all the different parts to speak to each other. music:)ally coined the phrase “dry stream “The dream world would be able to have paradox” in April to explain the situation the information all the way through for where tracks can break on playlists; but it every transaction that occurs,” he said. usually when you’re getting into more watch a new video, seek out tickets or buy does not follow that listeners develop a fan “The reality is that you don’t have that. niche genres and you have to have a more merchandise. Related to this, he said the relationship with the artist and go on to You have to deal with Bravado, you have tailored marketing approach.” notion of CRM should be rebranded in light explore their music beyond that one song to deal with Live Nation and Ticketmaster, of these new ways to communicate with on that one playlist they liked. there is music that is streamed on WhatsApp has changed fan fans and fanclubs. “CRM has always been Amanda Suriani (senior director, different platforms; the information is marketing in Latin America seen as email marketing, but in reality it’s account management, at The Orchard) fragmented. Ideally you would be able to fan relationships,” he said. warned against over-expectations here. marry all of that stuff up and know where Jose Abreu (senior director of digital “We are so quick to just try and get things everybody goes all the time, building a strategies, Latin Iberia Region at Sony Competitions can separate to happen immediately,” she said. “We complete picture of the user profile. That is Music) was interviewed by Sarah Flanagan the fans from the superfans want that immediacy, that overnight just super hard to do.” (Columbia Records’ associate director sensation to happen. But you have to Westcott-Grant added that the indies of digital and influencer marketing) on In the same session, Abreu said that really take the time […] It doesn’t just are the most disadvantaged here. “One how artists and labels need to work with digital and competitions are offering ways end on release day […] It’s really creating of the challenges that the independent superfans. In this discussion, he talked to segment fans in order to understand moments for fans to engage with on a sector finds with access to data is that about how WhatsApp is creating a new which ones need to be escalated to the regular basis.” there is a level of granularity of data and type of fan marketing narrative by directly superfan category. Naveed Hassan (artist manager at the timeliness of that data reporting connecting labels with artist fan clubs in He used the example of Latin boyband MDDN) said the onus was on labels and [changes] from DSP to DSP – which new ways. CNCO and their CNCO Go campaign which artists to find ways to piggyback on that makes it very challenging to get a holistic “Someone in marketing in Argentina will used Landmrk, the geo-location marketing song and engage fans – never presuming understanding of how your product is have access to the president of the fanclub platform, to create a scavenger hunt for that the song itself is enough or is capable performing across the entire market. of Shakira via WhatsApp,” he said. This fans to visit hotspots in order to be able of doing all the work here. Depending on the genre, users can lean communications channel can very quickly to hear their Primero Cita album ahead of “You’ve got to do the steps and gradually towards one DSP over another. That is mobilise her fans to stream a new song, release. build it,” he argued. Playlists are not the

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that we tend to do with the labels […] The beauty of the internet is now you have a lot of songs taking off by people just remixing them and bootlegging them.”

Podcasting still has a content problem

Podcasting and music have never been higher up the industry agenda than they are now. The major labels are really throwing their weight behind them and this is, in part, in reaction to Spotify investing hundreds of millions of dollars to buy up podcast studios as it turns itself into a major platform for podcasting as well as a major producer of podcasts. The issue of consumer education was a theme that the industry still had to grapple with, especially in the sense that many solution for everything. You have to pay Orchestra, Simple Creatures and Devil Remixes and bootlegs consumers remain oblivious to music and attention to a lot of things […] You’ve got Makes Three. are catnip on TikTok podcasting. “I think it’s really hard to get to do something that makes people excited “Email is an important channel: a lot of people to know that they even have a […] and have the urge to get involved and artists come to us because they see it as Jacob Pace (CEO and VP of business podcasts app on their phone,” said share information.” one of their strategic backbones,” he said. development and A&R at Flighthouse) was Tom Mullen, VP of marketing catalogue “You can learn all sorts of things when an interviewed on stage by Marni Wandner for Atlantic Records. Video can be the secret email is opened […] but the music industry (VP of digital at The Syndicate) and he Lisa LaCour, head of marketing at sauce in email marketing is a bit behind on using a lot of the science talked about how to give tracks a nudge Endeavor Audio, concurred – but added that from this data. on TikTok. Some of the viral hits on the part of the responsibility must also land at In our Tools feature in the last issue on ”With Devil Makes Three, he explained platform are down to serendipity, but there the door of music creators. “I think that’s a sandbox, we wrote about how Vizu.al is how they promoted a new album to their are ways to give others a helping hand. content problem,” she said. “We don’t have proposing that video is crucial to building 55,000-strong mailing list with an email “We tell labels all the time: you can’t just good enough content out there.” strong fan relationships and how it feels containing a ‘listen now’ button taking take a song and throw it on TikTok and hope it Even if this were resolved, the bigger its advantage is in being the only email fans to a page to listen to the first six goes well,” he said. So, if you can’t just throw and more enduring problem of data would service provider that can send email where tracks. If they then clicked a button there a song onto TikTok, what can you do? You remain. LaCour said that Apple doesn’t videos play directly inside them. and shared the details to social media, can work with Ariana Grande’s label to mix provide figures for “unique listeners” Vizu.al founder Matt Highsmith they unlocked the remaining six tracks. together two of her big tracks, sped up, and to a podcast, while Spotify is not giving used Sandbox Summit New York to “Email could and should be looked at as then throw it on TikTok, as Flighthouse did. “time spent listening” figures, calling the talk about how his platform can the conduit to the other platforms and “With Ariana, our upload did a million situation “incredibly frustrating”. Mullen supercharge marketing here, referencing channels, as well as trying to convert re-posts,” he explained. “It was basically a was more forthright. “The two big guys are campaigns they have worked on for some of those other channels to email ‘Side To Side’ and ‘7 Rings’ mashup, sped giving us completely different information,” acts such as Tiësto, Trans Siberian addresses,” said Highsmith. up. It was super-successful. It’s stuff like he said. “It’s all bullshit right now!” :)

