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Home , 5 Seconds of Summer, A Perfect Contradiction, Big Brother Recordings, Big Machine Records, Capitol Music Group, Capitol Records

DECEMBER 17 2014 sandboxMUSIC MARKETING FOR THE DIGITAL ERA ISSUE 123

THERE GOES 2014 THIS YEAR’s BEST DIGITAL MUSICAL MARKETING CAMPAIGNS SANDBOX 2014 SURVEY CONTENTS/CAMPAIGNS THERE GOES 03 15 Linnea Henriksson 04 Bombay Bicycle Club 16 Live Lounge 05 Calvin Harris 17 Oasis 06 Def Jam 18

2014 Dolly Parton this year’s best digital 07 19 music marketing campaigns 08 Ed Sheeran 20

s is now a December tradition, of cash thrown at them. welcome to our end of year Special thanks to Claire Mas for 09 21 Asandbox where we invited you, organising submissions and ensuring the readers, to submit the digital music that everyone got their pieces in on marketing campaigns you were most time. Thanks also to Ed Miller for his 10 22 proud of this year. sterling design work – not just on this Once again, it is an enviably eclectic sandbox special but also on sandbox set of campaigns on display – ranging and the Music Ally Report throughout 11 23 from those done on a shoestring all the the year. way up those with towering budgets. sandbox is back in January where 12 24 We are financially agnostic at sandbox we will, as always, be covering the most and are much more concerned with the innovative and interesting marketing quality of ideas on display rather than campaigns, showcasing the tools 13 Katherine Jenkins 25 Wilko Johnson & the budget spent. you just can’t do without and making With that in mind, we feel the sense of all the latest trends and Kooks campaigns featured here all stand up on developments in digital marketing. 14 their own merits and not on the amount See you in 2015.

2 | sandbox | Issue 123 | 17.12.14 SANDBOX 2014 SURVEY 5 SECONDS OF SUMMER UMGI / UK CAMPAIGN BREAKDOWN CAMPAIGN BUDGET Undisclosed

AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - GENDER Female - 85% / Male - 15% To Derp Con, created eye-popping 3D GIFs AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - AGE 13-24 and hosted their very own fan convention (Derp Con) in for competition AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - LOCATION winners from all over the world. All of which Global helped make one of the biggest Top three locations – US, UK, breakthrough artists of the year and hit #1

with their debut in over 70 countries. LINKS AND EXTRA INFO Hungry 5SOS hungry5sos.com RESULTS 3D GIFS • 3m hits on Hungry 5SOS in just 30 minutes GIF1 Click to view and regular worldwide trends. GIF2 Click to view Capitol Records UK • 50k purchase clickthroughs and 250k video GIF3 Click to view Chris O’ Gorman marketing clickthroughs in days via the 3D gifs. GIF4 Click to view Jamie Leeming marketing • 1m plays, 250k mentions of #5SOSNinjas GIF5 Click to view and 40k purchase clickthroughs in the first 24 hours of Road To Derp Con launching. Derp Con competition website Nick Simmons marketing • 500k fans entered competitions to attend www.5sosderpcon.com Derp Con . Management Road To Derp Con game Kate Sullivan Modest! Management KEY LEARNINGS www.roadtoderpcon.com Katie Ray Modest! Management TEAM MEMBERS Matt Emsell Wonder Management Throughout the campaign, we learned INVOLVED Gabrielle Pabustan Wonder Management that the key to exciting the band’s fanbase UMGI was to keep everything as organic, fresh Deborah Hyacinth VP OVERVIEW OF CAMPAIGN and fun as possible across all platforms. Mattie Bennett creative digital manager Innovation and technology was used to George Harb global marketing innovation In 2014, 5 Seconds Of Summer launched enhance this organic approach but was not George Sharpe social CRM manager two retro games, Hungry 5SOS and Road the primary focus.

3 | sandbox | Issue 123 | 17.12.14 SANDBOX 2014 SURVEY BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB

TEAM MEMBERS a world-first: an interactive music video for by superimposing another layer of INVOLVED their first single, ‘Carry Me’, that allowed in- animations by the person that created the video animation by the viewer by dragging live visuals for their new tour. CAMPAIGN BREAKDOWN Guillermo Ramos – senior marketing the mouse from side to side. We partnered CAMPAIGN BUDGET £10,000 – £25,000 manager, Island with Powster, a very proactive production RESULTS Ste Thompson, Drew Robinson and company with a keen sense of our vision. AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - GENDER James Swindwells – Powster The result saw Bombay’s launch be the The results were convincing: 80k views in Female - 57% / Male - 43% strongest yet – with its own website: the first day; 130k in the first week; 480k in www.carryme.tv. the first month. The dwell time for the first OVERVIEW OF CAMPAIGN AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - AGE 18-24 It was a massive talking point, both two months of 7:30, despite the song only Bombay’s last album campaign was all among fans and the media. The interactive being 4:25 long, showed terrific interaction. AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - LOCATION based around the core idea of loops and video was built up by filming nine almost Our video was a focal point of a Sky Click , UK cycles. Starting with the way the album was identical takes, which then are controlled TV report on interactive videos (with a composed and built up, sampling sounds by the mouse to create the in-video piece online too) and has been nominated LINKS AND EXTRA INFO and instruments from all over the world, animation, all without disrupting the flow for Berlin Music Video Awards, One Show www.carryme.tv looping and overlapping them – through of the video. By combining a male/ Awards etc. It was the PR value that helped news.sky.com/story/1196641/band-take-interactive- to the end result of the album artwork female pair of contemporary dancers it travel on blogs and social networks. It was techno-trip-for-fans and the concept behind that. Every other with takes of the band singing, drumming cutting edge – much like the adventurous www..com/watch?v=OZCfqhRgJ0Q initiative around album launch had to start and in a variety of situations, this brought sound of the band. www.powster.com/carryme with the same premise. to life an interesting idea with quick and KEY LEARNINGS

As is to be expected, an exciting artist comeback relies firstly on the music, but has a bigger chance of going viral with a clear creative vision running through it. For those technically savvy, our video was groundbreaking; for more casual fans, Inspired by Eadweard Muybridge ’s work, it was just exciting. Our targets were to the forefather of studies in motion-picture exciting visuals that pulsate in line with the create something highly engaging and projection, we set out to bring this concept percussive nature of the song. highly sharable. We succeeded. Together into 2014 with an interactive element to Whilst this was the video we launched with the idea behind the artwork, and engage the now-sizable Bombay fanbase. the single (and album) with, we also when the video springs to life in the live He came up with the phenakistoscope created a “definitive director’s cut” – which show animations, it feels like we created and zoetrope technology to create the first Powster edited – to sit on (the more a ‘visual world’ for Bombay’s latest album ‘movies’ (or mini gifs!). So we shot a video traditional platform). However, this was that is very clearly them – and could only that followed the zoetrope idea and created then made even more visually interesting be them.

