05–06 Tools Chartmetric 07–08 Campaigns Avey Tare, Sabaton, Coldplay, Jay-Z 09-11 Behind The Campaign Real Estate
JUNE 21 2017 sandboxMUSIC MARKETING FOR THE DIGITAL ERA ISSUE 182
THE SOUND OF MUSICAL.LY LOOSE LIPS SYNC HITS With more than 200m users, Musical.ly is – officially – too big to ignore. It’s left Dubsmash in the shade and become the byword for a particular type of UGC. It’s attracting young audiences in a way other platforms can only dream of and it’s got music baked in from the off. This should be an open goal for the music business, but trying to elbow into something that is, inherently, community-centric is tricky. It’s not for all artists and for those that it suits, they need to really get involved if they are to see the benefits. Plus it’s already thinking about the next stages of its evolution, hugely conscious that today’s hype can be tomorrow’s MySpace. We look at who is using it, why they are using it and how they are keeping on top of this most moving of targets.
n 2017, if lip sync still makes you think of the one-hit wonders responsible for I ‘Funkytown’, you might want to get out LOOSE LIPS SYNCS HITS of the music industry. We exaggerate, obviously; but there can be little doubt these days that lip syncing is a very big thing indeed, thanks to Dubsmash and – overwhelmingly today – Musical.ly. The latter service, which styles itself THE SOUND OF variously as a “global video community”, “creative platform” and “entertainment social network”, has attracted more than 200m users worldwide in just three years and has helped to make stars of the likes of Baby Ariel (19.8m MUSICAL.LY fans and counting), Jacob Sartorius (17.3m) and
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audience for these types of tracks and creates huge levels of exposure,” she says. MUSICAL.LY KEY STATS “I’ve anecdotally heard lots of teens and pre- l +200m worldwide users teens say that they have discovered music l 15m daily uploaded Musical.lys through the app. This applies to old tracks l 20% worldwide increase in downloads since July 2016 as well as current ones. It’s pretty much a l 60m Musers in 42 countries in Europe standard element to all my digital campaigns l > 9.5m users in the UK and Ireland these days.” l + 10% increase in new users from January 2017 to April 2017 UNLIKE ALMOST EVERY OTHER MAJOR SOCIAL PLATFORM, MUSIC IS THE STARTING POINT Much as with Snapchat before it, a key part of Musical.ly’s appeal to music marketers the UK’s Max & Harvey (4.08m). Its audience is its youthful audience, dominated by the is youthful – 64% of the app’s US users fall digital millennials that traditional media within the 13-24 demographic, according to allegedly struggles to reach. However, as Vice – and 75% female. opposed to Snapchat, say, where music is Unsurprisingly, Musical.ly has also an incidental presence, Musical.ly has music attracted the attentions of a host of more baked right through it: when you create a mainstream music stars over the last 12 video on Musical.ly, there is a prominent “pick months, with Katy Perry, Ariana Grande music” icon that leads to an extensive online and Wiz Khalifa among the many artists library, divided into collections like “A-list who have turned to the app for promotional Lip syncing along to the song in question is says Cassie Petrey, co-founder and co-owner Pop”, “Summer” and “Birthday”, and users purposes. Warner Music became the first probably the most common use, although of US digital marketing company Crowd Surf, can also pick music from their own music major label to agree a licensing deal with many Musers (as the platform’s users are who also co-manages Max & Harvey. “A collection, while the app’s “search” page Musical.ly in June 2016, while in February known) record comedy clips and dance great example [of its use] is the Mannequin brings up a list of top songs, both globally 2017 Apple announced an “integration” routines – or even perform their own songs. Challenge. This was something that we and locally. Musical.ly videos that feature with Musical.ly that allowed Apple Music It is an approach that fits well with – and saw across all social media platforms, but music display the artist and song title in subscribers to stream full-length songs has even helped to fuel – the meme-friendly it really grew some wings on Musical.ly. question running along the bottom left of the within the app. video marketing that has made huge hits of That entire social media promotion really video while it plays, making discovery a cinch. the likes of ‘Hotline Bling’, ‘Black Beatles’ helped Rae Sremmurd’s ‘Black Beatles’ Music marketing on Musical.ly appears to OK, I GET WHAT IT IS. and ‘Bad & Boujee’ over the last two years, take off and Musical.ly heavily featured work: in August 2016, a Musical.ly promotion WHY SHOULD I CARE? which makes it little surprise that the #MannequinChallenge content across their of Hailee Steinfeld’s ‘Starving’ drove an 11% music industry has been quick to embrace platform.” week-on-week increase in streams and a 23% For anyone who has had their head buried Musical.ly as a tool for music discovery. Maddy Smith, senior digital marketing increase in sales, according to Aaron Bogucki, deep in the sand, Musical.ly allows the user “Musical.ly is extremely manager at Capitol Records UK, says that VP of digital marketing at Steinfeld’s label to record brief videos, which can be paired important; right now, a lot of songs Musical.ly is really important for “a certain Republic (via Billboard), while a promotion for to songs and then uploaded to Musical. are breaking on Musical.ly before genre of artist – mainstream, Top 40, pop”. Selena Gomez ’s ‘Kill Em With Kindness’ ly itself and other social media platforms. radio, Apple, Spotify, or YouTube,” “It offers huge reach amongst our target that allowed Musers to virtually duet with