9 | sandbox | ISSUE 230 | 12.06.2019 CAMPAIGNS The latest projects from the digital marketing arena TIM CAPSULE: AVICII’S POSTHUMOUS ALBUM RELEASE

Swedish DJ and producer Tim Bergling (better known as Avicii) sadly passed away on 20th April 2018 at the age of 28. A new album was nearing completion before he died and he had left the tracks along with notes, emails and texts outlining what his vision for it was. That posthumous album, TIM, was released on 7th June.

Dealing with a late artist’s unreleased work – especially so soon after their passing – is always going to be very complex and everyone involved has to step sensitively here. His family, however, has been fully involved in the project and are firmly of the belief that this album should It is, on a technological level, very clever; but come together and share the experience,” said be released rather than locked away in a vault really this was about handling an incredibly Oculus on its blog. and never heard. sensitive and emotional issue with “In my time working with Tim, we’d always On the weekend before TIM’s release (1st and respect – and that was undoubtedly discussed how important the VR takeover would 2nd June), Creative Labs at Universal Music Sweden achieved here. The theme of music be and the endless shifts in thinking we would all created what they called the Avicii Cube in Herald connecting people worked perfectly have, from music videos to live music and –most Square in New York. There were similar cubes in and the whole thing, especially with importantly – tweaking the album experience,” London, Stockholm, Tokyo, São Paolo and Sydney. Avicii’s family so closely involved, said Neil Jacobson, president of Geffen Records, in Fans could step inside the cube and get to hear struck the right tone and was a statement. “The music album is in a challenged some of the music on the album before release by conducted with dignity. place right now, and VR can be a vehicle to bring putting their hand on a glowing Avicii symbol on a There was also a partnership that format into its next iteration. To a small large touchscreen, with the whole thing running on with Oculus to preview the album degree, we are playing with that idea in this TIM the idea of fan connectivity. Music would only play in VR on the day before release that virtual reality album listening experience.” when at least one more fan was in one of the other was staggered to make it a global All of Avicii’s net proceeds from the album are cubes around the world and was touching the there are cubes just like this one. Walk inside and event. going to the non-profit Tim Bergling Foundation. screen at the same time. place your hand on the glowing Avicii symbol. “Beginning at 10:00 am PT on June 6, the This will help it fund its work, most importantly in “Avicii connected us,” runs the messaging When the symbols in two cubes are touched at album will play at the top of each hour for a 12- addressing mental health issues and helping to on the exterior of the cubes. “Around the world the same time both cubes will activate.” hour event where people around the world can prevent suicide.