4 | sandbox | Issue 123 | 17.12.14 SANDBOX 2014 SURVEY CALVIN HARRIS COLUMBIA

TEAM MEMBERS our streaming partners, and in audio inventory, mobile notifications, INVOLVED particular, worked very closely with us to CRM and comprehensive support across execute a streaming strategy which yielded artist and label channels on the day of CAMPAIGN BREAKDOWN Edd Blower and Paula Hanley unprecendented results and took advantage the event CAMPAIGN BUDGET £25,000 Amy Wheatley and Stacey Tang of the ‘on air/on sale’ release of the single, Victoria Needs and Laura Murray-Willis ‘Blame’. Key components included: RESULTS AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - GENDER Louise Woolsey l A ‘Follow’ campaign using paid, unpaid and Female - 50% / Male - 50% Cindy James earned media to drive Calvin’s follower base l Calvin became the first British solo act to in advance of album release. top 1bn streams on Spotify AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - AGE 18-34 OVERVIEW OF CAMPAIGN l Homepage takeovers upon release of l ‘Blame’ went to #1 on Spotify’s Global ‘Blame’ in all 57 Spotify-launched territories Chart within three days of release, making AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - LOCATION UK/Global Prior to the release of his album, Motion, – working closely with our international it the fastest streaming single to reach in November, Calvin Harris had sold over team, this co-ordinated approach the global #1 position in Spotify history. It LINKS AND EXTRA INFO 2m and more than 35m singles consolidated awareness upon release and also broke the Spotify record for the most Website - www.calvinharris.co.uk worldwide. With this release, we wanted drove streams massively globally (delivering streamed track in a single day and was the – http://smarturl.it/CHFacebook to consolidate Calvin’s position as a over 22m impressions worldwide) first track to break 10m streams in a week – http://smarturl.it/CHTwitter creative global superstar and continue l A Spotify Browse playlist feature in key globally Instagram – http://smarturl.it/CHInstagram to break records. The addition of markets – the first time ever that an artist- l ‘Blame’ had accounted for 227% more Spotify – http://smarturl.it/CHSptfy streaming to the singles chart in July generated playlist was featured in Browse streams than previous single ‘Summer’ YouTube – http://smarturl.it/CHYT added an extra dimension to our ongoing editorial and 950% more than ‘Under Control’ within streaming strategy and was the ideal l Additional Spotify-owned Calvin Harris the first 10 days of its release opportunity to demonstrate Calvin’s scale playlist Browse feature which extended l Total number of Spotify followers and global appeal. Calvin’s reach within the platform even reached across Motion album tracks Control’, ‘Summer’ and ‘Blame’ featuring John Newman. This Throughout Calvin’s career, we have further and drove virality stands in excess of 78.5m to date. ‘Blame’ brings Calvin’s total #1 UK singles to five as a lead artist and worked closely with all of our global partners l Significant support across Columbia- and has appeared in 500+ playlists with a seven overall to deliver compelling campaigns and this Sony-owned playlists and channels combined reach of 25m+ followers album campaign was no different. All of l Establishing Calvin as a curator and l #1 chart positions for singles ‘Under KEY LEARNINGS introducing new and standalone themed playlists in keeping with Calvin’s lifestyle and Our approach to streaming on this campaign ensured, amongst audience many other things, longevity. l Calvin Harris Playlist Takeover ‘Blame’, for example, spent seven weeks in the Top 10 which n To celebrate becoming the first UK solo is more than any other Calvin track with the exception of ‘We artist to reach 1bn streams, Calvin staged Found Love’. a live playlist takeover working with a A truly global approach and working closely with our playlist in excess of 1.5m folllowers international and sales teams delivered unprecedented results n The event was driven by advance global and ensured that we were maximising every opportunity to homepage takeovers with banner and present Calvin’s global scale and appeal.

5 | sandbox | Issue 123 | 17.12.14 SANDBOX 2014 SURVEY DEF JAM 30 UNIVERSAL MUSIC CATALOGUE

TEAM MEMBERS support Def Jam 30. Within the app, users Jaguar Skills – 30 Years Of INVOLVED could create and record their own mixes Def Jam In 30 Minutes Mix using a selection of DJ tools and pick songs To tell the story of Def Jam using the iconic CAMPAIGN BREAKDOWN James Meadows – product manager, UMC from we curated. They could tracks from across the decades, we came up CAMPAIGN BUDGET £2,001 – £5,000 Christian Warner – junior digital manager, then share their bespoke mixes across with the idea of an audio timeline. To enable UMC social media with #DefJam30 and encourage this, we teamed up with the legendary AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - GENDER their friends to do the same. The initiative mix-master DJ Jaguar Skills who created Female - 20% / Male - 80% OVERVIEW OF CAMPAIGN got fantastic global support from Spotify, The DEFJAG Mix: 30 years Of Def Jam In 30 Pacemaker and Def Jam socials. Mins. The mix was played on his Capital AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - AGE 18-44 The iconic label that brought hip-hop’s Radio show in two parts over two weeks, biggest stars to the world celebrated its 30th VVVintage Vevo – Def Jam Special: accompanied by a full Def Jam homepage AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - LOCATION Global – anniversary in 2014 with a series of global How To Make An Entrance takeover on the Capital Radio website. The with large fanbases in US, UK, Australia and Canada product releases, merchandise, events and mix has been played over 49k times and initiatives. Our challenge was to look at enabled us to engage with both the original LINKS AND EXTRA INFO innovative ways to engage core fans, reach Def Jam fans and the younger audience who VVVintage feature: www.youtube.com/ and excite new fans whilst keeping true to listen to Capital and follow Jag Skills. watch?v=fq7IU89Ie0w the ethos of the brand and the iconic artists. DEFJAG mix: soundcloud.com/djjaguarskills/jaguar- These initiatives capitalised on social, The Jump Off skills-the-defjag-mix-30-years-of-def-jam-in-30-mins download and streaming channels with In August, the UK’s biggest hip-hop night, Pacemaker: www.facebook.com/pacemakermusic/ a view of creating interest and buzz The Jump Off, staged a Def Jam takeover posts/10154606940685182 throughout the year in line with the release featuring rap/DJ/twerking battles – all set and events schedules. against a Def Jam . Partnering We worked with the team at Vevo to put with The Jump Off gave us great additional Pacemaker X Def Jam together a special Def Jam episode of online reach in the form of social posts/ In collaboration with the brand new DJ app their VVVintage show, in which the hosts email sends to their large database and on Pacemaker , we developed a playlist to pick out the five best Def Jam tracks to the night access via competitions, photo make an entrance booths and vox pops. to. Vevo featured the episode on their main RESULTS home page across all their devices, which l 140k views on VVVintage video delivered us 5m l 156% sales uplift against a standard three impressions, helping week benchmark, including a 92% uplift into KEY LEARNINGS us achieve our goal the first campaign week One of the main challenges with this campaign was helping to boost of reaching a younger l over 4.5k clicks on the Def Jam playlist Def Jam’s catalogue visibility to UK audiences, given that the label’s audience with some from Pacemaker heartland and heritage is so US-centric. Partnerships were key to the classic Def Jam videos. l 49k plays on the DEFJAG mix campaign in terms of reach and credibility.

6 | sandbox | Issue 123 | 17.12.14 SANDBOX 2014 SURVEY DOLLY PARTON SONY CMG

TEAM MEMBERS This resulted in UK trending and involvement. She went along with all of our ideas for social INVOLVED and numerous celebrities and is an amazing performer. We also learnt that Twitter works tweeting (Zane Lowe, better when supporting a massive event like Glastonbury or an Olivia Walker Sam Bailey), and Dolly offline media activity like Nick Grimshaw’s show. Isobel Kelly eventually appearing on the Heidi Boston nationwide show.

OVERVIEW OF CAMPAIGN RESULTS

This campaign initially came with its Blue Smoke went on to challenges: does not sell be her biggest studio well in the UK, but we managed to bundle album ever in the UK, Dolly’s new album, Blue Smoke , in June achieving her highest (prior to her UK tour) with a Best Of album ever UK chart position at to make it more attractive to our market. #2 and remaining for 12 Her core target audience is 55-70, so consecutive weeks in the most of our marketing was traditional; but top 10. Overall digital sales thanks to her Glastonbury performance, of 25,057 represented 13.6% there was a huge opportunity to expand percent of total sales, a her digital footprint and increase her huge figure for a heritage digital sales – especially as a younger (mainly physical) artist. We increased audience would discover her. Dolly’s database by 3,000% during the We encouraged her to interact from campaign, gained 550k new fans since CAMPAIGN BREAKDOWN her socials, with storytelling to convey a the campaign started and increased her ‘behind the scenes’ experience for fans. Twitter following by 370k. CAMPAIGN BUDGET £10,000 – £25,000 There was a post showing her AAA badge, pictures of which shoes she should wear KEY LEARNINGS AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - GENDER on stage (high heels versus wellingtons) Female - 80% / Male - 20% etc., always keeping close to her fun and Our Dolly campaign has been running quirky personality. since May and will run through to AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - AGE Primarily 55–70 Her Glastonbury performance pulled in ran alongside search and a Facebook Christmas (which, for a heritage artist the biggest crowd and viewing figures in campaign. like her, is a very long and successful AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - LOCATION Glastonbury history. As #DollyParton and Nick Grimshaw wanted her on his campaign, especially for a best of). As UK – Scotland, Southwest, West #DollyGlasto trended numerous times, show, which couldn’t happen as she was much as we did lots of strategic planning a big chunk of our paid activity went to flying too soon to Germany. We asked so as to integrate our digital activity into LINKS AND EXTRA INFO Twitter, targeting specific keywords and fans to request she appear on the show, the wider marketing objectives, none of Website - www.dollyparton.com conversations around the festival. This using the hashtag #GetDollyOnGrimmy. this would have worked without her talent

