2020'S BEST MUSIC MARKETING CAMPAIGNS
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DECEMBER 09 2020 sandbox ISSUE 266 | Music marketing for the digital era 2020’s BEST MUSIC MARKETING CAMPAIGNS SANDBOX CAMPAIGNS OF THE YEAR 2020 2020’s BEST MUSIC MARKETING CAMPAIGNS elcome to Sandbox’s shortlist we had a record number of entries, from labels of the best, most original, and of all sizes from around the world. W most impactful music marketing campaigns of 2020. It’s a celebration of We’re very grateful for everyone who submitted remarkably innovative and creative work across campaigns for consideration – and we hope that a vast array of genres, with many notable in these campaigns you find a wealth of brilliant achievements notched up along the way. As ideas, new technologies, and daring creativity to ever, these successes are down to collaboration inspire your own work in the future. and teamwork, and we’re celebrating the people and companies that worked hard to make it all As always, campaigns are listed in alphabetical happen, too. order, but there are spot prizes throughout for the campaigns that we felt achieved something This was, of course, an exceptional and difficult special in an outstanding year. year for everyone as the global pandemic hit. Here’s the best of 2020. :) The vast majority of campaigns included here Eamonn Forde, mention how their plans were badly affected, Editor ideas were scrapped and new strategies had to be developed on the fly. EDIT methodology & notes • Labels could submit multiple campaigns. It is a testament to the indomitable spirit of the • Campaigns were selected on the basis marketing community that campaigns were able of originality, creativity, and impact. to quickly and smoothly adapt to these new • The deadline for submissions was circumstances and creativity was able to take 6th November 2020. on new – and unforeseen – forms. • All campaign data, budget information, and demographic statistics are provided These 50 campaigns have been painstakingly by applicants. selected from a crop of notably high-quality • Budget tiers range from £0 - £25,001+ submissions. Competition was the fiercest ever: 1 | sandbox ISSUE 266 09.12.2020 SANDBOX CAMPAIGNS OF THE YEAR 2020 RUNNINGORDER 03 | Pablo Alborán 16 | Erasure 29 | Little Mix 42 | RAC 04 | Anjunabeats 17 | Everything Everything 30 | Liza Anne 43 | RapCaviar 05 | Paul Anka 18 | Faithless 31 | M Huncho 44 | SL 06 | Ashnikko 19 | Future Islands 32 | Declan McKenna 45 | Sam Smith 07 | Biffy Clyro 20 | Georgia 33 | Bob Marley 46 | Super M 08 | Moses Boyd 21 | Glass Animals 34 | Kara Marni 47 | Tinie Tempah 09 | Phoebe Bridgers 22 | Haim 35 | Ava Max 48 | Tokimonsta 10 | Charli XCX 23 | Honne 36 | Millennium Parade 49 | U2 11 | Clean Bandit 24 | Hurts 37 | Kylie Minogue 50 | Alan Walker 12 | Leonard Cohen 25 | Juanfran 38 | Novo Amor 51 | Why Don’t We 13 | Coldplay 26 | Lauv 39 | Oasis 52 | Wojtek 14 | Trevor Daniel 27 | LA Priest 40 | One Direction 15 | Disclosure 28 | Victor Leksell 41 | Pop Smoke ➜➜➜➜➜ 2 | sandbox ISSUE 266 09.12.2020 SANDBOX CAMPAIGNS OF THE YEAR 2020 Pablo Alborán Warner Music Spain OVERVIEW OF CAMPAIGN special sticker and template was launched by ◀ ▶ Pablo to enable his fans to add their own ending The campaign is a full range of actions to the phrase “If only you’d wanted to…”. By in support of the launch of ‘Si Hubieras tagging both Pablo and this new account, fans Querido’ – the first single from Pablo would see their personal phrase being posted on Alborán’s new album. Actions and the official account and driving their engagement. campaigns were aimed at increasing awareness and fan engagement pre- RESULTS & KEY LEARNINGS ◀ ▶ launch and to drive consumption of the single post-launch. Web landing page: 16,243 new registered users It had been two years since his previous album, so we needed to Instagram filter create as much expectation as possible Impressions – 892,200 – and even intrigue – prior to the Times opened – 1,912,800 announcement and release of the first Screenshots – 457,500 single. A new website was launched Saved – 25,800 for the die-hard fans to register and Shared – 14,100 discover leads and new content prior to New Instagram account ‘Si Hubieras Querido’ – the release of this track. 