10 | sandbox | ISSUE 230 | 12.06.2019 CAMPAIGNS The latest projects from the digital marketing arena

LOVE & COMMUNICATION: AMAZON CREATES DOCUMENTARY CARTOGRAPHIC SCENES: SKEPTA COOKS UP ALBUM HEAT MAP FOR 25TH ANNIVERSARY OF BEASTIE BOYS ALBUM been among the acts using Landmrk in Communication runs for 15 minutes and takes fan activations and in this issue’s Behind on-stage interview footage of Horowitz and The Campaign, you can read about how Diamond at SXSW earlier this year and mixes Relentless and Tom Walker built a light it with archive footage alongside input from map for fans to add to as part of the musical collaborators. This video documentary marketing of his ‘Leave A Light On’ single. is available on Amazon’s website for anyone But we have not seen anything quite to watch. like this before. On his main site the There are, however, more parts to this. landing page features a globe in the Amazon Music customers in the US can centre which is lit up according to hear an extended audio version of the SXSW UK rapper and where people are playing the new interview (running to 40 minutes) by saying, producer Skepta album. Along the right-hand side Ill Communication by the Beastie Boys is now “Alexa, play Still Ill on Amazon Music.” released his fifth is a thermometer graphic ranking a quarter of a century old and Amazon Music On top of this is a 14-track playlist on album, Ignorance in real time a number of cities and has created a short documentary about the Amazon Music which has commentary on half Is Bliss, at the end of May and came locations around the world from hot to album and its impact since 1994. a dozen of the key tracks from the album (as up with an interesting way to track its cold depending on how engaged they are well as an intro and outro) which runs to just performance on the week of release. with his music. After the passing of Adam Yauch in 2012, over 38 minutes. When sandbox looked, London was surviving members Mike Diamond and Adam And, with Amazon being Amazon, there are The album cover features a variety his leading city, followed by New York and Horowitz have been carefully keeping the also links to buy not just Ill Communication but of people and objects shot with what then the Midlands in the UK. The globe group’s profile up. They have released the also their entire back catalogue, the Beastie appears to be a thermographic camera in the centre is spinnable in 360 degrees autobiographical Beastie Boys Book and ran Boys Book and Beastie Boys T-shirts. which forms a heat zone image of what it to give an instant overview of how his a speaking tour around it, but have said they “The Beastie Boys had a few crucial is capturing. music is connecting. You can zoom in would never do a full tour as the Beastie Boys. pivots in their career, but for me, the Ill Running with this heat motif – and on a particular area by clicking its name The video version of Still Ill: 25 Years Of Ill Communication era could be their most perhaps working as a nod to heat map against the thermometer bar. There is important transformation,” Amazon Music’s features on data dashboards also a link to stream the album on head of editorial Nathan Brackett told Variety. like the one on Apple Music – your DSP of choice so that you can “It was the moment he and The Orchard arrived at contribute in your own small way in the early 1990s the idea of a streaming heat to the heat map. where they brought map showing where people The site is pulling in data so many of their have been listening to the from The Orchard’s content influences full circle album around the world. management system to visualise it into one sound, and, Artists have deployed in this way. It’s fun and impressive in a sense, became geolocation technologies in as well as a really nice way to make the best version of their marketing for some real-time data interesting for fans themselves.” time. For example, CNCO have rather than just analytics teams.

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Tom Walker was signed to Relentless Records (part of Sony Music UK) back in 2015 and his debut album, What A Time To Be Alive, was relesed in March 2019. It was a very slow – but very carefully plotted – build for him. HANNAH COLSON, senior marketing manager at Relentless Records, and BEN COATES, general manager at Relentless Records, explain how his social media was built from scratch, why live was a key part of his development, why a Radio 1 Brit List placing raised the bar and how, following two Brit nominations, things “went nuclear”.

A slow but steady development process BC: We signed Tom four years ago [July 2015] and it has been a bit of a journey. It was really starting from scratch in a lot of senses as he didn’t have any music released at that point. He also had no presence on socials as an artist – so it was quite an old-school development process in that sense. There was no pressure early on to put out big singles and to try and create impact straight away. The philosophy and the strategy had always been about trying to build it through streaming and then move into live in order to build his fanbase there. It was about putting out a series of tracks that would be worked through the streaming platforms and into social – and vice versa. There would be some content around that to then build an audience so that he could go out and start playing live and then just grow and grow. That was before we even went to radio. Early on there were some collaborations that Tom did that were part of his DNA and what he was all about. But it also meant that we could tap into other fanbases. The first song that we put out, ‘Sun Goes Down’ in early 2016, featured Kojey Radical who is still rising and that was a way to position Tom and expose