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dedicated Next Wave folder, with the song visiting the LA office to interact with top that inspires the most Musical.ly videos Musers to film covers and other content”. winning promotion on the app’s homepage. “We are immediately tapping into the biggest Previous Next Wave winners have included users which means as soon as we launch WILL WE SEE A BREAKOUT Anne-Marie’s ‘Alarm’, Charli XCX ’s ‘After The the campaign we have already secured huge Afterparty’ and MadeinTYO’s ‘Skateboard P’. reach for our track,” she explains. STAR FROM MUSICAL.LY? Warner Music Group director of digital The key, Smith says, to making a success Musical.ly may well have become a key tool in marketing music, accounts, Marcel Joseph Jnr, explains that of these promotions, is artist involvement. but what about A&R? The platform’s big stars have millions WMG has won four Next Wave campaigns to She stresses the importance of “making of adoring fans on the platform, but will they ever be able to date “and seen tremendous engagement on artists available and making sure that they translate that into the music industry currency of songs, playlists, tracks selected”. “In aggregate, WMG artists are using and endorsing the app”. “The albums and lucrative live gigs? have had more than 2m Musical.lys created partnerships are reliant on artist buy in to Jacob Sartorius probably offers us as close to an answer to their Next Wave selected tracks and kick them off; but after that, the level of in as we will get, in what is still relatively early days for Musical. 350m views of these Musical.lys during app promotion that Musical.ly give you is ly. After rising to fame on the platform Sartorius released his the campaign window,” he says. massive,” Smith says. “So this is really what debut download single, ‘Sweatshirt’, in May 2016, with the “In a few instances, these artists catapults the campaign to the next level. song selling an acceptable if not-quite-stellar 500,000 units. have developed more followers Their recently announced partnership with His debut EP, The Last Text, followed in January 2017, reaching on Musical.ly than any other social Apple Music also means there is a much #32 on the Billboard charts. To accompany The Last Text, media platform.” more direct route to conversion into sales Sartorius toured North America and Europe, playing moderate- Other Musical.ly programmes to highlight and streams.” to-large-sized venues such as the Manchester Academy and new music include First Listen and First As these examples suggest, Musical.ly Annexet in Stockholm. Look, which promotes “music exclusives is eager to work with the music industry, Smith says that Sartorius has attracted “a lot of attention” off from major label artists – i.e. pre-releases appointing Inga Bereza as director of the back of his Musical.ly success, which has translated into a or new music videos”. Musical.ly says the music and entertainment partnerships large social following (he has 1.28m followers on Twitter and 2.5m First series “acts as a springboard to the in September 2015 and opening a San followers on YouTube). But she doesn’t see this as evidence that Gomez generated 1.3m Musical.ly clips, song/video and drives viral anticipation Francisco office last year. Joseph Jnr says he – or other popular Musers – can become breakout music stars 34.6m likes and 564,500 comments. ahead of a song and/or album release”, with that WMG “has an extremely positive in their own right. examples including an exclusive on Meghan relationship with Musical.ly”. “We liaise Petrey disagrees, referring back to her clients Max & Harvey. WHO IS USING IT? AND HOW? Trainor’s ‘I’m A Lady’, that led to 112,000 with them daily to stay abreast of product “They are extremely gifted and I wanted to be on their Musical.ly videos created and 27m views, enhancements and new opportunities for management team for a reason. I know they have what it So how can music marketers tap into that and will.i.am’s ‘FYAH’ (104,000 videos and artists, increase engagement and visibility for takes to be legitimate, long-term artists; and they have done an Musical.ly magic to break new music? Is 35m views). active artists on the app and develop creative incredible job at leveraging Musical.ly’s platform to start building it a platform that only benefits pop acts their fanbase,” she says. and youthful audiences? And how open is ARTISTS HAVE TO BE “If somebody is a gifted musician, the same way that Musical.ly to music industry partnerships? INVOLVED AND AVAILABLE Max & Harvey are, this [translating success on Musical.ly Smith explains that she has worked on into the wider music world] won’t be a problem. They know two kinds of Musical.ly promotions: one As the previous examples of Katy Perry how to create something centred around music regardless based on “a larger focus campaign with my and Ariana Grande show, Musical.ly of time and format limitations. Shawn Mendes started with bigger artists”; and one for newer artists promotions are not just for new acts. six-second Vine clips and now he’s a full-blown proper music under Musical.ly’s Next Wave programme. Smith says she is also currently working super star. The short clips are perfect, because it leaves This initiative sees the company upload 15 with Musical.ly “to organise an event with people wanting to hear more.” songs from new artists every month to a one of our bigger artists that involves him
