NIKOO SADR // @HALLANIKOO

HEAD OF TRAINING & CAMPAIGNS

MUSIC ALLY (UNITED KINGDOM)

&

THE BEST MUSIC MARKETING CAMPAIGNS OF 2015-16

As part of our training and editorial services Music Ally need to

constantly keep in touch with labels, managers and artists and their

latest digital campaigns. This paper outlines some of those case studies,

giving an overview of the most interesting digital marketing campaigns

of 2015/2016. The examples will be across industry genres, platforms

and range from modest to big budgets. This paper highlights how they

were created, the results they achieved and key learnings.

The campaigns are listed in alphabetical order and cover everything

from massive stars all the way to independent artists. The results and

additional information regarding the campaigns are shared by the team

behind them but Music Ally has summed up key learnings and our own

opinion at the end of each campaign.

BACKGROUND

BEST CAMPAIGNS OF 2015/2016

1. ANIMAL COLLECTIVE

2. GWEN STEFANI

3. LUDOVICO EINAUDI

4. MANS ZELMERLOW

5. MOONES

6. TOVE LO

7. TROYE SIVAN

8. YACHT

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE –

PAINTING WITH

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE

THE SET-UP

› Domino Records and Animal Collective created a

new app, Painting With, to promote the band’s

single, ‘Lying In The Grass’. The track plays

exclusively in the background as fans can paint

together with anyone in the world (or alone) to

create some trippy looking paintings. The

painting can then be turned into a photo or video

and shared to Instagram and Twitter.

› The Animal Collective app is making strong use

of video - creating an album/single cover that

almost comes to life.

Finding a way to additionally bring an album ‘alive’

through turning music into visual images and

creating a sharing experience with other people

can prove very useful for, in particular, heavily

visual bands. The Animal Collective app is a nice

spin on creating live visuals that encourages

engagement. Premiering a track only through the

app should have proven incentive enough for fans

to download the app but note that no results were

available for this campaign.

THE MUSIC ALLY OPINION

GWEN STEFANI – MAKE ME LIKE YOU

GWEN STEFANITHE SET-UP

› Unlike other any other live streamed event Gwen

Stefani provided a ‘first ever live music video’ for

her new single ‘Make Me Like You’ made during this

years’ Grammy’s. Gwen Stefani teamed up with

Target and showed the singer performing live on

stage in her music video during a commercial

break. Through various sets and costume changes

(many of them Target branded, inevitably) and even

included some roller-skating.

› The video was after the initial premiere available on

Stefani’s Vevo channel. Target also organised

additional material for Facebook, Snapchat and

Periscope as well as bringing YouTubers Todrick

Hall and Meg DeAngelis along to shoot behind-the-

scenes content and perform cameos in the video.

GWEN STEFANI- RESULTS

The event got highly publicised andtalked about worldwide, both inmagazines and social media.

The video got 2m views in a week.

Target got over 3bn media impressionsin 7 days.

Pre-orders at Target outperformed theoverall expectations, according toInterscope Records - and the albumlanded Stefani’s first solo no.1 onBillboard.

Gwen Stefani found a way to make the most of a live streaming event – a first ever

live filmed music video. A great brand (and influencers) partnership with Target

that proved fruitful and beneficial for all parties both in exposure as well as sales.

THE MUSIC ALLY OPINION

LUDOVICO EINAUDI - NIGHT

LUDOVICO EINAUDI

THE SET-UP

› For the launch of the single, ‘Night’, Decca

Records created a dedicated website together

with the Touch Pianist app. Fans could go on to

the site and guess what the single would sound

like by ‘playing’ it themselves.

› The music video launched after 24 hours so

fans then could hear what it would sound like.

This was then accompanied by an additional

interactive advertising campaign on Spotify

where fans could play the music directly from

within the browser.

LUDOVICO EINAUDI

THE SET-UP

› There were also coordinates disguised as

Morse code within the music video. For the

fans that were curious enough about the code,

they would find it pinpointing a river and

bridge near Ludovico’s birth place in Google

Maps.

› Typing the location into a password box on the

dedicated website revealed a phone number

which fans could use to hear Ludovico’s

answerphone message (and fans could leave

their own messages).