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him to another type of audience. That understands the ecosystem of the rest helped us get some wider media support of the country; he is not just a London- as well. centric artist. When he was posting all It was always about building it to a these music clips we would make sure that point where the live side and the fanbase, he was going out to do stuff in Scotland galvanised by streaming, got to a stage and elsewhere. He also did a busk for where we could go to radio, TV and press to [homelessness charity] Shelter. That build things in more traditional areas. wasn’t a campaign moment; that was It also helped to give Tom a foundation just because he has a strong desire to try and a footing so that he was coming from and help with homelessness. He wanted somewhere as opposed to it just appearing to raise awareness through his music. In from nowhere. those early days, he was out and about on The early stages were figuring out what the road in places that meant something the DNA and the messaging were. It was to him. the video came out the views just started really about getting to know Tom, him to really motor. We actually went to talk getting to know us and then us collectively BC: He was trying to turn that real-life to YouTube about it, but it was one of working out what Tom Walker stands for experience into social numbers. He did those videos that just hit the algorithm and what his values are – and then looking a Highlands tour because he is Scottish. slipstream and then just got served in at how we would work that through social It was in small venues and it was just everyone’s recommended feeds. media. him and his car on the road. That fuelled The focus was always on Tom being a content but it also helped to build an HC: They weren’t 100% sure, but they said singer-songwriter; it was always about audience. an Ed Sheeran video had come out the day his voice and his songs. He is a great There was quite a regular flow of tracks before and this video fitted the algorithms storyteller and he has an amazing voice. coming out. We had ‘Sun Goes Down’ and so it came up in everyone’s recommended Tom is a feel-good artist. He writes songs then we had ‘Fly Away With Me’ . We did list who had watched the Ed Sheeran that are deep, that can be sad but that can On Instagram there was a lot of a video for ‘Sun Goes Down’ with Kojey video. also touch people; but there is always a direct personality content. That was a real Radical that Kojey directed. That was good The lead actor [Matthew Hopkinson] sense of optimism in everything he does. journey with Tom to get him to feel at one in getting Tom into some areas that he in the video had been in some TV dramas with the fact that his phone was his own hadn’t been in before – like Clash magazine [including Broadchurch and Resistance] Building up his social media presence personal camera. Now he loves putting and Annie Mac [on BBC Radio 1]. That so it just fuelled this and it really built BC: As far as the social platforms go, it was humorous posts on there. That really started the wider media awareness. momentum. This was a Europe-wide push. Facebook and Instagram initially. They started to resonate about a year and a half We always knew, looking at Rag’n’Bone were the core. ago and we saw the socials start to come How YouTube really worked in his favour Man and George Ezra, that there would be up in line with the rest of the figures. BC: For ‘Fly Away With Me’, we made HC: We started to roll out a lot of music a bigger video. It was a narrative video content on Facebook – particularly BC: His big selling points are his voice and that kicked off a bit of a chain reaction. music video content such as clips of him his songs. We wanted the proposition to We still have to pinpoint how exactly it performing. He used to do videos from be rooted in his music. happened. The video’s narrative is about the basement in his flat where he talked homelessness and so speaks about about writing songs like ‘Just You & I’. It Starting at a grassroots level for live something Tom is passionate about. It was trying to make it all about him and his HC: Tom was born in Scotland, grew up in started to get a good reaction on streaming guitar. Manchester and now lives in London. He services and then about six months after

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a heavy presence in Europe at the start. It was about us using engaging copy really got behind. It started a chain reaction he did ‘Just You & I’ on The Today Show. This really started that and all of our from Tom, engaging performances and with the algorithms kicking into action. Throughout this process, Tom partners were being engaged. The clips of the video along with calls to action Tom then released his first EP – The was writing and recording a lot with YouTube growth was mirrored in the directly linking to Spotify or Apple Music. Blessings EP – in May 2017. ‘Blessings’, different producers and writers. He was streaming world, particularly through We started talking to Spotify specifically ‘Rapture’, ‘Karma’ and ‘Just You & I’ were consolidating his sound. That was when Spotify and Apple Music. In the mood- about doing a Spotify Fans First initiative. on it. At that point Tom did a session we moved into radio. A big cornerstone of based playlists, ‘Fly Away With Me’ started I have seen some other artists do it that for Spotify – the Fans First event. [This it was the Brit List promotion [in summer really performing well – on playlists early [in their career], but it is maybe not was an activation where the label gave 2017] that he got early on. We had support like Mellow Pop and Easy on Spotify the norm. away 500 limited-edition copies of a “live on previous tracks – namely ‘Sun Goes in particular. It became a staple in those from Spotify” vinyl single to his top 500 Down’ and the strategic remixes we had playlists. We knew that the views and the BC: What really accelerated things was streamers in the EU.] Spotify told us that done around that – on Radio 1. streams were building up, so the focus was ‘Just You & I’ coming out at the end of 2016 they knew they were driving a lot of ticket The way the Radio 1 Brit List on how we target those people – where – namely the acoustic version of that song. sales through their platform for him as works is that you pitch them three they hear his voice and they turn into fans. It was something that Spotify in particular they had the Songkick connection and they songs and then they guarantee could see the data. three playlist records. The idea is Even anecdotally that at some point in the when we asked people campaign you get an A-list record at shows how they on there. We knew for three records that discovered Tom, they we would have Radio 1 playlists. In the UK said it was through that was the spine of a campaign that makes playlists. Every time building other things around it a bit easier. he put a new song out, ‘Heartland’, produced by Naughty Boy, the venue size would was the first of the Brit List tracks. This naturally grow and the was the point where the budget being put audience would grow into creative assets was increasing. The with him. That was all ‘Heartland’ video was definitely a bigger before we got to radio. statement video. That was where we started building to Building him on streaming platforms and HC: ‘Just You & I’ acoustic pricked up ears ‘Leave A Light On’. Everyone in the camp how playlists really came into their own in the US. That is when it really started knew how big that song was. It was one of HC: It was about using strategic digital to broaden out for him. It was all about the first songs Tom and Steve Mac wrote spend to target people who were on building a fanbase – and a really engaged together. those playlists to make them fans of Tom fanbase. All this time the fanbase was Walker. It was about serving the ‘Fly building, Tom was touring more and the Away With Me’ content to them in Ramping up the international focus international plot was growing. different forms. There were clearly a and the move into radio lot of people who were streaming BC: There was a real international focus at ‘Leave A Light On’ as the tipping point his music and adding it into this point. There was a lot of interest from BC: The feedback we got from all of our their collections, but they weren’t the US and Europe and so Tom was going international partners was that this was necessarily engaging with Tom. out to Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Holland, going to be a big record for them as well. It was perhaps just a song they wanted to the US and so on. He actually did his first So them leading the charge on this was put in their playlist. TV in the US before he did it in the UK when something we wanted to embrace. It was