7 | sandbox | Issue 123 | 17.12.14 SANDBOX 2014 SURVEY ED SHEERAN UK

TEAM MEMBERS real-time tour documentaries uploaded after KEY LEARNINGS INVOLVED each leg. The final show from Dublin’s Vicar St venue The YouTube Q&A energised the heart of his Jack Melhuish – director of marketing was live streamed into EdSheeran.com via core fanbase, Ed Sheeran and the YouTuber Nick Long – head of digital an eight-camera set-up creators was targeted perfectly at his most Callum Caulfield – senior marketing Multiple iTunes instant grat drops: five vocal online fans; this was crucial to amplifying manager instant grat tracks from the album released the excitement around the launch of ‘Sing’. Nick Tearle – web producer in the five days leading up to the album His Multiply Day gigs perfectly combined the The Creative Corp release. Each track drop was replicated warmth and scale we were aiming for on this on streaming services, including YouTube. album campaign. We were then able to spread OVERVIEW OF CAMPAIGN Supported on edsheeran.com with a this message to the world via socials and the website splash switching to a new track online hub. Replicating the instant grats on Global YouTube Creator Q&A: directly creative each day, it included: CTA to iTunes; streaming services meant we sated the fans’ following the radio reveal, there was a live a YouTube embed of the track; and the full demand for new music by making it easily streamed Q&A with artist questions which lyric reveal of the song that also let fans accessible. As a result of this, there were no came from online audience and live audience share their favourite line in a single click to illegal leaks of the album. of YouTube creators – hosted by YouTuber, Facebook and Twitter. JacksGap. YouTube Creators got access to Interactive TV campaign: TV advert in first the event by taking part in a one-off lyric break, with Ed Sheeran inviting fans to vote performance could see one of the other video for the single – and the video was aired for one of three songs from his new album losing acoustic performances. in the stream. via dedicated hashtags. The winning song We timed the release of the iTunes single was then chosen in real time and performed RESULTS CAMPAIGN BREAKDOWN to go live during the event so Ed Sheeran by Ed Sheeran in the closing ad break. could tell fans to go and download it. The ad also featured a ‘Shazam for more’ Across the campaign we drove over 2m CAMPAIGN BUDGET £25,000+ Multiply Day Gigs: three gigs in one day initiative where fans tagging the winning global clicks to the album pre-order. across three different cities in the UK, #EdSing trended #1 globally during AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - GENDER each event growing in audience size. The the Q&A and had over 40k questions and Female - 70% / Male - 30% competition was launched prior to the day comments via Twitter and YouTube. to select two super-fans to accompany Ed Multiply Day results were 3.5k tickets AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - AGE 13–24 Sheeran on the day and document their sold in eight minutes, 4k uses of # multiplyed experience on Instagram. The whole day was hashtag, 5.5k entries to the superfan comp, AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - LOCATION Global documented on EdSheeran.com through a 100k unique views on the Multiply hub, 198k multi-media content hub that pulled in views, 544k likes and 2.2m people reached. LINKS AND EXTRA INFO #MultiplyEd content from online and iTunes instant grat tracks ended with YouTube Q&A: youtu.be/0Z7h6L4vBCU offline fans, behind-the-scenes photos and four of the five songs hitting #1 on iTunes Multiply Day Content Hub: edsheeran.com/multiplyed InstaVids from artist, Atlantic Records and and, on the Friday before release, we had Instant grat splash pages: edsheeran.com/multiply two superfans plus film crew turning round eight of the top 10 iTunes songs.

8 | sandbox | Issue 123 | 17.12.14 SANDBOX 2014 SURVEY EXAMPLE

TEAM MEMBERS INVOLVED CAMPAIGN BREAKDOWN Hannah Maldon CAMPAIGN BUDGET £25,000+ Ebony Rhiney James Catherine Conroy AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - GENDER Female - 46% / Male - 54% OVERVIEW OF CAMPAIGN AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - AGE 16-25 The Ultimate Weekender consisted of six shows in three cities over one weekend. AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - LOCATION These weren’t just any shows; Example London/Midlands was going back to the venues he started in and playing intimate gigs for his biggest LINKS AND EXTRA INFO fans. As The Ultimate Weekender was www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pzGdIvd4Zw about the fans, our aim was to come up www.youtube.com/watch?v=iliFIM9fFOY with a money-can’t-buy prize and give www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AJM2iXTl38 back to the fans who have supported Example the most. Fans who wanted exclusive pre-sale access to tickets needed to sign up to Example’s newsletter via Crowdsurge to were also given access to decide who 10k new sign-ups to the artist’s database receive the ticket link. received forfeits via a Twitter vote. with over 50% of them opening the When contacting the fans with the The trip ended in with a trip to newsletter and clicking through to enter ticket link, they were also given the Nando’s with Example himself before the the Ultimate Weekender competition. chance to enter the competition to win final show. a place for them and a friend on The All in all this was a massive success, KEY LEARNINGS Ultimate Weekender Fan bus. not only among the fans that came Twelve winners were picked up in along but across the whole fanbase. The With more time and engagement from London at a secret location and put Ultimate Weekenders became overnight the artist, the social reach of the through The Ultimate Weekender celebrities in the fanbase, with people campaign could have been much bigger; initiation before being taken to the first noticing them at venues and trying to however, by bringing press along for the of six shows in London. The bus then sneak onto the bus and join in the fun. journey, this allowed us to reach non- took fans to the remaining five shows in Example fans. Manchester and Glasgow – stopping off RESULTS Overall this worked well for Example’s to take part in challenges along the way. core audience and they would relive this People that followed the official account On launch of the competition, we received again if they could.

9 | sandbox | Issue 123 | 17.12.14 SANDBOX 2014 SURVEY FOO FIGHTERS COLUMBIA

TEAM MEMBERS Our objectives and new Twitter INVOLVED in this campaign followers by 95%. were to: CAMPAIGN BREAKDOWN Simon Rollison l Tell the story RESULTS CAMPAIGN BUDGET £25,000+ Paula Hanley of the album in Ken Marshall an engaging way. l iTunes pre- AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - GENDER The HBO plot orders increased Female - 40% / Male - 60% OVERVIEW OF CAMPAIGN was mirrored for between 60-100% the UK with the on the release of AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - AGE Largely 16-34 BBC; around each new content. This episode we put was supported by AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - LOCATION UK a new video live; our ad spend, with

made a new track available commercially; the UK representing 22% of total clicks LINKS AND EXTRA INFO added to relevant playlists on Spotify (compared to the US’s 38%) on our global www.foofighters.com and upweighted all spend accordingly. iTunes link @foofighters We also used relevant media to help tell l Facebook reach grew x4 and likes www.facebook.com/foofighters the story of the album, for example an increased by 300k over the course of the www.youtube.com/user/foofighters interactive map on the NME featuring campaign interview footage. l Daily new Twitter followers increased l Use premium formats across targeted by 10% alongside the new content being inventory and editorial to increase released great success, we were restricted to displaying interview and awareness and add scale. l Spotify streams rose steadily as new pre-roll-style footage due to the HBO contract in place. More l Use Spotify to build an exciting plot music was made available and peaked at performance footage would have increased engagement and that would help deliver strong streaming a daily increase of 420% with our playlist also, arguably, clicks to retail. To record their eighth album , the Foo numbers and drive album pre-orders. plan also helping to peak plays each Twitter was a Fighters went to eight US cities and Tracks featured in each episode were Friday in line with the tracks going live key platform for us recorded a track at local studios with added along with a new track in playlists l UK paid media outperformed all other when promoting local musical figures. Accompanying the weekly. This was accompanied by a territories seeing CTRs of up to 70% on worldwide news trip was a HBO/BBC documentary that takeover of the Filtr UK Rock playlist and certain formats and content and chronicled the experience as the band audio/banner inventory. the audio card applied their location to their songwriting l Match the scale of the US plot and KEY LEARNINGS added extra weight and explored the musical history of documentary by achieving global and UK to our pre-order America. This was the first concept album industry firsts, including [the band as] A unified campaign across digital, TV and plot, allowing fans from the band and we focused our creative launch partner for the new Twitter audio press were key in amplifying results and to listen to the first and spend on telling the story of the card. We debuted the first track from conveying the story of the album to full single in full within album, using the documentary broadcast the album pushing people to iTunes; we effect. their feed. dates to inform our timeline. saw daily album pre-orders rise by 60% Although the tablet creative was a

