BROUGHT TO YOU COURTESY OF 05–06 Tools ActiveCampaign 07–08 Campaigns Passenger, BTS, Madonna, Ajunabeats 09–14 Behind The Campaign- Circa Waves

IN ASSOCIATION WITH sandbox MAY 01 2019 MUSIC MARKETING FOR THE DIGITAL ERA ISSUE 227 Shoestrings of life

MARKETING ON A BUDGET Sandbox Summit 2019 NYC After the huge success of last year’s inaugural Sandbox Summit in the US, Music Ally returns to NYC again next month with the only dedicated marketing conference for the music industry on May 23. Sandbox Summit is an essential forum for cutting edge and creative thinking in music marketing: a day full of practical tips, refreshing discussions and interviews, insightful presentations, and of course, lots of networking. Brought to you in association with Linkfre, we are delighted to also announce our supporting sponsors, The Orchard and Vevo.

Some of the program we have in store for you includes:

• FlighthouseSandbox TikTok channel Summitfounder Jacob Pace is on marketing to Gen Z, and Sony Music’sa music Jose marketing Abreu discussing conference how to target Superfans. • Secretly Group’s Robby Morris and Laura Sykes explain the secrets behind the Khruangbin campaignseries which organised included a Spotify by playlist that tapped into Flight APIs • ‘Dry StreamsMusic Paradox’ Ally, panel the with global Pandora’s leader Heather in Ellis, Island Records’ Cindy James, Artist Manager Naveed Hassan (MDDN)digital and The Orchard’smarketing Amanda training Suriani for • Panel on how to bring together the various data silos around an artist hosted by Linkfre’s Jeppethe Faurfelt music industry • International marketingand the panel publisher focused on India, of the China and the African markets AT THE • Podcasting anddigital music panel marketing-focused chaired by Cherie Hu, featuring Atlantic Records’ podcast guru Tom MullenSandbox and KevinReports. Wortis , founder of music podcast label HELEN MILLS EVENT Signal Co No 1 SPACE & THEATRE, NEW YORK Taking place at the Helen Mills Event Space & Theater, lunch and refreshments are included in the ticket price, not to mention networking drinks at the end of the day! As a Music Ally subscriber you have access to tickets for a reduced price. Please be MAY 23 2019 sure to secure your tickets here asap, early bird tickets have already SECURE YOUR sold out and the event has a highly limited capacity. For group discounted rates and TICKETS NOW! sponsorship opportunities please contact Anthony. #MarketMusicBetter CLICK HERE... COVERFEATURE Domino, for example, managed to more than double Franz Ferdinand’s mailing list as part of its campaign around the band’s MARKETING ON A BUDGET 2018 album Always Ascending, using ‘sign up to win’ competitions and unique merchandise packs, while UMC partnered with Disney Junior for a competition around the Sing Your Heart Out Disney album in which parents were asked to record their children singing ‘How Far I’ll Go’ for a chance to be featured in the video for the track.

The global music industry may be enjoying a streaming-led renaissance but it is still far from the Mike Fordham, playlist and streaming glory days of the late 1990s. That means, in the sage-like words of Simply Red, money (largely) specialist at Primary Wave Entertainment, says that an element of gamificiation can remains too tight to mention. Rather than sulk, though, music marketers have made the best also boost your competition. “If you can of a difficult situation, coming up with innovative ideas for marketing on a shoestring budget. gamify it, with driving towards streaming, sandbox explains how to make the most out of a marketing bargain. it can be a really effective tool,” he says. “I think having a leaderboard, whether it is Competitions engagement, getting people to do organically than if you pay them to do it.” on the artist website or elsewhere, really something for you and getting them to Ross explains that to run a successful incentivises fans to make sure they are The competition is a mainstay of give you more data,” says Patrick Ross, competition you have to offer fans involved with that campaign.” marketing for very good reason: effective SVP of digital strategy at music:)ally. “It something they either really want or competitions use prizes that are relatively is leveraging what an artist has, a level something they want to be a part of. “One of Stickers cheap in monetary terms for artist and of scarcity, interaction with the artist and the classic examples is doing a competition label – a signed T-shirt, a meet & greet – getting your fans to do work. They can to get people in your music video with you. Stickers (as well as patches and badges) but of high value for fans, translating fan spread the word, post things, hashtag, That is something money can’t buy – being have been part of the music industry interest into fan activity. engage. It widens your reach. You can part of the campaign. A meet & greet, a VIP promotional arsenal for about as long as “Competitions are a great way of often get people to work better for you event, being part of something.” teenagers have been buying pop music.