3 | sandbox | ISSUE 182 | 21.06.2017 COVERFEATURE campaigns to maximise exposure and for their efforts thanks to a system of virtual engagement around our artists and their gifts. The new app has already made quite an music,” he says. impression on Musical.ly users, racing past SARTORIUS VICTORIOUS In the future, he suggests that labels can 2m downloads in just a few weeks, while Max work more with Musical.ly via “strategic and Harvey attracted 50,000 viewers as they By Music Ally’s partnerships involving co-branded tours, filmed themselves wandering around Alton Wesley T. A’Harrah exclusive Muser pop-up shops and other Towers last summer. The underlying question we have creative experiences that capture the energy All this, plus the recent introduction of from Musical.ly is how we can fuel from highly engaged Musers and leverage a Duet feature that allows users to create the fires of a spillover effect from them to drive additional value for artists”. split-screen videos with two people singing the app into other platforms – for Smith, meanwhile, says she has found and dancing at the same time, suggests a monetisation purposes or for overall Musical.ly “brilliant to work with, every company that is unwilling to merely sit and growth. When we look at Sartorius, project that we have collaborated on has enjoy the success of its star product. In this this is someone who’s gone from been unique”. “During my current dialogue regard Alex Hofmann, Musical.ly’s America a few million fans in Musical.ly with them, they have presented new ideas president, clearly doesn’t lack ambition, to now having: 17.4m fans in the which I’ve never seen from them before so recently telling Rolling Stone that he sees app; over 157m views and 2.5m they are clearly intent on innovating and Musical.ly as “an entertainment social subscribers on YouTube; upwards pushing the boundaries with every new network” rather than a video-sharing app. of 30m streams and 270k followers partnership,” she adds. “There are other platforms out there that are on Spotify; 1.2m likes on Facebook; and 8.4m followers on platform will ever appeal to a broader range really good for entertainment; and there are Instagram. He’s just announced that he’s putting out a single IS IT ONLY GOING TO of music fan, there’s nothing necessarily other platforms out there that are really good with Blackbear, who co-wrote ‘Boyfriend’ for Justin Bieber. WORK FOR THE MOST wrong with that, as Smith explains. “I would social networks,” he said. “We see ourselves Musical.ly’s existence as a music-led platform has not only allowed Sartorius to break into actual success as a 14 year-old MAINSTREAM POP ACTS? say at this stage the Musical.ly audience is at the intersection of both.” younger and will probably stay like that,” she Succeed in this goal of combining musician, but it’s necessary to understand how well he and his For all Musical.ly’s enthusiasm, though, says. “But that’s fine. We know that this entertainment with social media and team have led this development across platforms. Katy Perry’s doubts still exist about the platform’s audience is fickle, hard to engage Musical.ly could become one of the key livestream of herself during the release of Witness is a big thing durability and appeal. Could a heavy metal with and has short attention spans; global platforms for the future of the music for a megastar to do, but it’s totally ordinary for Jacob Satorius act, say, find success on Musical.ly? Or is it so by working with Musical.ly we industry. Fail and there is a chance that to be on YouNow talking to fans for long periods of time. a platform purely for pop music? “Musical.ly are directly tapping in to their Musical.ly’s fans could leave it as quickly as It’s become commonplace to put out lyric versions of is definitely not just for kids and pop music,” online behaviour. ” they did MySpace, Digg and Ello before it. music videos – which is especially important for Musical.ly Petrey says. “I see all types of music genres “I think Musical.ly is here to stay for a fans. But when was the last time you saw a major artist put doing well on there. If you look at the top 20 FROM MUSICAL.LY TO while,” says Petrey, who rejects the idea of out an Official Dance Video version of their music video in an global songs at any moment, you’re likely LIVE.LY: AVOIDING THE the platform as a fad. “There are many great attempt to make more Musical.ly videos of their artist /artist’s dance style spring up within that platform? Sartorius is on top to see some hip-hop, R&B, Latin, dance PITFALLS OF THE FAD things the platform has done to keep its users and rock alongside pop songs.” There is, engaged; but the one thing that stands out to of that. The way his ecosystem is set up promotes a virtuous to be fair, some evidence of this diversity. As for the other obvious limitations to me is guiding people on what type of content cycle between Musical.ly and YouTube, especially, getting his In mid-June 2017, the Musical.ly global Musical.ly – notably the brief length of videos to create. It’s brilliant. They coach people on Musical.ly fans to YouTube to watch his music videos, where top 20 included songs by electronic music (up to one minute) and the inability for what type of challenge, song or comedy skit he has a dance video to show them how they should try producers Zedd and Martin Garrix, as well Musers to directly monetise their work on to create that day through their featured dancing within Musical.ly. as Maroon 5, while new wave rock act Ra Ra the platform – the launch of sister platform content. No other social network goes out More Musical.ly fans = more YouTube views = more Riot’s ‘Suckers’ featured in February 2017’s Live.ly in July 2016 will help to address these. of its way to guide their users on what type Muiscal.ly fans. And it keeps growing and growing. Next Wave promotion. Live.ly allows users to stream live video for of content to curate – and this is where But even if you don’t buy the idea that the up to 20 minutes and they can be rewarded Musical.ly has really changed the game.” :) 4 | sandbox | ISSUE 182 | 21.06.2017 TOOLS CHARTMETRIC