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Returning to radio and TV We were going to put the album out in BC: The international story at this October [2018] but we decided to shift it point was huge. That gave us the back because ‘Leave A Light On’ was so big ammunition to go back to radio. and it was breaking in so many markets; so In a quite unprecedented move, it for us to get another single in we needed the went back on the Radio 1 playlist. rest of the year to let that do its thing. This time last year, when ‘Leave We wanted to make sure, because A Light On’ was burning red hot, the international story was so good, that Love Island [the reality dating everyone had the right amount of time to show on ITV2] had just come back set the album up and make as big a splash on. They used the track incidentally as possible. HC: We scored it with the string quartet in the show which really helped. and it was shot in Angel Recording It provided a marketing and advertising Setting up the pre-order Studios in London. That dropped in platform that meant we knew we could hit early January. It was about keeping the a bigger pool of people. campaign extended over Christmas. We were TV advertising the Something that had been in the works single at that point which is quite in Switzerland, Italy and Germany where for some time with the Sony Germany sync a bold statement because it is an the song started to flourish first. team, which was a big team effort, was the expensive property to access . It wasn’t necessarily a song that was Sony Bravia sync deal with ‘Leave A Light’. going to become a hit in four weeks and At this point we were getting increased HC: Given how engaged the TV audience was, reach everyone that it needed to reach. Tom airplay at Radio 1. That heightened it was the right thing to do. didn’t have a huge fanbase at that point and awareness and the fanbase was really there wasn’t loads of wider media interest. starting to grow. BC: The song had shown all the signs of it We knew we would have to work it through On the sync, they used the acoustic becoming a big hit; so the logic was if you BC: We had the album pre-order up in more grassroots digital strands. version as a template, but there was a are going to back something, then back September and it was released in March. huge orchestra that went on it. something that is going to win. Having all of the promo opportunities up HC: We created a light map for the song. We knew, particularly in the UK, that Tom’s audience is very broad in terms of to that point meant we were banking all of It was an interactive map on a splash page we had areas we wanted to go back to age ranges and so the physical album buyer these pre-orders that helped our week-one that we built where people could leave a because we felt the song hadn’t reached was part of that. We wanted to get to a numbers. light on wherever they were in the world everyone it need it to. The Sony Bravia point where an album was on the horizon to for someone that they were missing. With version of the song is only available on maximise the scope of his audience. HC: Because of his marketing database and that came data collection and his database that ad, but a similar acoustic version is on the light map, we had several thousand really started growing. It got 2,000 hits in DSPs. people we could hit with the pre-order. His the first couple of weeks and it grew from [Even though that version was not D2C motored in the way you would hope, there, getting to around 25,000 hits. available on DSPs, if anyone used Shazam but what was interesting was that the to identify it they would be sent to the Amazon pre-order and the iTunes pre-order BC: It was clear that Tom’s message was version of the song that the DSPs have. were further ahead [than D2C] around resonating with an audience. There were Shazam will work with companies and, if Christmas time and in early January. also the bigger hero pieces of content – like the track getting airplay is slightly different You would assume that the core fanbase the first big stripped back performance to the official version, they will direct users would pre-order through D2C and buy the video around the song. to the main version.] merch bundles; but what we were seeing