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But that certainly doesn’t mean they are an exclusive Polaroid picture to anyone build skills for Alexa and offers a free plan, out of date. who signed up to her mailing list, with the alongside a $19.95 Professional Plan. On one level, as music:)ally digital grand prize winner also walking off with a True, most of the Skills that have been marketing coordinator Isabelle Ljungqvist Polaroid camera. used to date in music marketing have been explains, stickers can be used to put your for established artists that don’t really fit fans to work for you. “You can get some Bots the shoestring template – they include super cheap stickers printed, give them Paloma Faith, Little Mix and Michael Bublé out during a live show and encourage fans While stickers are a marketing perennial, – but it can surely only be a matter of time to put the stickers up around their cities,” chatbots and messenger bots have before some enterprising indie artist/ she explains. been one of the most interesting recent label/manager creates something truly eye But, in the digital age, they can also benefit developments in the promotion field, used opening with Blueprints. from a modern twist. “You can use printed by everyone from Bastille to Hardwell and speakers and voice-activated search, stickers with a Spotify QR-style code on,” Circa Waves (see Behind The Campaign working with Amazon’s all-conquering Dances Ljungqvist says. “That might be something this issue). Bots might seem out of place Alexa is a simple thing to do. And, once that drives future streams as well.” in a piece on shoestring budgets, but again, this doesn’t have to be expensive, In an increasingly visual world, Scottish singer-songwriter Nina music:)ally marketing executive Marlen thanks to Amazon’s Alexa Skills Blueprint. a good dance can help to break a Nesbitt, for example, superimposed Huellbrock argues that they don’t have to Alexa skills are essentially apps that song worldwide. Just ask PSY, Baauer Spotify Codes onto her lotus fower logo be expensive. give Alexa more capabilities and allow or Russian pop act Little Big, whose track to create bespoke stickers. “I printed up “There are some platforms where the unit to speak to more devices and ‘Skibidi’ recently broke internationally stickers and put a call to action on them,” you can start building bots for free and websites. Many of these skills are rather thanks to the viral success of the Nesbitt told Spotify (on their blog), “then then you pay depending on how many flashy. But they don’t have to be, with #SkibidiChallenge on TikTok. A dance trend sent them to fans in 20 cities around the subscribers you get,” she explains. Skill Blueprints allowing users to create may, in fact, be the ultimate in cheap, world. I’ve seen a rise in followers since “Usually the first couple of hundred are for and share their own skills with a minimum effective marketing, as enthusiastic fans the stickers went out and I also hand them free – but if you start building up a bigger of tech knowhow. essentially do the heavy lifting for you. out at all my shows for people to share.” following, you have to pay.” The Blueprints website presents Can you engineer a dance craze, Examples of these include I Am Pop, users with a series of templates – they though? Maybe not. But you can a startup that is dedicated to helping range from “Inspirations” to “Business certainly help it along a bit, according to musicians and music brands make better Q&A” – that can be customised to create music:)ally’s Ross. “There are things you use of messaging apps, with clients new skills, then published for other users can use, like the DanceOn Network, including Sony Music, Warner Music, to download. Similarly, the Voice Apps where you can pay to get people to launch AWAL and PIAS. For accounts with up to site claims to “make it easy” for anyone to it for you. And there are influencer dancers 100 subscribers, I Am Pop is free; for 5,000 who will dance to your song,” he says. subscribers, it costs $29 a month, 10,000 $49 a month and so on. “You have a direct communication channel with your fans, you can send them things that might be of interest,” Huellbrock adds.

Stickers are not the only cheap Alexa Skills promotional giveaway, however. Chicago singer-songwriter Josie Dunne offered With the rise of virtual assistants, smart

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Business Insider recently claimed “If they are fans then they are that DanceOn can “create, practically Cindy James, VP of streaming & playlisting strategy going to be very receptive to what out of thin air, a worldwide dance trend” at Island Records, gives her suggestions for effective you give them,” she says. “And if you using its 1,200-strong network of dance shoestring marketing give them something exclusive and you influencers. The classic example of ❙ Utilising Apple’s MusicKit (like an open API). take care of them, which is free, then they this is Silentó’s ‘Watch Me (Whip/Nae ❙ Utilising the Spotify API (listening parties and playlist can help spread the word.” Tools like Nae)’. DanceOn CEO Amanda Taylor told SocialRank can help artists and labels generators can capture PII [Personally Identifiable Business Insider that the company asked identify their influential fans. Or you can Information] data that marketers can reuse to reactivate and 50 of its dancers to make their own do it yourself – making it an investment in variations on Silentó’s original dance for retarget audiences and so on). time, rather than money. the song, driving 250m views over two ❙ Partner engagement tools like Spotify’s Canvas and Stories. and a half months, catapulting Silentó to ❙ Playlist SEO (works both on- and off-platform to deliver Give UGC a helping hand a major label deal. “DanceOn’s campaign ranked results from search). was one of the biggest factors in helping ❙ Pandora AMP tools. Dance videos, for all their modish appeal, make my single a viral dance hit,” Silentó ❙ Retargeting pixels in Linkfire links. are part of a digital trend that stretches told Billboard. right back to the earliest days of Web 2.0 – user-generated content. And, much artist and do things for you. It’s using your as dance trends can be gently eased own influence to influence people.” along the path to success, so too can Ross gives the example of LA indie UGC campaigns, as Brian Vinikoor, VP of pop acts NVDES, who worked with marketing at Arista Records, explains. this. He has come back and commented on photographer Parker Day on his recent “One specific campaign I ran while some of them. There is a lot that you can visual album Vibe City Utah, with Day I was in my previous role at [artists do to help these organic successes along.” pulling in collaborators from the LA development company] mtheory, was art scene including Mood Killer, Molly around Major Lazer’s track ‘Sua Cara’ in A more organic approach, perhaps, is to Using social media socially Milk and Priscilla Ruth. which we incentivised the creation of UGC pick up on existing dance interest in a song “He [NVDES] does videos for all of on YouTube,” he says. “The video had a and encourage it on its way, as was the The K Camp example ties into another his stuff,” Ross explains. “On his last massive first day – 21m views in the first case with K Camp’s Lottery Challenge. classic shoestring marketing tactic, album, he had influencers on the album 24 hours – and reaction videos quickly “Completely organically, a lot of people which we are going to call “using social who were part of it and each person did started popping up, which were aiding in started dancing to K Camp’s new track media socially”. It essentially involves stuff for different videos. It’s just taking discovery and continuing the momentum ‘Lottery’,” explains music:)ally’s Isabelle getting your artist onto social media and advantage of these influential people who around the video.” Ljungqvist, who worked on the K Camp using their profile to your full advantage, are part of a campaign. They are sold into campaign. “We are capitalising on that and something that might sound obvious but it, they use their individual influence and it it is really happening on Instagram, rather which many marketers overlook (or, to be doesn’t really cost a lot if they are part of than TikTok. A lot of dancefluencers have fair, artists refuse to do). your project.” Ross compares this to “free posted videos of them dancing to ‘Lottery’.” “There is a tie-in to this of artists being influencer marketing”. Ross adds, “What we did to make it [K influencers,” says Ross. “Realising how “It’s people who are part of your project, Camp] go further is actually taking all the much clout your artist has. If your artist part of your tribe, using their influence and videos for YouTube and playlisting them has influence, then use that and realise cross pollinating,” he says. on K Camp’s channel. K Camp has gone how much you can achieve by the fact Ljungqvist says that artists should back and re-posted videos, capitalising on that people want to connect with the be aware of their most influential fans.