Through the past decade, the music industry has seen dozens of platform- tracking tools come and go. From BigChampagne’s founding in 2000, the Echo Nest in 2005, Semetric in 2007, Next Big Sound in 2008 and Soundcharts in 2015, each of these platforms found their unique space in the landscape of their time.
As marketers increasingly look to playlist placement as the foundation of their campaigns, the team at Chartmetric have decided to build themselves on one specific, formidable niche: Spotify playlists. (Readers not yet familiar with Chartmetric can access a 14-day free premium account and follow along smaller artists that have been added to with our exploration of the platform by playlists with over 10k followers, this using the sign-up code “MUSICALLY” on presents scores of artists that have been Chartmetric.io.) to search through curators. Looking at number of Spotify followers, number of playlisted to hundreds of thousands of Logging into Chartmetric, the user most-followed curators reveals a top created playlists, total playlist followers, playlist followers, though only hold a few is provided with a few different ways six of Spotify, spotifycharts, Filtr US, most popular playlist followers, tags and hundred followers to their own artist they can explore the data gathered by Filtr Sweden, Digster.fm and Topsify by top artists in playlists. Scrolling down profiles. To give some perspective here, of Chartmetric – Playlists, Curators, Artists number of followers to their playlist. displays the playlists Lin has created, the default 100 shown in the A&R tab at and A&R. Turning instead to most-growing, along with figures such as percentage the time of writing, only 14 have over 1,000 Selecting the Playlists tab initially though, Chartmetric shows off some of growth/decline over time. followers of their Spotify profile; 17 have provides you with a few of the most- the more interesting insights it can offer; Even a quick look around can show off under 100 followers. It’s easy to imagine followed playlists across Spotify – of when looking at the top seven curators some brilliantly practical data, a good sign how this tab can be tantalising to a label, which Chartmetric is, today, tracking by percentage growth in the last week, of a platform focused on actionability of management company or publisher looking the top 974,321. Other available search we see spotifycharts, BTS, Walt Disney its views. The ‘related curators’ section on to identify an artist on an upward trajectory options include viewing playlists by Records, Trap Nation, HITS, Digster France curators’ profiles, and the ‘similar playlists’ who could be in a convenient and well- growth, activity (replacement of tracks and Hollywood Records come out on top. sections are especially useful for any placed playlisting presence position. within the playlist) and Spotify’s genres Looking for a specific curator is simple, team considering to whom they should For reporting capabilities, Chartmetric and moods playlists. while typing in elainelin, tastemaker and be pitching their music and watching as allows users to toggle any number of Taking a look at the Curators tab, creator of Zoedic, to the search bar quickly benchmarks of playlisting success. artists they are following, choose a time users are presented with most-followed, presents a user with an overall profile on Even more intriguing is the A&R section horizon ranging from one day to all time, growing and most-active options in order the curator that includes related curators, of Chartmetric. Based on identifying set a minimum playlist follower threshold
5 | sandbox | ISSUE 182 | 21.06.2017 TOOLS CHARTMETRIC for reported playlists and add along social media, Spotify/iTunes ranks, as well as playlist change metrics. Curious where the inspiration and strategic vision behind Chartmetric came from, we spoke with Sung Cho, its founder and CEO, to get a better idea. sandbox Looking at all of the different types of data companies that have been built to service entertainment industries, what made you move into this space? Chartmetric: Much of the idea behind Chartmetric came from the data companies I became familiar with while around. We also provide API access so working in mobile games in the early users can work further with the platform 2000s. Thinking specifically of App playlists, curators and trends within the similar artists have been placed on, and on to better meet their needs, so they can see Annie – a company every game company platform. BigChampagne tried all sorts of curators similar to those who have already and understand how we’re retrieving and subscribes to and pays thousands of things, Next Big Sound had a large offering playlisted the artist. Genre and other tags presenting information. dollars to every month; in some cases, but no longer has access to Spotify data, behind music are