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was that the slightly more casual and BC: We all sat down to work out how we like 3D models. Every single person in the slightly more mainstream fans were pre- could maximise this. We effectively went artwork had to mean something to the ordering on these other platforms. It was back to Tom’s roots. Where did the fire start? artist. There were a lot of photos of people quite exciting to know who we could hit And what is going to get the most people who influenced his career that we had to go next. engaged? There were a few strands to it. through [where they would be hand-painted One of the more obvious ones was that Tom and collectively make up Tom’s face on the BC: It also meant we could be slightly went for a week to Scotland where he was cover]. The photos included all of his family broader with our marketing as there were born and where ticket sales have always and all the producers that he has worked more casual fans there to be engaged been really strong. Scotland and the North with as well as his friends. It takes days and with. We already had this base of streams have always had big voting patterns on days for Craig Alan to pinpoint all of and people who loved that song and then shows like the X Factor. these people to make up the artist’s it was – bang! – new assets in the new The idea was to double down on the face. year off the back of one of the biggest strongest part of his fanbase and make sure songs of 2018. they all voted. Getting him to do a tour of an event at Bethnal Green BC: Tom wanted the artwork to Scotland was showing the fans that he loves Working Men’s Club. We had be something that was made up Slipstreaming two Brits nominations them there. He did a busk in Glasgow and hundreds and hundreds of of a series of smaller things that BC: We had the good fortune of getting two the Red Hot Chilli Pipers joined him. people sign up. We filmed the represented more than the sum of Brit nominations [for British Breakthrough They had asked him to join them for the whole thing and every couple their parts. That meant, in terms of and British Single for ‘Leave A Light On’]. opening game of the Six Nations rugby at who came through the door digital assets, we could zoom into all The momentum we had around the pre- Murrayfield Stadium to sing ‘Leave A Light got giveaways. We were able to live stream the people used in the artwork. order and the new asset we had for ‘Just On’. it and that had massive impact. In that Brits You & I’ enabled us to build into a jam- We decided this was a great opportunity period he did Lorraine [on ITV] and he did the HC: Each mini story within the artwork tells packed six weeks. and so, when he was busking earlier in the Live Lounge Radio 1. He did a flurry of TV. a story of one of the tracks on the album week, we got them to come out for ‘Leave A and relates to a time in his life that he wrote HC: There was something new every Light On’. We filmed it all. No one knew the BC: When he won at the Brits, something about. It’s high-res and you can week. We really went nuclear bagpipers we’re going to come out. although he didn’t perform, the go right in and you get a full track-by-track then. reaction that we saw on pre-orders out of the animated characters and artwork. HC: He also worked with them to release was phenomenal. Different bits of the story speak to different BC: The Brit nomination for British a charity version of the single for Nordoff people. Breakthrough Award gave us a different Robbins. HC: It did 37,000 copies in the UK in week His biggest digital channel is YouTube focus. We restructured some of our promo one and went to number 1. It was double and always has been. He has 680,000 points. We knew if we won it would only A Valentine’s Day pop up the sales of number 2 that week – Bryan subscribers there. At every possible point positively benefit the album and grow the HC: ’Just You & I’ had become a wedding Adams. The single had gone top 10 as well that we can, there are live versions of tracks audience. and a relationship favourite for core fans by that point. from shows, there are acoustic versions and but was also becoming a couples song for a there are personality pieces in there. HC: British Breakthrough Award is fan-led more mainstream audience. He did a pop-up Building a strong and We had these strands to Tom’s and is voted for [by Radio 1 listeners and via Valentine’s Day event before the Brits [on consistent visual creative personality that really connected with the Brits website]. It was up to us and Tom 20th February] which we live streamed with HC: When ‘Leave A Light On’ was soaring mainstream audiences. But getting to them how hard we were going to work. You can YouTube on the YouTube Live homepage. last year, we got into album artwork options. is really hard and that is why it took us years absolutely throw everything at this if you We didn’t leave any stone unturned. Big Active, who put together all of his and years. There was lots of grassroots stuff want to, provided it is done in the right way. It was just a sign-up with 72 hours’ artwork, know an artist in Atlanta called like filming at gigs, the street teams at the We went to town on it. notice for people to get to London for Craig Alan who does paintings which look Scotland shows and so on. :)