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He adds, “We wanted to continue to content around them is easy and always Again, it can be fatal to try too hard Maddy Smith, head of digital at Capitol Records UK, expose the song through third-party results in click throughs for pre-orders, with GIFs – nothing says desperation like gives her tips for effective shoestring marketing channels, so we worked with a large MCN likes or people sharing. Utilising a video that screams out for you to GIF it – ❙ Social media in general is free when driven by the artist to get their channels to create content live features on socials, making but there are platforms that can help you – although we often pay agencies to manage them. around the new song. Typically, these animations of products and in your way to GIF success, notably GIPHY, Q&As/livestreams – most platforms offer this functionality large channels wouldn’t be able to use a focusing on the physicality of the wildly popular online GIF database. now. song from an artist like Major Lazer as the vinyl – think flicking through “We love GIPHY ,” says Duncan ❙ Scheduled video premiere – e.g. YouTube Premieres and asset would be claimed and monetised records in your favourite shop – Byrne, marketing director of dance label Facebook Premieres that schedule and eventise video drops. immediately. However, we went out to all is often overlooked but is a very Anjunabeats. “GIPHY is simple to setup ❙ Unlock mechanics – e.g. tweet to unlock, follow to unlock. channels operated by this MCN and said successful marketing approach and easy to update. It makes your stories ❙ that if they create videos around the song for us.” look amazing and it is fun watching fans These are obviously slightly more restrictive now after – like dance videos, reaction videos and so discover them on their own. GIPHY also GDPR. on – they can monetise the video for the #Hashtagging has analytics. The [Anjuna] team made ❙ Snapchat Lens via the Creator studio. remainder of the month. some for Luttrell to promote his debut ❙ TikTok campaigns. He concludes, “Through this campaign, Hashtagging is another simple, effective album. Luttrell has a moustache, which we over 150 videos were created and over and cheap marketing tool on social media. riffed on in the album art. His moustache ‘mailing lists’, I mean it: they send me six million minutes of UGC was watched, “It is using social media by putting the GIF was viewed over 300,000 times.” postcards when they announce a tour, a which led to additional discovery of the right hashtags in to allow your post to new single or what have you. And I find song and helped bolster the official video. be discovered,” says Ross. “Tapping into myself gravitating towards this artist, To top that off, we now had 150 new popular hashtags, for example. Your checking out their music post haste. In assets that we were monetising moving Instagram post will normally only go to your this digital day and age, having something forward. I brought these non-traditional followers. If you add hashtags and @ tags to very tactile in front of you goes a really marketing ideas to Arista when I joined other accounts, hashtagging to other things long way. You’re not just scrolling through there for artists like Dennis Lloyd, Digital that are going on, it is a free way to show up something.” Artists, Fordham adds, will Farm Animals and Dom Dolla.” in that feed and give your post further reach often include a hand-written note with than just your own audience.” their cards, giving a personal edge and Show off your Ross says that P!nk does a particularly showing that they care. physical product good job of tagging on her Facebook A physical mail out will cost a lot page. “She posts nice content and has more than an email blast, of course, but While physical formats may no longer hashtags around it to help it show up in Fordham believes that the extra price is be the be-all and end-all of music different feeds and places. Hashtags are Physical mailing lists worth it, while postcards can be bought consumption, most labels do still produce still relevant. People follow hashtags on cheaply in bulk. “The postage may be some gorgeous physical releases. And Instagram, for example.” Physical mailing lists might sound somewhat cumbersome but, compared these can prove a useful marketing tool, like something out of the Jurassic to what you would spend boosting an ad according to Fire Records label manager GIFs / GIPHY era of marketing but it is precisely on Facebook, I think the cost is negligible. Jonny Halliday. this difference that makes them Ultimately it is more about strengthening “We take great care and attention Much like dance trends, the right GIF- effective, according to Primary Wave the artist and fan bond.” when putting together our physical friendly video can have a massive Entertainment’s Mike Fordham. Bands that run physical mailing products; it’s often what our fans want promotional impact in the modern world. “A tactic I am very, very fond of – and lists, according to Fordham, include to see and we consciously build content Just ask Drake, whose GIF-heavy video for that is low cost – is physical mailed Philadelphia’s Low Cut Connie, Chicago’s around that,” he says. “The vinyl and CDs ‘Hotline Bling’ helped to make the song goods,” he says. “I am on a couple of Fort Frances and Guster, “a big college are already manufactured, so building into one of 2016’s biggest hits. artists’ mailing lists. And when I say rock band in the States”. :)