10 | sandbox | Issue 123 | 17.12.14 SANDBOX 2014 SURVEY GEORGE EZRA COLUMBIA

TEAM MEMBERS animated characters from the album art INVOLVED and a #petan section (a theme referenced throughout online and print/outdoor CAMPAIGN BREAKDOWN Edd Blower and Paula Hanley creative) pulling fan photos onto the site. Visits to online properties up by 11% and CAMPAIGN BUDGET £25,000+ Alex Eden-Smith and Stacey Tang IsGeorgeEzrasAlbumOutYet.com was 4,000+ new sign-ups. Terence Summerbell created to drive anticipation for the album, The #EzraExpress in 10 days: AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - GENDER Jo Horton our database and convert interest to pre- l Facebook page received the most visits Female - 60% / Male - 40% order. ever in a week and more likes than in any The #EzraExpress brought together many other single week OVERVIEW OF CAMPAIGN AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - AGE 14-34 of the themes that made up this campaign l Organically reached 480k+ fans on Our core objectives were: – people, places, stories as well as a literal Facebook – 200k above previous peak weeks AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - LOCATION l To establish George as a metropolitan and metaphorical journey from George’s l Facebook engagement was double that of UK/worldwide storyteller and an authentic troubadour who hometown of Bristol to Budapest, the the previous three weeks and #ezraexpress connects with today’s audiences inspiration behind George’s hit single and posts consistently achieved higher reach LINKS AND EXTRA INFO l To establish George initially amongst a place he had yet to visit. From Bristol, than previous activity, peaking in a 122k georgeezra.com fanatic tastemakers with a focus on the the #EzraExpress travelled to London, organic reach for the final isgeorgeezrasalbumoutyet.com artist behind the music and broaden reach Brussels, Paris, Munich and Budapest, l Added twice as many Twitter followers as twitter.com/georgeezra from there into enthusiasts and casual fans picking up fans and performing shows the previous week facebook.com/georgeezramusic l Keep George’s personality at the heart of along the way. The campaign was led l Quadrupled George’s Instagram follower open.spotify.com/artist/2ysnwxxNtSgbb9t1m2Ur4j everything we did by a microsite to amplify the event and number week-on-week l Kept it unique – we wanted to avoid involve fans both on and off the train as George being put into the ‘easy listening/ well as across Europe in George’s journey Streaming acoustic’ pile by providing real-time updates via Twitter, l George has amassed 132k Spotify Highlights of the campaign include: Instagram, daily YouTube uploads and fan followers and playlists such as Ezra’s KEY LEARNINGS rewards (shout-outs, postcards from George, Sunday Service and The Ezra Express Playlist callbacks from the #EzraExpress etc.). were created to maximise his musical By closely monitoring our social media strategy and initiatives such influences and invite fan involvement across as The Ezra Express, our sense that the audience would react well to socials George’s authenticity and personality was reinforced. Consistency l Over 127.4m Spotify plays globally; 80.5m in our approach, creative and throughout the campaign has paid global streams of Budapest with over 18m dividends. Working closely with our international team has been in the UK key in delivering a multi-territory roll out and building an impactful l Budapest has appeared in Spotify’s Viral introduction to an artist. GeorgeEzra.com chart for 16 weeks to date this year, with 14 ‘Budapest’ remained available on streaming services between The official website houses all content, is a of these weeks prior to album release. It was the ‘Did You Hear The Rain’ EP release and impact date, resulting central hub for retail and a go-to destination RESULTS also top 5 in the UK for 10 weeks in a row in 14 weeks in the Spotify viral chart – almost twice the length of a for fans to immerse themselves in George’s and hasn’t left top 15 since album release. standard radio service window. We’ve worked closely with Spotify to world. The design also incorporates IsGeorgeEzrasAlbumOutYet.com The album has not left the Spotify UK Top 5 build this as one of our streaming case studies of 2014.

11 | sandbox | Issue 123 | 17.12.14 SANDBOX 2014 SURVEY KAREN O CULT / KOBALT LABEL SERVICES

TEAM MEMBERS INVOLVED CAMPAIGN BREAKDOWN Jessica Savage CAMPAIGN BUDGET £2,000–£5,000 Kelly Ridgway Patrick Ross AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - GENDER David Emery Female - 57% / Male - 43%

OVERVIEW OF CAMPAIGN AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - AGE 18-23

AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - LOCATION UK, US, Australia

LINKS AND EXTRA INFO www.karenomusic.com/sofar www.facebook.com/officialkareno

This was particularly interesting in that Karen actually appeared at the NYC show as a surprise.

KEY LEARNINGS with and be part of the campaign without around the events, but the entire album Karen O (of the ) signed having to fly Karen around the globe. campaign. (Pre-release, this would create Using a combination of social media, web development and actual with Julian Casablancas’ label, Cult We built a special site for the buzz about the record; then during the events, we created a special playback experience that not only Records. Kobalt Label Services has joined initiative, featuring a map of playback event, it would be a place to see what was allowed fans to get Cult as its label services partner, with the locations, where fans could sign up for going on around the globe in real time.) involved locally, but first release out the door being Karen’s a chance to attend one of the events. also tied in the rest solo album. Winners would then be invited to a RESULTS of the world via the In support of Karen O’s debut album, location to listen to a vinyl copy of the web and hashtags. Crush Songs , we wanted to create a album pre-release. (With Karen making a We had great signups, filling all events. And Karen turning up global event that also felt local. To achieve surprise appearance at the NY show.) The hashtags on Twitter and Instagram at one event spread this we partnered with Sofar Sounds to The page also pulled in content from allowed fans unable to attend to still get a globally, allowing fans create special playback events in cities Twitter and Instagram with specific feeling for the events as they were going to interact with one around the world. The idea was to get hashtags making a kind of web-based on. It also allowed fans in different cities another around the fans a place they could physically engage look into what was going on not only to have a view of other participating cities. record.

12 | sandbox | Issue 123 | 17.12.14 SANDBOX 2014 SURVEY KATHERINE JENKINS DECCA

TEAM MEMBERS OVERVIEW OF CAMPAIGN makes home such a special place for INVOLVED them. Home Sweet Home was Katherine’s We built a page where they could send us CAMPAIGN BREAKDOWN David Heath – senior digital marketing 10th studio album in her 10th anniversary their messages and we received almost CAMPAIGN BUDGET £500–£2,000 manager as a recording artist, released on her 400 entries. Katherine chose her 50 original after a period at WMG. favourite, which we printed inside AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - GENDER We began early with a long-lead YouTube- the booklet that came with the album. Female - 44% / Male - 56% based campaign to frame Katherine as a We posted the booklet to Facebook and best practice YouTuber. encouraged the winning entrants to tag AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - AGE 45–54 This involved weekly videos based on a themselves to help reach a new audience. variety of short-form themes (personality AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - LOCATION pieces, marathon advice etc.), with the RESULTS UK – Meridian, Central, Wales intention of re-engaging the existing

fanbase and reactivating social and CRM Katherine’s mailing list provided LINKS AND EXTRA INFO channels, as well as spring cleaning the highest conversion rate and we katherinejenkins.co.uk Katherine’s search results via Google’s maintained an open rate of over 30% decca.com/homesweethome connected ecosystem. throughout the campaign, with an equally facebook.com/KJOfficial We wanted to present Katherine as strong CTR. The exclusive eComm product a social and approachable musician, (calendar and album bundle) proved to be in touch with her roots and fans. Next the highest converting product type across step was a website redesign to all our digital marketing activities. We also increased YouTube pull in social activities and help subscribers by 4.5k since we launched Katherine’s new-look reinforce the above goals. The channel, which was a key objective for us. Finally, we drove over album campaign started in July and half a million new views on Katherine’s YouTube channel since included regular teased content launch (this doesn’t include Vevo). feeding into Katherine’s channels, as well as an exclusive eComm KEY LEARNINGS product announcement featuring a 12” wall calendar, which we posted Katherine is an extremely visual artist and works best in front to Facebook asking fans to tag their of camera, talking directly to her fans. This was the strategy birthdays. behind the YouTube campaign, but we also learned that her Katherine wanted to give involvement in replying to fans directly on Facebook and Twitter something back and reconnect with was something we needed to work on. her fanbase as well as drive home We increased the level of personal responses on those platforms the message of the album, so we in the weeks up to release, including more behind-the-scenes-style gave fans 140 characters to leave a photos and direct replying to comments. We saw engagement levels message for Katherine about what and reach dramatically increase because of this.