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The campaign for Tom Walker involved breaking him in mainland Europe before he really UK and International] and he broke in the UK. This has been a strategy that Sony has been steadily perfecting for a number was extremely engaged and a of years, most notably with George Ezra and Rag’n’Bone Man. MARK COLLEN, EVP international huge supporter from day one. operations, Sony Music UK, explains how this all works, why radio still sets things up in these He was working alongside markets, how regional offices put their shoulders to the wheel and why he likes “starting Shabs to build an awareness within Spotify . stories outside the UK”. In that August I sent Taking time to incubate his career tracks up. You can blow tracks up, but you handwritten notes to the MDs of several MC: He was signed around four years ago don’t necessarily build an artist. What we markets and sending the music out to and he came on my radar in early 2016. I intended to do was to put forensic detail them. I told them there was no pressure on had worked with Shabs [Jobanputra, MD of around the planning of playlisting and this and that the track was going to come Relentless Records] closely when we were how to build tracks, but with very detailed in September or October and asking them both at EMI. Shabs is very granular in the thinking about an artist proposition. For to listen to it. I told them in the same way way that he does stuff. He is very strategic me, that almost always starts with live and that when they heard ‘Budapest’ [by George and he has a very clear vision of what he is having an artist narrative there. Ezra] and when they broke ‘Human’ [by trying to do and how to get people involved. Rag’n’Bone Man], that this was the next one. Right at the beginning he said he had an The live build and the European touring arc develop as an artist, which was critical. That We got an immediate reaction from it. act for me but it was going to take time to A lot of work went in very early with is something we are very passionate about People got back saying that they got this incubate it. He told me this was definitely a Simon King, his manager [at Covert Talent here – so we made sure that we did that. and they wanted to blow it up. Italy had global artist; one that was going to have an Management], and his agent, Olly Hodgson been the first to jump on ‘Budapest’ and international footprint. at Coda, to really start refining that and Getting regional offices closely involved as they said they were really going after this. I like starting stories outside of the UK. getting his presence out there. There is a ‘Leave A Light On’ moves it all up a gear Andrea Rosi, president and CEO of Sony We have a pretty good hit rate with it here touring arc you can do from Benelux, through In the summer of 2017, Shabs played me Music Italy, said he was going to make it his with George Ezra and Rag’n’Bone Man – as GSA, down to Italy, a bit of France and back ‘Leave A Light On’ and said he thought he personal mission to break this. And he did. well as Tom Odell early on. to the UK. We mapped that out very early, had a breakthrough track here, but we had We knew we had the DSP support, but saying that was where we were focused. But to move carefully and figure out what we what this was doing was overlaying that Following the lead of George Ezra and in the very early days it was about dropping were going to do. texture about creating an artist proposition Rag’n’Bone Man to build a narrative EPs and building an awareness – but I used the dead time that August when as well. We could provide colour, flavour and We worked with Shabs’s philosophy without forcing anybody. people were on holiday and I hand picked narrative to it. of waiting and seeing and letting it Over the period of a year we built up half a dozen people in Europe [to approach]. We just worked that track for months. build. I have an arc that I use in Europe. familiarity and awareness. Shabs was There is nothing revolutionary about this. The Italians were first and it became a The markets where we got really early incredibly focused in what he was doing; he None of this is futuristic. It is about hand- massive airplay hit there. By January, the engagement on George Ezra particularly was pretty clear in where he was going. He crafting and going into detail. At this stage it record was just blowing up. At the top of the – and with Rag’n’Bone Man – were Italy was extremely open to the idea that it could was about finding champions who we knew year neighbouring markets just tumbled. and Switzerland; George was Italy and start outside of the UK. We don’t wait to lead we could deliver with. We went through that arc from Italy into Rag’n’Bone Man was Switzerland. here. If we can start a story ex-UK, we will. At this point this was just people Switzerland and then into Germany. Then it What I like to do is to start things really Because we had this proven track record we within our company. It was about building was the Netherlands, Benelux and France. early and build a narrative. In this world were able to engage people early. relationships. It is still incredibly important France has become a fantastic market now we are building streaming stories and We had a year of conversationally making to have that. for him. By the summer of 2018, we had this success, but what we are doing with Tom, people aware of him, doing the occasional At the same time, we were working with situation happening before the UK had really and this is still a work in development, is show and tell, really working on his artist the DSPs. Kevin Brown at the time was at fallen and we were having this massive hit to build an artist story around blowing proposition. We were giving him space to Spotify [as head of artist & label services for with ‘Leave A Light On’.