11,700 followers During a five-day period leading up to the release date, Pablo Alborán We wanted to create as much expectation as would post a new photo every day possible with this first focus single and build a on his socials with a cryptic text huge digital strategy around the release that which revealed close to nothing. took into account the current situation caused Nevertheless, every text contained a by Covid-19. :) secret keyword. Fans would have to TEAM MEMBERS INVOLVED figure out which word it was, log into the new ◀ ▶ website and, through a trial-and-error process, EDIT campaign breakdown Elena García – marketing coordinator type the keyword in one of the five displayed Upon the single release, an Instagram filter Alberto De Miguel – strategy and operations text boxes. based on the lyrics of the song was launched. CAMPAIGN BUDGET £5,001–£10,000 director A match would unlock a small piece of digital The title of the single ‘Si Hubieras Querido’ Sergio Mendez – head of creative and artist content on the web: an image, a short video- means ‘If Only You’d Wanted To’ – making it the AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC services teaser or an audio excerpt of the song. perfect lead phrase for hundreds of different AGE 19-24, 25-34, 35-44 Raquel Sanz, Mónica Pérez – creative account Once the keywords were unlocked, people endings. By hitting TAB, each user would get to AUDIENCE GENDER (M/F) 26% / 74% managers could access an immersive video from Pablo read a different phrase. LOCATION Spain, Chile, Argentina, Raquel Hernández – influencers and social presenting the single which would redirect to In addition, we set up a separate Instagram Mexico, Peru media strategy the YouTube premiere. account using the name of the single and a 3 | sandbox ISSUE 266 09.12.2020 SANDBOX CAMPAIGNS OF THE YEAR 2020 Anjunabeats 20 Years of Anjunabeats award nominees Mat Zo and Fatum, a simple Thames, which was delivered to streaming brief: create a one-hour mix of your favourite DSPs and uploaded to YouTube. Anjunabeats records ever. The week before each 2. A merchandise collaboration with release, we announced a digital pre-order on our designer Mark Farrow. music store and iTunes as well as a pre-save on 3. A 20 Years Of Anjunabeats Spotify Spotify and Apple Music. Artists were given a playlist generator. A custom algorithm custom-designed “Anjuna A” and tracklist asset suggests a playlist of music from our back to share on socials. Each artist shared a personal catalogue. statement about the mix and their history with the label. RESULTS & KEY LEARNINGS ◀ ▶ Each album has three sides: 1. The original ‘mixed’ album; Various Artists: 20 Years Of Anjunabeats 2. Unmixed ‘edits’; Total streams (including YouTube & SoundCloud) 3. Extended and unmixed. – 4,953,434 Total DSP streams – 4,507,489 This is the first time that many tracks on these Total album sales – 2,086 compilations have existed on streaming DSPs in their ‘extended’ or ‘edit’ Above & Beyond: 20 Years Of format. The extended mixes Anjunabeats livestream appeal to our collectors, The product has so far achieved 3 million who are now able to listen streams on DSPs and 430k views on YouTube. TEAM MEMBERS INVOLVED that would have brought the to music that they own on The livestream was watched by 74,446 unique ◀ ▶ stars of our label to the UK, vinyl on streaming services. viewers on Twitch and received front-page Gareth Jones – label manager Western and Central Europe, The edits have allowed us to coverage. :) Molly Leighton – product manager Mexico, Australia and the highlight a priority track from Duncan Byrne, Andrew Boon, Pete Wisher – US. Content capture and each record to streaming label marketing livestreams were planned to editors, resulting in playlist Ben Chadwick – art direction support these shows, alongside adds for older works in EDIT campaign breakdown Nombo (livestream) a constant drip of new remixes frontline Spotify playlists Twitch (livestream) of classic catalogue on DSPs. such as Power Hour. We Farrow (merch design) When coronavirus hit, we were forced to have seven releases to go in the series, plus a CAMPAIGN BUDGET £10,001–£15,000 completely reevaluate our plan. A year that “secret” mix by label owners Above & Beyond. AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC OVERVIEW OF CAMPAIGN should have been an epic celebration for our To date, the campaign has driven 5m streams. ◀ ▶ AGE 25-34, 35-44 company became a fight for survival. We dusted Other activations around #Anjunabeats20 AUDIENCE GENDER (M/F) 70% / 30% This year marks the 20th anniversary of ourselves off, redeployed staff and refocused include: LOCATION Global Anjunabeats. To celebrate, we were planning a our celebrations on back catalogue. 1. A three-hour interactive Twitch series of major festival events and club tours We gave 20 artists, including Grammy livestream by Above & Beyond on the 4 | sandbox ISSUE 266 09.12.2020 SANDBOX CAMPAIGNS OF THE YEAR 2020 Paul Anka Primary Wave two months promoting the video daily and organically on all social platforms. We finally decided on a release date for the follow-up video – ‘Quarantine My Way’ – originally made famous by Frank Sinatra. The new quarantine version, which features fans as well as Anka, has a total of 200k+ views. We asked the fans to send in their quarantine versions of ‘My Way’ and then took the best submissions and created four verses into a full-length song titled ‘Our Way’. This campaign was unique because we took one idea, and were able to repurpose and rebirth new ideas and spiral campaigns for four months.