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Carpet-bombing fans with the same There are plenty of marketing and less-engaged fans (e.g. those who content at the same time will only get you automation tools out there, with most may have signed up to the email list years so far. Sure, there are things that they will features being available across the ago but are not so active now). all be interested in, but to presume they different providers. Salesforce’s Pardot With site tracking (available as a all want the same things and the same and Marketo are among the best rated WordPress plugin), you pull in data from a messages at the same level of frequency (but they are aimed at enterprises), fan’s behaviour on an artist’s website and is to dangerously misunderstand how while HubSpot stands out for its you can trigger an automatic follow-up tiers of fandom are established and how usability and the resources it provides based on different activities undertaken. subsets of fans behave. to customers – but it arguably lacks the This enables marketing teams to comprehensiveness of a platform like interact with an artist’s fan to make sure ActiveCampaign argues that to build ActiveCampaign. they are being taken care of and provided sustainable fan relationships, an artist First off, ActiveCampaign’s features with the information/items they are after. needs to send messages that each fan like email segmentation and dynamic Event tracking further doubles down on truly cares about. The company provides content lend a more personal feel to these insights. You’ll be able to see a integrated email marketing, marketing the emails you’re sending out while also contact’s full individual history – i.e. when automation, sales and CRM that enable responding to the level of engagement and how much of a music video they have you to access detailed behaviour tracking. a fan shows in order to send the right watched, when they have visited your It allows you to market smartly through messages at the right time. website and so on. audience segmentation and to customise Practically speaking, this means With goal tracking, you can see which both when and how you’re automating that on ActiveCampaign you can use specific actions each of your fans choose your marketing. subscription forms that, for example, let and how long it takes them to perform the specific actions that you’d like them to take – such as buying a piece of merchandise. You’ll also be able to see the number of contacts that complete you tag where a fan is coming from and each goal and what the conversion rate is. what they are interested in, organising Moreover, you can target those contacts these contacts into multiple lists. who have or haven’t achieved a goal, The company cites David Paige as delivering them personalised messages, an example of what an artist can do rewarding them for taking an action or with the platform. Paige has used its sending them a message that could drive subscription forms at his live shows to them to arrive at your goal. understand which event fans have visited By tracking “micro-conversions” such and whether or not they have bought as opens and link clicks, you can see where anything. Later on, this can help artists to people are most likely to drop out of the distinguish between superfans (e.g. those funnel so that you can take steps to get who go to shows and buy merchandise) them back into it.

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integrates with PayPal, Stripe, Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Facebook, Wordpress and 150+ other apps. One Let’s say that you see a segment of capabilities can be connected to its Plus, it shows you how each automation feature we’d like to highlight on the your fanbase drops out after looking at automation so that tags are created for is performing so that, overall, you’ll be able Professional version is predictive sending T-shirts in your merchandise store. You fans to know which platform they’re to see what works and what doesn’t – and which will make sure that emails are might send them a personalised message coming from and looking into the whole adjust your strategy accordingly. being sent at just the right time for each asking them to vote for the next set customer journey. This will pinpoint your If you’re keen to see just how valuable recipient (i.e. when they’re most likely to of designs as this can make them feel top-performing marketing channels for this suite of tools can be for you, there’s engage), thereby solving the problem of included and ensure that you can offer you to focus on. With the split action a 14-day free trial that you can sign up to emails getting lost in inboxes. them a product that they will love. function, you’re able to test whole without the need to link a credit card first. As the next frontier of any marketing Goal reports help you to understand automation workflows against each other After that, the pricing is dynamic based automation tool will be AI, sandbox is the effectiveness of your marketing by to focus on which funnel works best. on your number of contacts. Starting curious to see how ActiveCampaign could showing how many people have seen What makes all of these marketing from 500 contacts, you’d be billed $15/ potentially use this technology to further your promotion and the percentage who automation efforts very accessible is the month for the Lite version, $70/month enhance its insights into customers and took action afterwards. Based on past simple drag and drop system it operates for the Plus version (which the company their affinities in order to make purchase purchases by your fans, you can upsell on. In order to help you better make says is the most popular), $159/month predictions for a single individual. and cross-sell by providing them with sense of these automation processes, for Professional and $279/month for Furthermore, using AI to better engage special offers such as a ticket discount on ActiveCampaign’s automation map Enterprise. fans through personalising customer a second show for those who were among visualises the automations in your You can pay monthly or yearly, but it journeys at scale could be another way for the first to buy tickets for a new tour. account, shows their status and indicates works out considerably cheaper to opt for the company to keep its platform valuable ActiveCampaign’s attribution how they are connected to each other. the yearly payment plan. The platform for many artist teams. :)