also important here. We hundreds of thousands of dollars a and now Soundcharts is around for us to work with some MusicBrainz data for things sandbox What’s next for Chartmetric and month. I thought that was a fascinating differentiate from. So we want to provide like tags surrounding artists, so we have a streaming? business model. I’ve always loved music, our differentiation based on going into different level of searchability across tags and Chartmetric: A&R. We’re glad to already and after working at Oracle a couple years Spotify playlists deeply and efficiently. understanding of trends within the platform. have this as part of our offering and it’s ago, I wanted to build a data-oriented We’re tracking about a million playlists going to become increasingly important to company for music that met a similar on the platform and alongside playlists sandbox How often does Chartmetric labels, management companies and other model to App Annie. Except with App we’re tracking artists and curators. With update and what are the newest features? parts of the industry to be able to find Annie, which can be so expensive on Next Big Sound and Soundcharts, there Chartmetric: We update the platform new opportunities and spot rising artists account of buying data from proprietary are URLs all over the place to social media, every week and we’re working on new at the best times. We’re also working on sources, it would have to be cheaper and but there tend to be errors with them. features every day. Last week, we rolled ways to make sure Chartmetric is very better at providing estimates. Of the 600k artists we are tracking at out “% change over time” in a new way complimentary to the existing tools that Chartmetric, we have some 350k URLs and across the platform and that sets us apart labels and management companies have sandbox Chartmetric focuses specifically we estimate that 80% are correct. from Spot On Track’s Spotify tracking. available. on playlisting data. Why not add in social Spot On Track shows an equation for At labels, it’s often about tracking media, radio or other sources to help sandbox If I’m a marketer, what’s the position change, but Chartmetric shows stream volumes and revenue, to which boost your offering? quickest and best way to use Chartmetric? a graph so you can now visually see how we’re clearly very complimentary. For Chartmetric: Tracking social media data Chartmetric: Chartmetric can help to work with Spotify is prioritising and deprioritising management companies, they already changes in one place is convenient, but the system of understanding which playlists songs. We’ve also updated the reporting have a great portal at their fingertips the most demand and questions come you’ve been on in the past – and which ones sections, so users can do CSV downloads with Spotify’s Fan Insights. But knowing from figuring out what’s happening with you are likely to get on in the future. The for every table; but users who still prefer where your artist could be playlisted in playlists. Our goal is simple and it’s based playlists Chartmetric estimates an artist will to have printable PDFs or print views the future? That’s going to help these on being the best at understanding Spotify be on in the future are based on the playlists can download those as well for sending companies evolve in all sorts of ways. :)
6 | sandbox | ISSUE 182 | 21.06.2017 CAMPAIGNS The latest projects from the digital marketing arena AVEY TARE PUZZLES IT OUT SABATON GET TANKED UP
Viewers of Twitch will know that the two genres that work best in association with games are dance music and heavy metal. Basically anything with an unrelenting beat and that sounds aggressive will work a treat. lead singer. “We like to tell stories that influenced the lives of a lot of people. So it’s not exactly surprising that World Of We’ve all been playing World Of Tanks, and Tanks, the MMP (massively multi-player) seeing the company step outside of just Domino signing Avey Tare (from Animal different number of jigsaw pieces are game from Wargaming, has partnered gaming in lots of cool ways is an awesome Collective) has used a real-life and an online scattered around the screen and you have with Sabaton, the Swedish metal band, thing to be a part of.” jigsaw to announce the arrival of a new album, to drag them into a square in the middle to for what they are calling a “long-term There is a huge amount of money in Eucalyptus, which is due on 21st July. assemble the album sleeve. There is a link collaboration”. this world, with the gaming company through to pre-order the album (with retailers It started with the gaming company generating $550m in revenues in 2015 It started with a number of super-fans and (we including Domino’s own online store as well as sponsoring the Breakthrough Band alone. The metal community has tended guess) journalists (so they could write about it) iTunes, Google Play and Amazon), as well as a category at the Metal Hammer Golden to be overlooked in digital marketing receiving jigsaw packages in the post. When pre-save mechanic on Spotify. God Awards and will continue in the partnerships, which seems a huge shame assembled, the jigsaw showed what many The easy and normal levels are pretty (we presume) coming years. There are, and an even-bigger missed opportunity. presumed to be the album sleeve while the workable and can be completed in a matter of according to both sides, “cool surprises” Metal fans are arguably the most loyal side of the box had what they also presumed minutes. The hard level, however, will probably coming as the