13 | sandbox | Issue 123 | 17.12.14 SANDBOX 2014 SURVEY THE KOOKS VIRGIN EMI

TEAM MEMBERS INVOLVED CAMPAIGN BREAKDOWN Luke Ferrar – senior digital marketing CAMPAIGN BUDGET £500–£2,000 manager Airborne DIgital AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - GENDER Female - 60% / Male - 40% OVERVIEW OF CAMPAIGN AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - AGE 13–18

AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - LOCATION London

LINKS AND EXTRA INFO Though the whole Kooks campaign has not been a success on the whole, this tool is being whitelisted by UMG so we can apply it to other artists. It was the first of the kind in the company to use the SSO plug in and collect data in this way. We are using that data to drive more revenue for ourselves. www.thekooks.com

fully optimised for mobile. perhaps trial the album. It makes use of RESULTS We had fans listen in fours as there UMG’s new Social Sign On plug in. are four chambers of the heart and we This means that when users sign in to 16k of connections to heart, 4k streams of the album, 500 Listen With Your Heart (listen.thekooks. thought this was the right number of access the stream, not only do we gain collective mentions of the stream on Twitter, 350 trackable shares com) was a global initiative for fans to people to get to connect to the heart in the email address of the user in their to Facebook, 600 clicks to pre-order across all formats, 2,361 tell other fans/friends/family about the terms of length of time to CRM system, but they also collate social Social Sign Ons. album – where fans had to be one of recruit everyone. The action data from those consumers such as four to connect to the heart to power whole idea was to (Spotify listens, YouTube watches, tweets, KEY LEARNINGS the stream and listeners could only get fans recruiting social comments and shares, Facebook listen in multiples of four. They friends/family/ likes etc.). All those social actions are now A clever way to identify most engaged fans, collect their data and could start new hearts and join other less-engaged stored against each consumer, meaning track them across other platforms. We are targeting D2C store existing hearts via the hashtag fans via their we can target in real time social behaviour mailers with higher price point items and they are converted #kooksalbumstream. It was all social networks to in their CRM marketing. better and driving more revenue than a less engaged segment.

14 | sandbox | Issue 123 | 17.12.14 SANDBOX 2014 SURVEY LINNEA HENRIKSSON Entertainment ()

TEAM MEMBERS RESULTS INVOLVED l The playlist reached 450k streams CAMPAIGN BREAKDOWN Linnea Henriksson – artist l Streaming of Linnea’s back catalogue CAMPAIGN BUDGET £500–£2,000 Ellen Kvarby – digital communications and increased 50% strategy manager l 15th place on the Spotify album list AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - GENDER Maria Westergaard Alén – digital key l 20th place on the official album chart in Female - 60% / Male - 40% account manager Sweden, only counting streams Petter Eriksson – A&R l Listeners increased 75% AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - AGE 15–30 l Linnea built a close relationship to her ‘Cecilia’ was the first track released fans due to the campaign OVERVIEW OF CAMPAIGN AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - LOCATION Sweden as part of an album pre-stream for Linnea l The posts from step one reached 1m

Five artists made their interpretation of Henriksson’s new album, Du Söker Bråk, people LINKS AND EXTRA INFO Linnea Henriksson’s upcoming single, Jag Kräver Dans. All fans that had followed l Sweden’s biggest morning show dinversion.linneahenriksson.se ‘Cecilia’, before the original version was the playlist during the first phase of the interviewed Linnea about the campaign www.sydsvenskan.se/kultur--nojen/musik/mer-popmusik- released. Participating artists were The campaign would now be notified every time l Sweden’s popular TV show Allsång på behovs-om-hallplatserna/ Royal Concept, Marlene, John De Sohn, Petra a track from the new album was added to Skansen interviewed Linnea and invited one gaffa.se/nyhet/80499 Marklund and Invader Ace. the playlist. of the competition entrants (a school class news.spotify.com/se?s=marlene+cecilia&submit=Search The five different interpretations of When the pre-stream was complete, of 10 year olds) to perform with her www.mynewsdesk.com/se/sonybmg/news/petra- the song were released on Spotify using Linnea launched a competition where she l The biggest news sites in Sweden wrote marklund-tolkar-cecilia-75576 the artists’ own social media channels to encouraged fans to make their own version about the album and campaign news.spotify.com/se/2014/01/30/the-royal-concept-om- announce it. The message to fans was that of her upcoming single. She made the stems laten-cecilia/ the artists were honoured to have been and the chords available on her website and KEY LEARNINGS www.musikindustrin.se/2014/02/06/artist-lyckad- invited to interpret a song from one of their people were able to find inspiration from the kampanj-infor-linnea-henrikssons-kommande- favorite (although secret) artists. Fans were versions that the five different artists had The campaign proved to be really effective utgivningar/ encouraged to follow a playlist called Cecilia done previously. Fifty different versions were to build awareness before an album release to be able to hear more versions of the song submitted and the winner was announced and to create a buzz. We took away a lot of Any other notable info: Linnea got to talk about her from other artists – and, with time, learn on a Spotify Live Session with Linnea. learnings and new ways of creating hype songwriting skills and the campaign in the biggest possible who had created the original song. using social media platforms – and we also news outlets in Sweden. Thanks to the campaign, we got to In-client advertising was used to learned a lot in how to utilise all parts of the build a closer relationship with Linnea’s fans and had five times highlight the fact that there was something Spotify client, including how to use Linnea’s greater reach than usual in social media channels. And, last but going on and encouraged people to follow Spotify profile as a social media platform. It not least, Linnea was able to encourage people to create music the playlist to find out more. was instructing to see how we could work of their own, which is something that she loves to do. Everyone When Linnea released her original with an artist brand building associated with was happy and we got great results. This is definitely something version of the song, all contributing artists release and how to let the fans be part of a that we want to do again. wrote about it in their own social media release in an innovative way, allowing them channels, linking to the playlist. to participate in shaping the release.

15 | sandbox | Issue 123 | 17.12.14 SANDBOX 2014 SURVEY LIVE LOUNGE 2014 SONY CMG

TEAM MEMBERS with publishers (ex: NME), we took over Friday) focused on gifting as digital sales INVOLVED any image related to Live Lounge (Fearne will drop. Phase four will aim at charting Cotton, featured artists, Radio 1) to overlay again to be visible when consumers test Olivia Walker our ad on them. their new mobile devices. Isobel Kelly Clicks went through the roof, especially Julie Sandrin on mobile. Some artists supported via RESULTS their own channels, even if signed to OVERVIEW OF CAMPAIGN competitors, with amazing results. VOD All this resulted in Live Lounge being a again was a challenge (as there are no ads huge success: it went straight in at #1, Phase one targeted the show’s core on BBC iPlayer), so we went for SkyGo and with 41,690 units sold – its highest week 1 fanbase: we get no commercial support 4OD. Lastly, we covered YouTube with our in six years and highest ever digital sales from the BBC (they cannot be seen as own playlist, an engaging content in which week one with 21,791. It remained at #1 ‘advertising’ from their own channels – we, of course, inserted the TV ad. for four weeks (at time of submission), the making this a huge challenge as their Our online PR team did a brilliant job at longest it has stayed at #1 since the first audience is the core target for the album) getting reviews; again, with no access to album in 2008. and compilations are a pure marketing artists, this can be a real challenge. exercise (no content, restricted access to Phase two maximised awareness with KEY LEARNINGS artists) so we had to find alternatives to the mass market with pre-rolls (again reach our audience. we cannot target BBC channels) ahead of This year, we’ve decided to follow Learning from past campaigns, we held an iTunes price drop. Phase three (Black consumer patterns very closely with the digital campaign until we could reveal a phased campaign that the final tracklist so as to avoid noise: our had different targets and message needs to be clear to drive album objectives. The fact that we’ve awareness/sales (not promoting the been releasing Live Lounge show). We were present across all major for so many years means we CAMPAIGN BREAKDOWN social channels/platforms/devices, when know when core fans will buy CAMPAIGN BUDGET £25,000 in the past we cherry picked more specific and when we should switch strategies. Search was set up first, along the campaign to a more mass AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - GENDER with the preorder. market one. We also monitor Female - 50% / Male - 50% We allocated our highest ever budget all results week-on-week to Twitter to target conversations around to optimise towards what AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - AGE the show (with the TV ad embedded in the performs best (like Twitter). Primary – 18-24 new videocard format which gets very high All digital activity follows the Secondary – 25-34 CTRs). Our Facebook ads used the new wider strategy and supports video format. We also set up an innovative any offline marketing (TV, AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - LOCATION UK display campaign by leveraging editorial posters etc.) to maximise images in contextual spaces: partnering impact.

16 | sandbox | Issue 123 | 17.12.14 SANDBOX 2014 SURVEY OASIS BIG BROTHER RECORDINGS

TEAM MEMBERS the duration of the campaign we also gained a further 100k Twitter INVOLVED followers (up to 503k) and 56k Instagram followers.