6 | sandbox | ISSUE 228 | 15.05.2019 CAMPAIGNS The latest projects from the digital marketing arena GIMME SHELTER: PASSENGER DONATES ALL BTS AND PIECES: K-POP GROUP CREATE THEIR OWN GAME ALBUM PROFITS TO HOMELESSNESS CHARITY album together. “You’ve just become BTS’s Homelessness has Brighton where I manager in a world where BTS doesn’t even long been a problem live, which really exist yet,” screams the site. “Their debut is in the UK but anyone opened my eyes now in your hands!” living in the country to the number of So what will that involve? cannot have failed to people forced to “We’re looking for a manager who will notice the alarming sleep rough,” said help us debut!” says the preregistration site rise in the number of Passenger. “So, and below that are the types of qualities the homeless people on I was even more different members of BTS are looking for in the streets in the past shocked when their new virtual manager. “Someone who’s few years, with pop Shelter told me about ready to do anything necessary to wake me up tents on the pavements the thousands of in the morning,” says one. “A caring manager in London and other homeless families Rather than follow the lead of Marshmello who will shape us into wonderful human major cities becoming out there, hidden or Drake and go into the esports world, beings,” is another’s request. “Someone who a distressingly familiar from view in hostels K-pop are following the lead of Iron shares my values,” adds a third. image. happen and emergency Maiden (yes, really) and developing their It seems that it’s not just a game but B&Bs.” own mobile game. also a way to access new content from The charity Shelter has been running since 1966 Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter, BTS. “Not only do they get to experience to help those without a home or living in bad added, “With 131,000 homeless children Except you can’t play it just yet as it is not something entirely different, but they’re housing and it says that 65,000 families (and living Britain today, this is a crisis that simply available for a while. Instead fans have had also getting access to a tremendous 131,000 children) are homeless in Britain today. cannot be ignored.” to pre-register from 9th May for the BTS amount of new and exciting content we For one of the richest nations in the world, The album is available to buy or stream WORLD game which has been developed by created with BTS specifically for the game,” these are shocking and shameful numbers. from all the usual places and is also available Netmarble Corp and is available for Android said Seungwon Lee, chief global officer of Passenger (aka Mike Rosenberg) has from Passenger’s own store. You can buy and iOS devices. Netmarble, in a statement. obviously been moved by this and, while no it here. On his website it says, “This is an Details ahead of full release are scant but There will be 10,000 (yes, TEN THOUSAND) one person alone can solve the escalating entirely independent release. We’re not it appears to be a management game where new photos and 100 exclusive videos within problem, he wants to help as much as he working with any labels / media partners to fans apply to become the manager of BTS the game so you can’t really accuse them of can. As such, he says that all the profits from ensure that as much money as possible goes in a parallel world back in 2012 where they cutting corners. It is still, however, unclear if his new album (Sometimes It’s Something, to charity.” are just starting out and putting their debut this is going to be a freemium game and if Sometimes It’s Nothing At All) will go directly Usually we cover campaigns here that there will be in-app purchases. Perhaps the to Shelter’s Family Support Services. are designed to drive revenues for artists pre-registration (something we’ve not seen FSS is operational in seven different and labels but this is a rare occasion where before for a pop star game like this) is a way locations in the UK and offers vital support buying an album (not just a single, as is to gauge fan interest before the app launches to families falling through the cracks in the usually the way with charity efforts) will see and may shape how its economic model welfare state. “When I started out, I spent its profits all go to an incredibly deserving works based on how many fans want to get a lot of time busking around the UK and in cause. their hands on it.