LUDOVICO EINAUDI -CAMPAIGN DETAILS

Label

Decca Records

Campaign budget

£2000-5000

Demographics targeting - Gender

Female 55% / Male 45%

Audience demographics targeting - Age

18-34

Audience demographic targeting - Location

UK, Italy, US

LUDOVICO EINAUDI - RESULTS

Website landing page had 8k visitors on launch day.

Average dwell-time on site was 2 minutes - a fantastic result,according to the Decca team.

Large amount of return visitors once video was launched after 24hours.

A classical artist can and should make use of

the same tactics as pop acts. A well-executed

and well-structured campaign, playing with

new methods to reach a wider audience as well

as serving to super-fans.

THE MUSIC ALLY OPINION

MANS ZELMERLOW –

SHOULD’VE GONE HOME

MANS ZELMERLOW

THE SET-UP

› The aim was to set up a competition in which fans

from all over the world could enter. Fans could, by

working together, unlock the music video (hosted

on YouTube) to “Should’ve Gone Home”. The more

streams “Should’ve Gone Home” got on Spotify, the

faster the video would unlock.

› If fans could unlock it early, Måns would host an

extra Q&A on Twitter. A percentage meter was

viewable on a dedicated campaign site so

everyone could follow the advancements. The

landing page also contained the Twitter feed

based on #unlockshgh and a map showing the

locations of the hashtags.

MANS ZELMERLOW

During the campaign period, between 9-21st of September, the number ofunique visitors increased by 16000% and visitors were coming in from allover the world.

• The video got 300k views in a week.

• The different hashtags being used during the campaign was spread 12746times by fans from all over the world which resulted in a #1 worldwide trend on Twitter.

The streams on “Should’ve Gone Home” increased a lot after the campaignwas over due to the support it got on both radio and Spotify editoriallyafter the campaign period.

A stream-to-unlock campaign that perfectly

captured how Spotify and YouTube can be used

in symbiosis and drive additional revenue for

artists as well as creating a momentum for a

video premiere. It was also a competition that

worked perfectly for the target audience

providing them with prizes they desired and

giving them an incentive to spread the word

about the campaign organically.

THE MUSIC ALLY OPINION

MOONES – ZOOMES BY MOONES

MOONES

THE SET-UP

› Just before the New Year, Moones found an

inventive way to livestream and promote their

latest album, Modern Music Moguls. The stream

was featured on YouTube and included footage of

a brick wall in London, with the band challenging

fans to figure out where exactly it was located

and then tweet the code hidden under a piece of

chewing gum stuck to the wall in order to win

£4,000 (initially their budget for a promo video).

› When certain milestones in views (5k, 10k, 40k)

were reached the camera would reveal more of

the brick wall and the surrounding area.

MOONES - RESULTS

Extensive coverage in many newspapers extending far out of the usual pressthe band usually receives, which also contributed to bringing in new listenersfor the released album.

Because of the coverage the successful winner found the code within a day –much faster than initially anticipated by the band.

Moones managed to get maximum spread of their

absolutely bonkers idea of a campaign. Simply brilliant

idea that attracted fans and magazines to open up their

eyes for the band far outside their initial fanbase.

THE MUSIC ALLY OPINION

TOVE LO - TIMEBOMB

TOVE LO

THE SET-UP

› Making the most of the meaning behind the

single ‘Timebomb’, a dedicated site was built

where fans all over the world could log in to

watch the new music video together with another

fan from anywhere around the world. A live video

feed was showing the fans that pressed play on

the video at the same time. When the music

video ended, a picture remained of the time the

fans spent together.

› Occasionally Tove Lo herself would log in to

watch the video together with fans. The video

itself was played trough a YouTube player, which

meant every view generated revenue back to the

artist.

TOVE LO - CAMPAIGN DETAILS

Label

Creative Labs/Universal Music Sweden

Campaign budget

£5000-10 000

Demographics targeting - Gender

Female 50% / Male 50%

Audience demographics targeting - Age

15-20

Audience demographic targeting - Location

World wide with Sweden and USA in the top 2

TOVE LO - RESULTS

In the first 48 hours, 2900 Timebomb pictureswhere shared all over the web.

Average time on the site was over 6 minutes,a lot longer than the music video it self.