Lucy Fortescue – digital manager KEY LEARNINGS Clare Byrne – marketing manager Laura Kelly – creative and production It’s still possible to create fresh, exciting new content whilst manager promoting a catalogue album without the band’s involvement. This John Leahy – director was achieved by reaching out to fans to share memories, photos and CYOA – social media videos via dynamic hashtags. We also ran competitions and involved the audience in live events and official content to make Oasis OVERVIEW OF CAMPAIGN relevant again 20 years after their initial explosive success. Over the campaign, entered the charts at #5 and to date has shipped silver. On top of this we sold 5k deluxe boxsets and sold 4k audience who weren’t old enough to have edited and uploaded to Facebook over the demo cassettes. caught the band in their Nineties heyday. following month. We built a new website with full A life-size replica of the Definitely Maybe discography and integrated streaming sleeve was installed in the exhibition so players. There was also an in-depth archive that fans could recreate the iconic cover CAMPAIGN BREAKDOWN of all gigs, rare photos, press articles and shot. Fans were encouraged to enter a videos. An interactive fan page pulled in competition by Tweeting/Instagraming CAMPAIGN BUDGET £10,000–25,000 hashtagged content from Twitter and their Definitely Maybe photos using Instagram. #OasisExhibition. AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - GENDER We had an exclusive fan preview of the Female - 46% / Male - 54% Oasis photo exhibition , which included a RESULTS fan Q&A session with the artwork designer, AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - AGE 18–24 Brian Cannon. We had 30k fans sign up to Since the start of the campaign, the Oasis’ database for a chance to attend – and Facebook page, which we saw as a key AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - LOCATION UK five international superfans got to attend platform, gained over 1.3m followers. Most and document the evening live via their remarkably, the audience has shifted to LINKS AND EXTRA INFO Twitter and Instagram accounts. a younger demographic. The 18-24-year- Website / fan page: www.oasisinet.com/#!/fans Oasis’ socials promoted their channels old following is now the largest age group, Facebook: www.facebook.com/OasisOfficial and #OasisExhibition and shared the best increasing by 5% to 44%. This younger YouTube / fan lipsync video: www.youtube.com/ of their content. The event trended across demographic, along with original fans, watch?v=KJ_Po54ucsU Twitter. Prior to the exhibition, we invited actively engaged with the page on week of Comufy app: officialoas.is/comufyguitar The aim of our campaign was to reinvigorate fans to submit questions for Brian. The top release, with 3% of the 9.4m fans ‘talking Twitter: twitter.com/oasis the existing Oasis fanbase whilst five questions were asked, fans name- about’ our posts, meaning our sales Instagram: instagram.com/oasis simultaneously captivating a new younger checked, and filmed. The answers were then messages reached a huge audience. Over

17 | sandbox | Issue 123 | 17.12.14 SANDBOX 2014 SURVEY PALOMA FAITH RCA LABEL GROUP UK

TEAM MEMBERS in tracked clicks to her INVOLVED music grew by 26k. The total combined reach (including PR Chloé Miller pick up) within the campaign Marla Altschuler period far exceeds 15m. Imran Malik Talent House KEY LEARNINGS Derbyshire The vast awareness has OVERVIEW OF CAMPAIGN been the greatest attribute, especially given the relatively Artists, designers and illustrators from small budget. This initiative around the world were invited by Paloma opened up conversation around Paloma’s music and allowed fans Faith to design their own interpretation of to take part by contributing their own deep level of creativity. Artists, her album, A Perfect Contradiction. Using creatives and fans were able to take A Perfect Contradiction beyond her current artwork (originally designed the music and experience it in a more diverse sense. Paloma Art and photographed by David Standish), music for A Perfect Contradiction. Contradiction – Outsiders’ Edition. has certainly helped to solidify Paloma’s status as an iconic art and and general persona for inspiration, Paloma The inspiration for starting the All entrants are to be included in the talented figure within the music world. invited artists to submit their own eye- competition came directly from the fans. #PalomaART montage video. There was a catching design. There were no limitations Paloma has always been sent the most round up article on HungerTV.com, with a on medium; however, it needed to be a incredible artwork and when those works physical exhibition in London next year to design that could later be turned into a are posted on her socials they receive complete the competition. limited-edition poster. huge engagement. The competition was CAMPAIGN BREAKDOWN Paloma and her team of judges, British an opportunity for fans to feel included in RESULTS photographer and Michael Stephens Paloma’s album journey without serving the CAMPAIGN BUDGET £500–£2,000 of Liberty London, selected one artist as fanbase with ongoing CTA sales messaging, In total, 465 pieces of original artwork the winner for The Career Opportunity. The but still getting across the excitement of were submitted from all over the world, AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - GENDER public chose one artist as the winner for The the album release. The competition created including the US, the UK, Indonesia, Female - 57% / Male - 43% Community Choice prize (including exposure engaging photo and video content over the Columbia, Spain, Italy, Canada, on Paloma’s socials and $350). six-week submission period, the public vote and Russia. The Community Choice AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - AGE N/A The Career Opportunity prize was time period, which is still continuing now received 10,862 public votes, 272,340 $1,300 and a portfolio meeting with a into the sale of the limited-edition poster engagements and 1,514,215 impressions. AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - LOCATION Global Sony Music creative: the artwork used and, later will be displayed in a physical Within this campaign period, Paloma’s as Paloma Faith’s official social skins for exhibition in London. social following increased by over 88.3k LINKS AND EXTRA INFO a one-week takeover: a feature for their Everything always coming back to the followers across social media, with a www.palomafaith.com artwork on Hunger: and the artwork used music, album and lyrical message behind total reach on Facebook alone of 14.1m as Paloma Faith’s limited-edition poster Paloma’s album campaign for A Perfect plus 982.6k engagements. The increase

18 | sandbox | Issue 123 | 17.12.14 SANDBOX 2014 SURVEY SAM SMITH CAPITOL RECORDS UK

TEAM MEMBERS INVOLVED CAMPAIGN BREAKDOWN Tom Paul – head of marketing CAMPAIGN BUDGET £25,000 Murray Rose – general manager Chris O’Gorman – digital marketing AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - GENDER manager Female - 65% / Male - 35%

OVERVIEW OF CAMPAIGN AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - AGE 25–45 launch event, taking over a whole TV ad environment. Google Play, looking to build AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - LOCATION UK break to broadcast a live performance profile for its music store, was the perfect

direct from the Roundhouse (in London) in third partner. Sam himself announced the LINKS AND EXTRA INFO partnership with , Mediacom and event via a Google Hangout, we gave them Advert Google Play. This integrated partnership exclusive rights to the full gig footage and www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqrKImOPcdw had two key elements: the live advert on they drove traffic to that with targeted Socials Channel 4; and a partnership with Google messaging. They also gave our campaign www.samsmithworld.com Play that took the performance to a wider scale and reach by hosting the footage in www.facebook.com/samsmithworld audience and drove direct sales. various ad units, including the YouTube www.twitter.com/samsmithworld Interest started from a live Q&A hosted masthead that we served through www.youtube.com/samsmithworld by Sam where he also alluded to the Google’s vast network. www.youtube.com/samsmithworldvevo special announcement that he would be www.g.co/samsmith streaming his whole London show publicly RESULTS online. After teasing the event with trailers in the week prior, we took over the whole 1.5m simultaneous viewers of the live Sam Smith had already been the voice on of the last break in Alan Carr’s Chatty Man, TV advert across the live stream and TV increase in +1s, 54% increase in followers. #GooglePlayLive some huge hits, but we wanted to create which cut to Sam’s biggest performance (with 100k additional tuning in specifically trended on Twitter and Facebook in the UK. something innovative and groundbreaking yet at the Roundhouse in Camden. Live during the advert break). 680k people that would connect with his existing fans on air, Sam performed his latest #1 single, tuned in to the live-stream on Google KEY LEARNINGS and simultaneously bring on board a ‘Stay With Me’, to both the crowd at The Play. 1,700 people filled out the Camden whole new audience. Roundhouse and a massive new audience Roundhouse. was Advertising that thinks outside the box and utilises innovation has We needed to create the biggest around the country. the fastest selling debut album of 2014, the biggest impact amongst fans and new audiences, giving it the possible launch for the debut album of one We needed to create an opportunity for with 101,000 first-week sales. 37.5k edge over traditional styles. Delivering a campaign that appeals to of the biggest breakthrough acts of 2013. a deeper engagement to follow on from clicks directed to Google Play. Interactive the majority or the target audience provides the greatest return for What better way to showcase an artist this moment, to provide the audience adverts achieved a 4% engagement rate. both artist affinity and sales. Incorporating multiple stakeholders than through the power of live with a chance to consume more content Google+: 576% increase in comments, into one partnership can give a great synergy that enhances the final performance ? So we created a unique and, crucially, push them to a purchase 378% increase in post shares, 268% outcome by making use of an increased skill set.