partnership develops. of any genre, happy to buy significant to be the album track titles. break your eyes or your mouse/trackpad. Naturally, the band claim to love playing amounts of merchandise as well as deluxe There’s probably a clunky argument here Domino is offering some signed puzzles to the the game and are dead good at it. “Not boxsets and tickets. that jigsaws are the original interactive visual, first few fans tenacious and clever enough to only is Sabaton a big influence for fans Metal has often been an enclosed but one thing is for certain – it’s much more complete the puzzle on the top setting. of the game, but the band themselves community – not remotely fussed about interesting that a countdown-to-album- If they are looking to lock in an impressive love playing World Of Tanks when they mainstream acceptance or validation. sleeve-reveal on Facebook or a tweet-to- dwell time of the site, they have pulled out have some free time between shows,” In the gaming world, Iron Maiden have unlock-the-sleeve mechanic on Twitter. all the stops runs a press statement. “It just goes to created a series of online and mobile That was just designed to kick start a bit of here. Just don’t show that this kind of united inspiration games for recent albums, but this was viral activity, but the real digital side of things blame us if brings a massively diverse bunch of people something they have run themselves. (as jigsaws are so analogue…) came with a you waste all together to share their passion… and blow Hopefully this Wargaming/Sabaton jigsaw takeover of his website that challenged afternoon trying stuff up.” Can’t say fairer than that. partnership is a sign of things to come fans to build the album cover and hear to complete it – “History is a great and major digital brands snippets from the album ahead of release. or defenestrate source of inspiration are finally waking up to the There are three levels of difficulty on the your laptop in to us,” added Joakim power and importance of a website – easy, normal and hard – and a utter frustration. Brodén, Sabaton’s loyal metal audience.
7 | sandbox | ISSUE 182 | 21.06.2017 CAMPAIGNS The latest projects from the digital marketing arena JAY-Z’S 4:44 IS NOT “4” EVERYONE COLDPLAY GET HYPNOTISED
Considering their last album, A Head Full Of Dreams, came out at the end of 2015, it seems unusual that Coldplay would release a companion app in June 2017. Well, it’s a companion app in the Sprint, can experience the album exclusively, sense that its artwork At the precise moment everyone else is plus access a complimentary six-month trial is based around the starting to question what, exactly, exclusives of Tidal HiFi, giving them access to content coloured circles motif are good for, Tidal is doubling down on them. they can’t get anywhere else.” from that album and It’s hardly going to shock anyone, but Jay-Z’s The wording is interesting – especially resulting tour. new album – 4:44, due for release at the end “among the first”. Does that mean the album, of the month – is going to be made available like Rihanna’s Anti and Kanye West’s The Its name – Hypnotised – comes from the until October. sandbox was unable to get to Tidal users (initially, at least). Life Of Pablo, will start as Tidal streaming post-album EP Kaleidoscope that is due at the to Germany to see them, so we played the exclusives and then go onto other services? end of June, with the song ‘Hypnotised’ having ‘Hypnotised’ video on YouTube and opened the But hold up. Not so fast. It’s not quite that Or will it, like Beyoncé’s Lemonade, stay a been released in March this year as both a app. It creates coloured circles with chimes as simple. After US telco Sprint acquired 33% of streaming exclusive on Tidal? standalone single and a teaser from the EP. So the track plays, plus you can tap the screen to the streaming service earlier this year for an Jay-Z, of course, is no stranger to a mobile an EP now has a lead single ahead of release add your own circles and chimes. And, yeah, estimated $200m, the album will be offered tie-in exclusive as the release of his Magna and then an app comes out for it three months that’s about it. to “the 45 million postpaid and prepaid Sprint Carta Holy Grail album in 2013 saw the first later (but just before the actual EP is released). It possibly roars into a life of its own customers and existing Tidal members”. Note 1m Samsung customers who had a particular Confused? Well, you shouldn’t be. when the band play the song live, working the deft rolling together of Tidal and Sprint handset getting to download it for free. The blurb on the app when you open it a little like the light-based wristbands that customers as the latter has not updated This is the first major push for Tidal now says the following (note: the negation of they hand out at shows and allows the its user numbers since March 2016 (then that Sprint has a stake in the company. capital letters is theirs, not ours). “hello! audience to become part of the visuals. The claiming 3m users). There is also a tie-in It’s inevitable that any exclusive would be thank you for downloading this app. it has problem, of course, is that it won’t work at promotion to give Sprint customers a six- used as the hook to get customers onto two purposes, really: if you’re reading this scale like the wristbands do as it would month trial of Tidal HiFi (the high-definition both Sprint and Tidal at the same time. at one of our shows, you could play the app require everyone in the audience to have version of the service). Yet it all feels like a strategy