Participants from all over the world with over160 countries logging in.

A great way to encourage fans to keep

watching a video and prolonging the

‘life’ of a video premiere by providing

a unique experience of the video. Not

only great to spread the word about

the new video but also helped

increased revenue streams by

applying the meaning of the song in a

whole new way and connecting fans

with each other.

THE MUSIC ALLY OPINION

TROYE SIVAN – WHEN IN

SWEDEN…

TROYE SIVAN

THE SET-UP

› Universal Music Denmark used top influencers in

Denmark to gain attention and press there around

Troye Sivan’s sold-out show in Stockholm. None of

the Danish newspapers or TV were picking up on

doing interviews with Sivan (except for Ritzau, the

Danish news agency), which led to the label’s

decision to bring YouTubers Rasmus and Julia Sofia,

to interview Troye (himself also a YouTuber).

› The YouTubers had freedom to formulate the

interviews themselves. They also posted about their

trip across all their socials – a purely organic move

on their behalf.

TROYE SIVAN - RESULTS

Julia Sofia’s video had 52,730 views insix days while Rasmus’ had 46,419views in just four days, which accordingto Universal Denmark is “higher thansome of the music video views forUniversal Music Denmark’s key localartists”.

The tracking link for the album in thevideos contributed to 77.5% of theoverall traffic, with peaks on videorelease days.

Troye Sivan was the perfect artist with an audience fitting

for this type of promotion; it resulted in both a wide reach

as well as helping to build up Sivan’s relatability. It was a

campaign that made the most of YouTubers and influencers

to connect with the right demographics. How come more

artists are not connecting with fans through content they

relate to and via the channels they actually use everyday?

THE MUSIC ALLY OPINION

YACHT – L.A PLAYS ITSELF

YACHT

THE SET-UP

› For the launch of the single, ‘LA Plays Itself’, the

band related the launch directly to the city of

L.A. Famous for its bad traffic, L.A played a

significant part of the campaign. Every time

traffic was bad the track would unlock.

› The traffic was monitored via the Uber app;

when Uber prices surged 1.1x the normal rate

the music video unlocked. When traffic was

really bad, surge prices doubled 2x and a

remix by Darq E Freaker played. Fans could

follow the updates via Yacht’s Twitter account

for automatic updates.

YACHT - CAMPAIGN DETAILS

Label

Downtown Records/ BBDO NYC

Campaign budget

£2000-5000

Demographics targeting - Gender

Female 45% / Male 55%

Audience demographics targeting - Age

18-30

Audience demographic targeting - Location

US, with large bases in LA, NY, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland and Austin

YACHT - RESULTS

The campaign brought on expanded media coverage far beyondmusic blogs because of its wide appeal gaining significant coverageon Pitchfork, Buzzfeed, The Verge, Engadget, LA Times, Gizmodo andStereogum, which resulted in more than 15m unpaid mediaimpressions.

Within two days, the video had exceeded 100k views and the site wasshared more than 5,000 times across social media.

Album pre-orders had increased by 23% by the end of the campaignweek.

Uber contacted the band after launch asking to collaborate.

A great campaign that tapped into what everyone

experiences when living in LA – bad traffic – which

thus ensured proper impact for the music while

reaching new fans. The band really managed to create

a moment that was appealing beyond their existing

fanbase. Plus this was just one part of a wider

campaign that used tools like Google Maps, BuzzFeed

and annotations on Genius.

THE MUSIC ALLY OPINION

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“THE BEST DIGITAL MARKETING CAMPAIGNS OF 2015-2016”

BY NIKOO SADR

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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About Music Ally

At Music Ally we love music, and we love tech. We believe that these worlds should not be battling each other and so

our mission for the past ten years has remained the same: to explore ways that the two worlds can work profitably

together. Music Ally has been providing publications, consulting, research, events and training to the music and

technology industries since 2001.

About Nikoo Sadr

Nikoo is responsible for training and campaigns at Music Ally. She is involved in the research and development of new

materials based on best practice principles for the global music business; working directly with leading global

companies and start-ups to develop methods that help support growth and development in the rapidly changing

sector. Nikoo also writes for the Music Ally digital marketing publication, Sandbox, contributing editorial and insight

into the developments in the changing market.