19 | sandbox | Issue 123 | 17.12.14 SANDBOX 2014 SURVEY SHAWN MENDES ISLAND RECORDS

TEAM MEMBERS INVOLVED CAMPAIGN BREAKDOWN Jazmine Valencia CAMPAIGN BUDGET £5,000–£10,000 Allison Schlueter Andrew Gertler AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - GENDER Female - 92% / Male - 8% OVERVIEW OF CAMPAIGN AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - AGE 13–17 The release of a first single in July, then the first EP, then the new single in November, AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - LOCATION US, Global will lead up to the album in 2015. We started teasing the fans with the single, LINKS AND EXTRA INFO which went to #1 on iTunes within 90 In July, Shawn’s debut single, ‘Life Of The Party’, sold 148k minutes of release. The social campaign copies in its first week and reached #24 on the Billboard Hot involved daily missions, revealing parts We turned his website into a mosaic socials overall. The campaign was highly 100, making him the youngest artist ever to enter the top 25 of lyrics and doing contests to pick fans image where we galvanised fans to tweet successful: ‘Life Of The Party’ saw 3.4m of the chart with his first release. His subsequent self-titled EP, and DM-ing a snippet of the instrumental different hashtags in order to reveal the social mentions of either the single or and first collection of all original songs, debuted at #5 on the and letting fans create their own versions single, the art and the date. Shawn, there were 975,631 tweets a and #1 on iTunes, selling 48k copies in its first without hearing the song to post on Vine. After the date was revealed, we used a day, 40,651 tweets an hour and 748,435 week, according to SoundScan. We continued to do missions engaging heat map on his site to reveal the Instagram posts. ‘Something Big’ had the fans throughout the EP release, which location of pop-up events and if enough 5.2m social mentions, 665,000 tweets a somethingbig.shawnmendesofficial.com went to #1 on iTunes in under 30 minutes online chatter was reached, he would day and 27,708 tweets an hour. from release. We continued to activate release the single three days early, which the fans by using thresholds to reveal we accomplished by generating over 150m KEY LEARNINGS the fact there was a new single coming. Impressions via his socials. Everything Shawn posts trends worldwide RESULTS on Twitter. His social messaging drives fans to any location we instruct. We saw The ‘Life Of The Party’ his email list grow by 85% in the span single release generated of three days. We also saw his socials over 90m impressions on increase across all platforms, including Twitter, the EP release Spotify, which reached 15m streams in generated over 50m the US and 35m worldwide to date. The impressions on Twitter and fact that he is a Vine star has transferred ‘Something Big’ generated to his other platforms through galvanising locations for pop up performances and with each release taking it 150m impressions on his fans with missions unlocking music, to the next level.

20 | sandbox | Issue 123 | 17.12.14 SANDBOX 2014 SURVEY TAYLOR SWIFT

TEAM MEMBERS INVOLVED CAMPAIGN BREAKDOWN Michael Sloane – director of interactive CAMPAIGN BUDGET £10,000–£25,000

OVERVIEW OF CAMPAIGN AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - GENDER Female - 80% / Male - 20% 1989 Swift Stakes included a blow-in card and digital redemption of a serialised code AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - AGE 20–29 entering fans to win a meet and greet and tickets (and merchandise) to Taylor Swift’s AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - LOCATION US upcoming world tour. The campaign ran

for the eight days of SoundScan reporting LINKS AND EXTRA INFO during street week. taylorswift.com Fans were encouraged to buy multiple copies of physical product to enter multiple codes and also collect 13 unique packs of Polaroid photos. The campaign higher than the industry standard. was originated through Checkd.in, located The campaign, albeit simple, in Nashville. was incredibly successful and We were able to grow our fan database executed seamlessly by Checkd.in, significantly (over 200k users) in the management and the digital team seven-day period. The sense of urgency at Big Machine Label Group. created around the seven-day RESULTS countdown helped propel 235,789 unique users, 181,141 the much larger digital codes redeemed, 175,050 PR and public physical CD sale codes redeemed. We had an over 65% conversion appearance rate on fans that visited the site and a 20% conversion rate on campaign that first-week sales. surrounded the 1989 release. KEY LEARNINGS Fan engagement of 65%+ of fans Creating a data capture tag along to a top-selling album is an that visited the excellent opportunity to capture data from fans that purchase site was over 40% music.

21 | sandbox | Issue 123 | 17.12.14 SANDBOX 2014 SURVEY THE RAVEONETTES Beat Dies Records/The Orchard

TEAM MEMBERS INVOLVED

Dan Griffiths – manager, interactive marketing Viktoria Zaenker – manager, audience development and interactive marketing services Scott Cohen – The Orchard Management Kelly Bensadon – The Orchard Management month data acquisition campaign was so far. The Pe’ahi received higher chart entries than the band’s previous Valeri Travagliante – senior manager, artist devised; cleansing the band’s old mailing first of 10 album, , in (#4) and Belgium. services list and increasing it by 60% with the aid official videos Ben Poliszczuk – client relations manager of an EP that set the stage for the album (one for KEY LEARNINGS label/account manager for The Raveonettes release. each track) Aaron Ford – senior manager, digital For Pe’ahi, all marketing efforts began premiered on This campaign yet again taught us about the importance of a advertising just one week prior to release; concentrating Stereogum truly global campaign and release strategy. It proved how well The Nicolas Rizzi – director of international sales solely on super-servicing core fans by on 30th July Orchard’s global team could work together to support the release of a and marketing retail “secretly” issuing the track ‘Sisters’ with and we will truly global artist. Adam Saunders – retail sales and marketing no mention of an album to follow. Three continue manager retail days later, the track was announced publicly rolling Joanna Noyes – director, interactive across the band’s socials. these out marketing and audience development The objective was to drive traffic to a throughout 2015 in an effort to keep raising Armando Crespo – account manager, video branded page that was designed to collect awareness of the record; support upcoming CAMPAIGN BREAKDOWN services re-marketing data for future targeting. On gigs, increase their online following and CAMPAIGN BUDGET £2,000–£5,000 Emilie Snellman – client & marketing street date, and all throughout the first continue pushing record sales. manager, Scandinavia week of release, a series of themed lyric AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - GENDER Airene Resurreccion – graphic designer asset videos premiered across publications such RESULTS Female - 53% / Male - 47% creation as Pitchfork, Q online, This is Fake DIY, NPR, USA Today and other leading online Debuted at #161 on Billboard Top 200 and AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - AGE 25–35 OVERVIEW OF CAMPAIGN editorials in Germany, Spain, Italy and #5 on Top New Artist Albums. Sustained Australia. charting on Soundscan Top New Artist AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - LOCATION The Orchard Marketing team created an The videos were subsequently playlisted Albums for six weeks and counting. US, Denmark, UK interactive and online advertising strategy on the band’s YouTube channel in track Commercial specialty radio LP #3 / Sisters heavily focused on building remarketing listing order for fans to stream the record #6. CMJ #4 for a second week, holding LINKS AND EXTRA INFO data and email acquisition. Pe’ahi came in its entirety. It is worth noting that we are peak to date. Reached #1 on the iTunes www.theraveonettes.com almost two years after The Raveonettes’ currently entering the second phase of the Alternative Charts in Denmark. Peaked last album, Observator, for which a six- campaign, having spent half the budget at #3 on the overall Danish iTunes chart.

22 | sandbox | Issue 123 | 17.12.14 SANDBOX 2014 SURVEY THE WHO Universal Music Catalogue