that is losing when we start the song Hypnotised and it downloaded the app in advance and be “Jay-Z is a global icon and we’re giving momentum in the streaming business as a will sound magical; or if you’re somewhere willing to open it at a particular point in customers an incredible opportunity to be whole. Given Spotify’s new licensing deals else, you could play the app with the song the show. among the first to experience his new album with (so far) Universal and Merlin, the focus playing on another device.” So, despite being based on Brian Eno’s 4:44,” said Marcelo Claure, Sprint president would appear to be away from exclusives The band are currently on a European tour generative Bloom app, it’s – for now, anyway – and CEO, in a statement. “Our loyal, existing and more towards windowing between free until July and then they go to North America an app on the periphery. customers, and customers who switch to users and full subscribers.
8 | sandbox | ISSUE 182 | 21.06.2017 BEHIND THE CAMPAIGN REAL ESTATE BEHIND THE CAMPAIGNREAL ESTATE
For the release of their fourth album, In Mind, New Jersey alternative rock band Real We started discussing this video at Giving fans ownership to Estate used video as the key way to reach and engage fans. COREY ZALOOM, digital the end of 2016 in the lead up to the make the video shareable marketing manager at Domino Recording Company’s New York office, explains how this campaign. We shot the video itself This video really gives fans involved a play-along video and the creation of an interactive video for their second in early March. How it was animated ownership. Everyone who single, ‘Stained Glass’, that let users colour it in themselves as it played and then share was that the band were shot in front participates in this colouring the results. There was also a Spotify pre-save mechanic as well as a unique series of of a green screen and they were on experience ends up with a unique link treadmills so it looked like they were to their video. Each one is different 7-inch singles playing on the stained glass motif. walking. All the animation was drawn and it is exactly what the fan Set up for the fourth album Kennedy. He got to know the band and he from actual video footage of them. coloured in. So they have something The album was announced at the start was a fan. Plus, the band really wanted to From that, there were two months of they can say they created. of January. We launched it with the track do an animated video, but didn’t really know line animation [to make the video]. It works on mobile, but I think ‘Darling’ and we also announced it in what direction they wanted to go in. They They always had really fun visuals the experience is a little stronger on conjunction with a big run of tour dates. weren’t after a standard animated video. in general and they have always desktop. We found that wasn’t really We had confirmed their Coachella show Long story short, it evolved into this done fairly comedic videos to an an issue because most of the fans before the album. In the autumn leading really great thing that I think really captures extent. For the video for ‘Darling’ , were engaging on desktop. up to the album announcement, they had the personality of the track and the band in it’s a performance video, but there’s [Getting fans to re-watch the been playing some of the new songs; so general. We were able to make a standard a horse in it. Having something that video] is part of it, but it’s also the diehard fans were expecting something YouTube video that was fun to watch – is fun in the video is important to the giving people something that is coming soon. There were also some updates which is a standard cut of it where you band. But with something like this, it shareable and not in a “This video from the studio here and there. can see it being coloured in. Then there is does find the space where videos are is good, I might share it” way, but We put out the video for ‘Darling’ and the interactive version that keeps people still really essential. People are rather a “I created this video, so I the fans really responded well to it. It had involved in the video. With a lot of interactive looking for something a little more; want to share it with my friends” way. a lovely set of visuals that gave us a lot of videos right now, people are still finding their they want to interact and they It also gets people engaged all the way opportunities to share various pieces of footing and figuring out what want to be engaged through. Not just in the video but also in content from that. We then put out the they can do with that – but it needs to be interactive experiences generally, a lot of ‘Stained Glass’ audio-free can-you-play-the- medium. With this one, purposeful. the time I don’t think it’s great that they song? teaser. The band did a run of shows at it’s just fun. don’t keep people on the page; they get the SXSW and the record came out interaction and it’s done. With this, it that Friday [17th March], so it satisfies was a nice lead up for that. the physical We really kept the focus on action of the first single for a while as we colouring it in. knew we had this really Our average time great video coming. on page was three minutes and 29 seconds – Creating the interactive so most people are video for ‘Stained engaging throughout the Glass’ entire song [it has a run time of The video itself was three minutes and 51 seconds]. created by Craig This really is a shareable thing. Allen [group creative It’s not just “Share this because director] at Wieden + you like it”, it’s “Share this because