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TIK A BOW: MADONNA DOES A TIKTOK CHALLENGE TWITCH UP: ANJUNA OFFERS 350+ CLEARED TRACKS FOR GAMING PLATFORM she and her team are prepared to experiment. She was there at the launch of Tidal, she Live-stream gaming platform Twitch was the first artist to build an iPad app using has been a key location for music since Mobile Roadie back in 2012, the following year its launch in 2011, with dance and metal she gave away a 17-minute film about human performing especially well as background rights (secretprojectrevolution) she made with music and acts like Prodigy, deadmau5, Twitch playlist on both Spotify and Apple Vice on BitTorrent, in 2015 she debuted a video Steve Aoki and Kasabian all flocking to it. Music for “Twitch-ready music”. The on Snapchat and that same year she promoted description there reads, “Soundtrack her Rebel Heart album on Grindr (which might Its early years were beset with licensing your livestream with our selection of just be the most perfectly suited artist/ problems, with gamers often having audio cleared tracks from Above & Beyond, ilan platform partnership ever). muted on their playback videos following Bluestone, Yotto, Lane 8, Dusky, Mat Zo Now she has been using TikTok for the copyright claims. Twitch moved to address and more.” #medellinchachachachallenge where fans this by offering pre-cleared tracks to use It currently runs to almost 30 hours of have to show off their best cha cha cha dance in videos, reaching 1,000 titles in early music and has tracks that go deep into moves. “She started playing with it,” Maverick 2015. It even launched its own karaoke the Anjuna catalogue as well as having Music president Greg Thompson told Billboard, offering (Twitch Sings) in October last brand new releases on there. It is not “and we’re having some fun with it. We think year. the only dance label to see the huge it’s cool.” She also said on her official TikTok Now UK dance label Anjunabeats has opportunities here. Monstercat has its page that she would be sharing the best fan jumped in to offer over 350 tracks for own “gold” subscription that licenses entries. streamers on the Amazon-owned gaming its music for use on Twitch as well as Some will inevitably roll their eyes and platform. On 10th May, the label tweeted YouTube and Mixer for $5 a month. suggest that in a Venn diagram showing news of the deal. “Starting today, we’ve Billboard reports that the deal gives Madonna’s audience and TikTok’s audience, made 350+ tracks available to soundtrack gamers “royalty-free access” to the any overlap is so minimal as to be almost your @Twitch livestream!” it said. “Throw Anjuna tracks and the label put on DJ sets The new Madonna album, Madame X, is out invisible, but that would be cruel. She might be down without fear of being muted with from Ilan Bluestone, Jason Ross, Luttrell, next month but lead singles ‘Medellín’ and ‘I jumping on the TikTok bandwagon but she can our playlist of Twitch-ready tracks here - Spencer Brown and others at Twitch’s Rise’ have not exactly set the charts alight. also bring TikTok a slightly different audience – happy streaming!” offices in San Francisco to announce the Which is going to make the set up to the and that is surely the point here. It added a link to the Anjunabeats X partnership. album that little bit trickier. As much as she will benefit from the This is an encouraging sign of a label sense of ‘cool’ and ‘relevance’ that TikTok can seeing where its music connects with But there has been some interesting digital bring to her, TikTok can also benefit from the a community and, rather than putting activation happening in the background. attention a bona fide superstar can bring to licensing barriers in their way, makes Madonna is no stranger to using new it. Throughout her career, Madonna has often things as easy as possible for gamers platforms over the years – some that are still had impeccable timing with regard to trends; while giving its acts a significant foot up around today and others that were five- this is just a continuation of what she has in that world. minute wonders. No matter. The point is that always done.

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UK indie rock band Circa Waves left Virgin-EMI after their second album – 2017’s Different Creatures. Their third album, What’s It A new label and a new beginning Like Over There?, came out in April this year on Prolifica Inc. – a JV between Prolifica Management and PIAS. CELESTE GUINNESS SS: For the band it was a big change moving out of the major (digital strategy manager at PIAS), SEAN SPREY (head of marketing at Prolifica Inc. and project manager for this album), label world. They were previously STUART DAVIE (UK marketing manager at PIAS) and ANNE MUELLER (international marketing manager at PIAS) talk through how signed to Virgin and they came the band’s audience was re-engaged, where the creation of a bespoke site and use of cryptic messaging around an underplay over through management to tour helped build anticipation as well as fan involvement, what happened when the band took over a North London pub, why Prolifica Inc. mainly because of international was a priority, where a bot was used and what this all means for the future of the album in “the age of consumption”. their experience and the lack of international [support] they have had on [previous] records. It was about getting fully involved in the whole process. [The band previously] felt they were always a bit on the outside and not getting a full perspective on their releases. This is what we were offering. We had their social channels, but in terms of re-engaging and building up that warm audience from a digital marketing perspective, it was pretty much from scratch. We were starting with fresh ad accounts.

Creating the bespoke wilot.co.uk site SS: The main focus was around the wilot. co.uk website. The whole point behind this was to re-engage the old fans and to start to build back up the warm audience.

CG: There were two different websites to get fans interested again before announcing any kind of new music or new visuals.

SS: With the wilot.co.uk website, we wanted to find a way to give something back to the fans, but at the same time build up the digital marketing side so it was ready for the new project. When you went to the wilot.co.uk site there was an instruction telling the user they could log in via Spotify or via an email

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address. If they logged in via Spotify, it series of ads you can constantly assess it. became an automatic follow for the band on there. SS: We wanted to reassess the fans, find Users were given instructions to press out who the audience was and who was play and to start dancing [in front of the still interested in the band. We also camera to the track ‘Be Somebody Good’] wanted to give the die-hard fans and it was recorded. The aim was that it and the superfans something back would be used and turned into a music while at the same time engage a video – so fans could hear brand new new audience and new fans with music by Circa Waves and appear in one the new music. of the videos. ‘Movies’ was to be the first It had been two years since the last single and it came with ‘Be Somebody album but they had been constantly playing Good’ as an instant grat. live. It wasn’t like they had completely disappeared; but in terms of releases they CG: We messaged out about the new had been very quiet on that front. website on their socials; but we also had quite a big push with targeted ads. An abstract campaign at the start leads into the push for pre-saves SS: There was a big teasing process based SS: This album was a more mature and around the aesthetic of the album. The would end up being the beach that the poppier sound for them as musicians and album is called What’s It Like Over There? album front cover was shot on. writers. It was quite a big step for them. so it was about the fans showing the band Alan Moulder co-produced the album with where they are from and what it is like CG: The website was skinned up with Kieran [Shudall], the writer and lead singer where they’re from. images of the beach as well. There was a in the band. recurring aesthetic for the whole thing. They really experimented in the CG: We wanted to give the fans something Through Facebook Custom Audiences recording process. They were switching before asking them to do something – so it you are clearly able to see through a series instruments and were bringing in a lot of was giving them the chance to engage with of ads [which fans are warm and which are electronic elements. It was a big change for the band in all of these ways before asking cold]. We weren’t just gauging from one them – leaving a major label and writing them to stream their music. burst of ads whether or not someone was this record which was a new direction. going to be a warm or a cold fan; but over a They were excited and worried at the Setting everything up with same time about whether or not the fans an underplay tour were going to enjoy it. That is why they SS: The album release hadn’t been wanted to start off with this mysterious announced before this website launched. intro back into the new record. If we go right back to the beginning, the whole campaign started with the CG: It was quite abstract. With the teaser underplay tour. It was called The Tour campaign, it wasn’t clear what was Before The Big Tour Tour 2018. The whole happening but it set the tone for it. The point of this tour was to get them playing details of this website [wilot.co.uk]. Through wilot.co.uk site gave fans a 30-second clip to their true fans in intimate venues. the tour dates there were mysterious ads of audio that they couldn’t get anywhere During this process we started to leak out coming up of a television on a beach. That else [‘Be Somebody Good’].