TEAM MEMBERS the hits, picks, mixes and misses.” clues seeded out via social media. INVOLVED l To cement the band’s interest in l Universal Music partnered with the technological innovation Teenage Cancer Trust for the first time to Katie Alley – senior digital marketing present a special evening at Shepherd’s Bush manager, UMC Highlights Empire in London to celebrate The Who Hits Sue Armstrong – senior marketing manager, Immersive mobile & Oculus Rift apps 50. A stellar line up including , UMC We worked closely with The Who, technology and Geddy Lee covering Who Mattie Bennett – creative digital manager, company Immersive and Trinifold classics and Roger Daltrey performed for the global digital marketing Management to create an innovative 3D finale. The event was promoted exclusively Geoff Smith – head of digital, Universal mobile app and the first ever artist app using via the band’s social profiles and content was Strategic Marketing Oculus Rift. showcased in real time. Isabelle Crocker – director of digital, UMC The apps use interactive technologies Doug Barasch – senior director digital to produce music and visual experiences RESULTS marketing and strategy, Universal Music around the band’s rich heritage, helping to Enterprises create a deeper engagement with fans. The l A 30% CTR to purchase from within the Immersive Album Ltd. experiences are now available for free in app Immersive app CAMPAIGN BREAKDOWN stores for mobiles and tablets and soon to l Over 7k visits to 50 Fascinating Facts CAMPAIGN BUDGET £5,001–£10,000 OVERVIEW OF CAMPAIGN be released as a premium version available landing page (over 26% as returning visitors) on VR headsets. l 12.5k visits to the Pinball game, resulting AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - GENDER There is no more significant milestone in in a direct uplift in database sign ups Female - 33% / Male - 67% music than the 50th anniversary and this Spotify jukebox l 16k visitors to the Spotify Jukebox so far year The Who are celebrating that landmark. Pete Townshend provided a rare personal l The artists were actively engaged and AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - AGE 35+ (then 18–24) A year-long series of releases, initiatives critique for each Who album – and we used supportive of our campaign objectives and and events that are designed to capture the the content to create an interactive executions. AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - LOCATION Global imagination of a new audience and increase jukebox powered by Spotify. This was the level of excitement amongst the existing promoted heavily within and by Spotify, KEY LEARNINGS LINKS AND EXTRA INFO fans. Highlights include a UK arena tour and helping to attract a new streaming audience. Immersive App Apple IOS iPad/mobile: greatest hits collection, featuring new track, In the quest to keep a band’s legacy alive smarturl.it/TheWhoApp.IOS ‘Be Lucky’. Social communications, games and content and connect with a new audience, it is Immersive App Android tablet/mobile: l Our online pinball game was an instant vital to explore new means and methods smarturl.it/TheWhoApp.Android Opportunities hit. Social sign in and sharing functionality to engage them to dig deeper, learn and www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2375-VYLtY&list=UUuwAw l Build a campaign to surprise and delight within the game ensured maximum reach. have fun with the catalogue. The right BsW4fiMace8QZJwsdQ fans – old and new l Our 50 Fascinating Who Facts microsite digital initiative can harness the interest www.who50pinball.com l Introduce audiences to the deeper was designed to impress the loyal of artist and fans alike. Legends Pete and www.50daysofthewho.com catalogue and spotlight hidden gems. Pete enthusiasts and to intrigue the casual fan. Roger engaged with our Immersive app and smarturl.it/whojukebox Townshend gave us a quote that became a The page refreshed with a new fact daily (at Jukebox, enabling us to create assets for branding strapline for the compilation: “All 5:15) and we drove repeat engagement via fans that came direct from the artist.

23 | sandbox | Issue 123 | 17.12.14 SANDBOX 2014 SURVEY TINIE TEMPAH (Warner Music UK)

TEAM MEMBERS With the use of custom ‘Shazam- in Music). INVOLVED esque’ listening technology in the app, l picked up – organically – by Radio 1 Breakfast DJ Nick Grimshaw, it broke new ground for artist apps. It also who went on to describe it as “possibly the best app ever”. Jude Stone – digital marketing manager stimulated social virality by its use in groups. l described the app as “genuinely fun and interesting”. Josh Saunders – head of technical and That is, if there’s a Tinie song playing in The Next Web thought it was a perfect app for all Tinie Tempah fans. creative the room then activate this free app, hold Various other media outlets picked up on the story, including Digital Will Beardmore – senior digital creative it to your mouth and rap along. A simple Spy, The Independent and MSN. but strong proposition. This ultimately OVERVIEW OF CAMPAIGN encourages word-of-mouth of downloads, ‘Shazam-esque’ fingerprinting tech written KEY LEARNINGS dwell time and repeat use of the app, as well natively for iOS, was the origination of the as upsell of purchases of iTunes tracks. content. In that, the artist recited all lyrics to The aim of the app was to innovate, engage and upsell. In the Using this bespoke ‘Shazam-style’ camera, and recorded an intro – overseen by final analysis, all of this was achieved, with the app driving 30k+ listening technology, written from the Parlophone and the agency. Once launched, clicks to retail for Demonstration, plus also driving purchase of ground up natively in iOS and not using Tinie tweeted his love for the experience and choice tracks from Tinie’s previous album, Disc-Overy. an existing library, the app intelligently got personally involved in the promotion, recognises the moment in the song being adding to the app’s strength in authenticity listened to. It then cues the video to the (rather than just ‘another label app’ made exact point. from a distance to the artist). CAMPAIGN BREAKDOWN RESULTS l the app was awarded Mobile App Of The CAMPAIGN BUDGET £15,000 Day in the FWA awards. The process of this app was important l 25k of Tinie’s UK fanbase downloaded AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - GENDER and key to its success – the artist was and rapped along with the app, also virally Female - 50% / Male - 50% directly involved in this app, working with sharing on their own networks. the label and development agency. This l 4.5 star rating on the iTunes App Store, AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - AGE 13–24 is more an exception than a rule in music peaking at #5 in the UK App Store chart (#1 This iOS app was a new approach to industry app development, AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - LOCATION Primarily UK artist album-focused mobile apps. It was but it definitely brings designed to drive engagement directly with the best results and we LINKS AND EXTRA INFO the music of the album, whereby users can certainly believe that the Sizzle reel “app trailer” – rap along to tracks from Demonstration. It best digital marketing www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TdqtHPdFUA is essentially fun and playful, positioning campaigns are those where BBC Radio 1 DJ Nick Grimshaw using it – itself for a wide userbase rather than just the artist takes a direct and instagram.com/p/kEecWetFAh/ hardcore fans. It is also technically original focused role. Accompanying UGC site of people using it – and impressive – and this provided some Therefore, the unique rapdemonstration.tinietempah.com cut-through to differentiate it from the selling point of the app, as typical artist app crowd. well as the custom version of

24 | sandbox | Issue 123 | 17.12.14 SANDBOX 2014 SURVEY WILKO JOHNSON & ROGER DALTREY Universal Music Catalogue

TEAM MEMBERS from all submissions.) engagement and ad interaction culminated in the astonishing chart INVOLVED position (Wilko’s first chart album in 27 years) Social media communications Katie Alley – senior digital marketing We built Wilko’s online KEY LEARNINGS manager, UMC community from scratch – Sue Armstrong – senior marketing manager, including social properties, By drawing on the heartfelt narrative behind the album and UMC database and new website, harnessing powerful brands such as Fender and , we James Mann – Spark Studios which allowed us to speak and were able to connect this fairly specialist release with a much wider listen to fans and provide official audience than would be typically possible for a record of this kind. OVERVIEW OF CAMPAIGN hubs for exclusive updates. The scheduled delivery of content was key to engaging fans of both The team initiated an artists and the more casual music consumer. In 2013, Wilko Johnson was diagnosed with effective Twitter crusade to Targeting different content to a range of audiences across a terminal cancer and given just months ignite followers to get the album variety of platforms provided increased exposure for the album to to live. For years, Wilko and Roger had to #1 and ran competitions audiences that may be new to the blues-rock genre and even Wilko promised to make an album together, but context and meaning. A bespoke microsite around the one-off live show to rewarding as an artist. after Wilko’s diagnosis they decided to revealed content in a daily countdown by the loyalty and support of the dedicated make it a reality and recorded Going Back scratching images with a guitar pick. followers. Home in under a week. The digital marketing On release day, fans gained access to campaign was run at a similar pace. This an online guitar and were challenged to RESULTS was a campaign of introduction and re- replicate distinctive riffs. We worked with CAMPAIGN BREAKDOWN education; of marketing to primary fanbases Fender to promote the competition across l #3 in UK charts in week one that are not particularly digitally engaged their platforms; expanding the data capture l Now certified gold (133,757 total sales CAMPAIGN BUDGET £5,001–£10,000 as well as converting a new and younger opportunity and awareness of the release. across all formats) audience. All activations were designed to (Wilko picked the winner of a signed Fender l Winner of Album Of The Year at the Classic AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - GENDER bridge the gap between the two artists’ Rock Awards and Wilko was awarded the Q Female - 24% / Male - 76% fanbases. Icon l #WilkoAndRogerForNumberOne trending AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - AGE 40+ Highlights in release week The Times+ Q&A at Brewery, London l Wilko’s Twitter following increased by AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC - LOCATION Global, with We partnered with The Times+ to organise 433% a UK focus a ticketed and filmed event, at which both l The Who Twitter following up by 30% artists were interviewed, providing an l Wilko eCRM database grown by 4000% LINKS AND EXTRA INFO honest insight into the making of the record with an average open rate of 48% po.st/WilkoAndRogerScratchReveal and their personal connection. l 276k Vevo views – a fantastic result for a www.vevo.com/watch/roger-daltrey/I-Keep-It-To-Myself/ The event was featured across The Times’ non-traditional Vevo act GBUV71400273 print and online platforms and editorial l 6k fans engaged with the guitar app support gave the record added reach, l Successes in cross-channel growth,

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