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responded really well to that. How that is pressing plant where no two singles are converting to actual consumption of the technically the same. It was randomised music, we’ll have to wait and see. It’s still and fans didn’t know what they were too soon to see how this is going to impact getting so they ended up with a unique on sales and streaming. It’s a nice second item. It has this very colourful stained channel to put them in front of other people. glass effect to it when you see all the The focus was getting people listening 7-inches together. There were a lot of fun to the track and engaging – and hopefully plays around colour with this release. wanting to share as they have ownership over something. The [tour and album Streaming and a pre-save initiative purchase] information on the site is Overall, it’s really important to make you contributed, you have ownership present and noticeable – so it’s pretty easy streaming really easy and with no and you have something unique that you to see there’s a new album out and that and I think it was also a fun spin on a lyric barriers in the way to hear music. made to share ”. We are seeing really there are places to see the tour dates if video – which can be nice, but I think most That means working streaming positive traffic on those unique URLs. People someone wants to. It’s really just about lyric videos don’t really go above and beyond right alongside physical and are actually sharing them and going to them. getting people into that funnel – especially serving as a placeholder for a vital asset. But working physical right alongside if they are new to the band. It’s just getting with this it was something that fans wanted streaming. We are making sure we Seeding the video and ensuring them a little more familiar and warming to know right away and play. It’s active. And are using streaming platforms as a way to it wasn’t a gimmick them up to Real Estate. they got to hear the song before the album access the tracks right from the get go. The video launched along with the end of was out, which is good for everyone. We built our own Spotify pre-save the first run of tour dates for the album, but Using a play-along and tab approach mechanism for this campaign. It was the also the announcement in October for North on the first version of the video Driving pre-orders first time we did one. Fans logged in via American dates. We messaged the socials ‘Stained Glass’ is the second single off the Their sales are not so much around Spotify and were able to save the album and there was also a press team involved. album. We did a video for the track at the downloads. I’d say it’s more vinyl and to their library in advance, create an That [accusations of gimmicky] was not end of end of February; it was actually streaming. We did do a deluxe LP that sold automatically updating playlist for tracks as something we were really super-conscious a play-along video so it was the band out before the album was out; that was a they became available and were subscribed of. It’s not terribly gimmicky in the sense showing fans how to play the song and pre-order item. It is always exciting when to an artist playlist. Fans could also opt in to that they are not a viral sensation-type there was a running tab along the bottom that happens. There was really heavy the band’s newsletter at that point, as well. band. This is their fourth album. It’s not as Martin [Courtney] was playing guitar and demand for deluxe vinyl. The pre-save was available on the band’s a new breakthrough moment for them Matt [Kallman] was playing keyboards. I would not necessarily say this is an website alongside more traditional pre-order necessarily. We were just looking for We did one of these for ‘Crime’ from the audiophile fanbases, but they want the CTAs, placing it on par with actions like “buy something to create a really strong vibe for last album and the fans were so excited. premium vinyl and they want the best deluxe LP” and “download”. :) the band to express [themselves through]. There are a lot of fans who want to know listening experience they can have. They how to play these songs; they are guitar want to see the band live. You also can’t Using the video to get in front of a new heads and are really into that sort of thing, deny that streaming has been more and WANT TO FEATURE IN audience outside of the core fanbase so they really appreciate being shown how more key as time goes on. Vinyl is key for the BEHIND THE CAMPAIGN? Will the nature of the video get them in to play the song. types of artists that we work with. Marketing people: do you have a campaign you are working front of a new audience for the first time? I We also released the tab video without on that you would like to see featured in Behind The Campaign would hope so. We have seen a really strong any audio first – as a teaser – to see if any Unique 7-inch singles for ‘Stained Glass’ in a future edition of sandbox? If so, send a brief synopsis of response from design blogs and blogs in fans could figure out how to play the song We also released a 7-inch single and each it to Eamonn Forde for consideration and your work (and your the ad world – rather than just the normal without ever hearing it. That was a lot of one is a slightly unique colour. It was words) could appear here. [music] channels for any artist. They have fun for everyone. People love tutorial videos created though a mixing process at the Email: [email protected]
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