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At the start of the campaign, one of Reconsidering the role of the album the things we talked about quite a lot was in the age of consumption what exclusive content the band would be SS: We actually had five pieces of music happy with us using and if it would make going into the album. That was half the sense from a release perspective to be album upfront. able to use it. We are in the age of consumption. Does When you are doing things like Spotify the album exist for the younger audience? pre-saves, [it helps if] you have something Probably not as much as it used to. In that will actually give fans a reason to click the streaming world, it is about having a a button and unlock something. consistent flow to keep people’s attention on the campaign and to give them what SS: Spotify advised us to do follows rather they want in an age when there is so much than pre-saves because they actually saw everywhere. On the underplay tour, they the benefit of follows being bigger than played no new songs. That was because pre-saves for them at that time. it was happening before anything was announced about the album. The underplay CG: The way we approached it was that was really to get people excited again as this was the first step. We ended up Then we started dropping the TV well as to show that the band were active getting 925 pre-saves [using Show.co] teasers [short videos on Instagram and and that something might be coming. which we felt was very good. Twitter with minimal details]. It said, “For the future of Circa Waves, visit wilot.co.uk.” SD: They also went to cities they wouldn’t SS: That was a really good initiative for the When wilot.co.uk went live, that normally reach. campaign. For week-one sales, it made all was the first information that fans the difference. We got 1,000 follows and were getting that something was SS: That was a way of giving something loads of email data from this. going on. They got to listen to new back to the fans before announcing this The main point of this site was to build pieces of music, they could record new album. It really worked a treat. up that digital marketing pool. It was all themselves dancing to it and they It was about sweeping up all the old completely retargeted and it opened up the could appear in the music video. and new fans and rebuilding the marketing gates for the whole campaign. It also gave The underplay shows were in late from scratch because it was a new label us the opportunity to be able to reach all of November, then it went into the wilot.co.uk and a new release. They have a very young those newly engaged old fans and also all site and then straight after that the album audience – with 18-24-year-olds making the new fans that had come in. was announced. We were building up a up the majority. The underplay shows, in 200-capacity new audience through the wilot.co.uk site venues, happened the week before this and then just letting the excitement of the Physical as a key driver in release week site went live. So during the underplays we fans take it through. SS: The physical release did really well. It were teasing in the wilot.co.uk assets. That lead into the Christmas period was top of the indie physical charts. We Before all that there was no news when everything was quiet and then we had vinyl, CD and cassette. about the album. During the tour [there came back in the new year with the music was some reference to wilot.co.uk] and and you could see people getting excited video. It was a bit risky to announce a SD: There was a limited-edition coloured the fans were wondering what it was. We on Twitter and Instagram . They were all record at the end of November and then version of the vinyl. We did a big D2C push dropped the hashtag #wilot about two trying to decode it and figure out what was go through that Christmas period. But it which was, post-announcement, a big part weeks before that in various locations going on. worked very well. of campaign.