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A parallel strand that was going on was it had worked with George Ezra and very forensic about that. We are looking at that the US came on board quite early as ‘Budapest’ as well as with Rag’n’Bone trends constantly. champions. They had worked the original Man and ‘Human’. The Europeans We will look at increases in streams in EP version of ‘Just You & I’ in winter 2016/ were very early with Rag’n’Bone Man. different markets, look at what is driving spring 2017. [It was re-released in a They jumped on him before the UK as them and find ways to go after them different version in January 2019.] they felt there was a character and as part of our overall strategy. There is We had a good early start in America, personality, and more importantly a definitely not a formula here. There is a lot but they were almost on a parallel stream. voice, that would resonate of expertise as well as a lot of hard graft Epic Records picked Tom up very early. We Tom was also an artist who would around artist development being allied with had a lot of support – but what we didn’t go to all of these markets. He has future-thinking analytics and data. That is all do was cram it. We waited and we built it been doing that continually. He hasn’t blended together. We are very flexible. You both in Europe and America. stopped. That is why the development can’t use the same formula twice. This created a huge story around ‘Leave period was critical. Throughout 2016 George Ezra originally broke in what A Light On’ which than culminated in the and 2017, it was about education. It is a lot The reality of the world we are in now is were at the time very physical markets. We German company getting the Sony Bravia of hard graft to break [in these markets]. In that, yes, you can have big global streaming have managed to transition that success TV sync. That was the big TV sync that ran consumption terms, we are already way past hits. That is great and we want that into the streaming environment. That is a around the World Cup last year and was a gold album in France. business. But it is getting more challenging, challenge in itself, but we have done it. With obviously a big help in the UK campaign. And We were very specific about the particularly for UK repertoire, to break Tom Walker, he broke in the streaming era. then the record just exploded here. markets that we approached early on – records on a global basis. That doesn’t We were trying to take some of the audience and France was one of them. It was very mean that you can’t have regional breakout behaviour characteristics from what we Using data but also innately strategic but they probably exceeded our records and regional success stories – and knew from George Ezra but applying them to understanding those markets expectations in where we thought we even multi-territory stories. a different consumption environment. We looked at the insights and what genres would be with that record. We all thought When we are talking to all of our We are continuing to focus very hard on have historically worked for British music it was going to do well, but I don’t think label partners here, we probably have 10 America. He is going there in the summer [in Europe]. We have evidence for what had any of us thought it was going to do as different conversations going on around 10 and in the autumn – and will be going back been proven to work for us previously; we well as it eventually did. We are on over different strategies on 10 different artists. down next year. That continues, as does had George Ezra and Rag’n’Bone Man to half a billion streams on that record Canada. He has already been to Australia base data on. In those particular markets we outside of the UK. It is more than just a big Bespoke strategies rather and he is going back there. He is also going know that strong male vocalists with great streaming record. It is a cultural record. than formulaic marketing to Japan. Mexico is somewhere we are also songs particularly resonate. Some of them will be like this [Tom Walker], focusing on. This isn’t just European. We are We knew that our European offices had Bringing it back to the UK and but there is another new artist where we are looking for a global footprint – and we are done it before and from speaking to them creating multi-territory stories building a very bespoke strategy for France slowly establishing one. :) we knew that radio formats in Europe like There was never any question that we were as the French company and us believe there great songs with big voices and character. not going to bring that success back to the is great potential for this artist in France. We WANT TO FEATURE IN Emotive songwriting is still incredibly UK. That was always baked into the plan. will work with the agent, the manager and BEHIND THE CAMPAIGN? powerful. And in Italy that is very much We are incredibly integrated with the the label to deliver that. If it works in France Marketing people: do you have a campaign you are working the case. The idea of songwriter and the labels in terms of our planning and strategy. than we can maybe spread it. on that you would like to see featured in Behind The Campaign storyteller really works there. What we are doing is trying to build success There is no cookie-cutter formula; but in a future edition of sandbox? If so, send a brief synopsis of I had an intuitive feeling this was going and bring those narratives back so they can there are ways where we have learned how it to Eamonn Forde for consideration and your work (and your to work. That was partly based on instinct be used as part of a strategy here [in the to build those stories allied to the forensic words) could appear here. but it was also based on the fact that we UK]. A British artist is always going to want detail [in planning]. Everyone is obsessed Email: [email protected] had done it before. We knew that was why to be big in their home market. with analytics and streaming – and we are

19 | sandbox | ISSUE 230 | 12.06.2019 ABOUTSANDBOX

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2020 || SANDBOXsandbox | ISSUE | ISSUE 230 XX | | 12.06.2019 DATE XXXX