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SS: We had lots of bundles . We find the real positive outcome of this campaign. bundles very effective for the first two We have had a very tight relationship with weeks of pre-orders. The ticketing element the streaming services – Spotify, Amazon was a pre-order to access tickets for the and Apple Music. UK tour. Rebuilding their international reach CG: Their first album went to #10 in the UK SS: All of Europe is big for them. America charts, the second one went to #11 and is good for them and they’re going on tour this album got to #10. there at the end of April. They have got a pretty good holding all around the world. Taking over a pub In Australia they’ve done really well. SS: We created the Circa Waves Tavern They had a really good promo trip recently at The Monarch in Camden [North London, in Europe with lots of radio playlisting taking over the whole pub]. The thinking throughout as well as streaming behind that came from the fact that we playlisting. That was the big game changer had a content-heavy and eventised period the new album and we attend]. Ben Sherman very for this record compared to the last record. throughout the campaign and there were were discussing possibly kindly donated towards There was no international tour on the five pieces of music released before the making a virtual passport it all. last record – maybe because the budget album, several music videos, an underplay at one point to give out We had over 1,500 wasn’t there. But international was tour in the UK and a European tour. to fans. We were talking people sign up for the a big part of this record to give The band has been really active and about this for ages and night. It was heaving – you it a big international feel – and it there was a lot of stuff going on. Then we thinking about what we could couldn’t move. The band was definitely achieved. It was down came to this period before release where do. The Brexit scenario was played a full set and they also had to solid relationships. It helped with PIAS there was a little lull and we wanted to do happening and it was a bleak time. a pool competition with fans. They had having a strong international feel. something. In this day and age you just There was a lyric from the song their own Circa Waves beer and they were have to be absolutely pushing 24/7. that went, “Grab your passport, let’s go pulling pints behind the bar. SD: PIAS has a global setup. But we have There is a song called ‘Passport’ on drinking.” So we thought, “OK. Let’s grab They played all the new tracks that had 20 offices across the world. There are a lot our passports, been released [ahead of the album] as well of local territories with staff on the ground. let’s get out of this as some unreleased ones. We branded the The UK international team partnered with Brexit storm, let’s whole pub as Circa Waves where they had all the offices locally. go drinking and their own beer glasses, beer mats and a let’s have a Circa Circa Waves food menu which was named AM: We were mainly focusing on Australia, Waves lock-in in after all the songs on the album. It went the US, Germany and France. That is a pub.” So that’s really well and we got a lot press out of it. naturally where the band’s audience is what we did and it biggest. We sent the band on tour with The was unbelievably SS: We did an in-store tour on the week of Wombats in Europe just before the album successful. release. They were doing two in-stores a came out. We mainly focused on radio and We partnered day. It was 14 shows over eight days. DSPs. In terms of digital marketing, we with Ben Sherman The physical side was good and quite mirrored a lot of what the UK was doing on that. It was on surprising because that is [generally] and that was rolled out internationally. a first come, first diminishing these days. But also for a band On Spotify, Deezer, Apple Music and served basis [to to do well on the streaming side of it was Amazon we have had a lot of playlist

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additions. We had a very good launch with Facebook bot was that we wanted to Out of all the digital marketing the first single and on the second and be able to create a pool of really engaged initiatives that we offer, [bots] can be one third singles we moved onto more editorial superfans that we could hit up at points of the hardest sells to a band and also to playlists and New Music Fridays. Especially when we needed to. fans. Because it is such a personal thing, in the US, it has grown massively. We got In the meetings we had before the it really needs to be so well thought out all the big indie, genre and mood playlists campaign we started to work out different before launching. The last thing people that we could have got for the focus track bits of exclusive content that we could get need is something in their inbox that they we pitched on release – ‘The Way We Say from the band and where we could put it. think might be a notification from their Goodbye’. We decided in conversations with the band friend but turns out to be a marketing that behind-the-scenes studio footage message. SS: The international has been would be a really good thing to house in It’s about thinking about what would phenomenal for the band. They a bot; and that would be a really good genuinely add value to a fan’s experience haven’t had a response like that incentive for people to sign up. and then finding how you can plan it all for a long time. The last album I wrapped the link to the Facebook bot out in a way that will make sense for the definitely didn’t have it. in another link and we called it Circa Waves marketing timeline. Messaging on the bot Insider. We teased it out in an abstract and wasn’t that frequent – maybe once every AM: They will probably do the European mysterious way from the start. We were six weeks. festivals next year. I think we started a telling fans that if they really wanted to be bit late as most of the key festivals [this Instagram is the lead social platform in the loop they could find out information SS: It was used for every key point of summer] were already booked up with but a bot helped boost Facebook here. That gave a little flag to us that these the campaign – so releases, videos, tour their programme when the campaign CG: Instagram is big for them – as is people really wanted to know about the announcements or funny general content. really started taking off. Snapchat. Snapchat naturally fits the band. We had to rebuild everything from scratch We will have European tour dates audience age demographic and so we because it was a new label and there were towards the end of the year and then made sure that any time we had anything SS: Sometimes we would drop exclusive new ad accounts. It was a new beginning the band are going over to Australia next that needed a push we were more than content into the bot like release and tour for the band completely. There was a lot of year. We’ve had really good response from covered on Snapchat. information. It was very effective and there engaging and evaluating the audience at Australia specifically – both on radio and at were these series of events around the the beginning. Spotify . It is really branching out. SS: We put a lot of focus into Instagram whole campaign, including the bot, that You don’t want to cause fan fatigue. You as it is their really built everything up. can’t be constantly hammering it. People biggest-growing aren’t stupid. Also you are not there to trick social platform; CG: It’s good to have a pool of people people; you are just trying to give them the but we didn’t who you know will be really interested information that they want. :) want to diminish in something and you can get straight to anywhere else. It them with the click of a button. You don’t WANT TO FEATURE IN was pretty solid need to spend money on advertising on BEHIND THE CAMPAIGN? and constant push that part. Marketing people: do you have a campaign you are working on social severy I built this bot and we have used them on that you would like to see featured in Behind The Campaign day to keep fans quite a lot in previous campaigns. They are in a future edition of sandbox? If so, send a brief synopsis of aware. a funny one because you need complete it to Eamonn Forde for consideration and your work (and your buy-in from the band. You almost need the words) could appear here. CG: The idea band to come to you and say, “We like the Email: [email protected] behind the idea of doing this.”

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