Each year Music Ally shines a light on music marketing campaigns that stand out among the rest. This year, 50 campaigns were shortlisted based upon their originality, creativity, and impact. In 2020, creativity was key as the structure of music marketing was flipped upside down, and many plans had to be reconfigured for this virtual era.
At The Orchard, our purpose is to empower our artists and labels to reach audiences on a global scale. Through teamwork we are proud to share that our efforts contributed to at least six campaigns listed in Music Ally’s Sandbox Campaigns of the Year 2020 edition. Learn more about these campaigns and their success below.
HURTS
An incredibly artistic and visionary duo, the band HURTS (Seven 7 Management), made up of The Hutchcraft and Adam Anderson, were the masterminds behind the campaign concept for their album Faith. What set the campaign apart was its many levels of engagement, and the use of inventive social platforms such as Telegram to engage with their fanbase.
Alongside Seven 7 Management, clues hidden throughout the band’s content helped drive fans across streaming services in search of more music and exclusive content. Fans got a chance to contribute to the campaign with competitions to design a Spotify Canvas for ‘Voices.’ Instagram followers were asked to suggest tracks for themed playlists helping to drive additional followers to the platform to see if their picks were included. The Orchard played a large role in creating premium physical content including boxsets, vinyl, and two cassettes contributing to Faith’s placement at #8 on the UK physical vinyl charts.
JUANFRAN
At just 15 years old, Juanfran (DN7 Music) has become a global sensation by charting on Billboard, earning the Top Urbano Europe Award from Premios Tu Música and more. However, success doesn’t happen without hard work. From February 3-14, Juanfran and The Orchard pushed out a detailed campaign covering just about every social outlet with special content promoting the release of ‘Como Llora.’ What made the biggest splash was Juanfran’s TikTok efforts. The challenge #comollorachallenge drove fans to reenact the choreography and participate by using the Duo function. His participation on TikTok drew 900 thousand followers and inspired one billion post creations.
KARA MARNI
Kara Marni (First Access Entertainment) earned five million combined streams and video views, over 100 thousand track saves and 40 thousand new followers. Renowned animator Ivan Dixon created her “Young Heart” music video. Interactive content played a huge role in the ‘Young Heart’ campaign. A video game was created in partnership with Wayward Creative, which replicated the aesthetic of the music video and ultimately helped drive streaming consumption. The game leaderboard added extra incentive for fans to continue playing and extended the life of the game by giving Kara something new to talk about on social media each week.
MOSES BOYD
Moses Boyds’ (Exodus Records) album Dark Matter was shortlisted for the esteemed Hyundai Mercury Prize Award, which exposed Moses to a new audience, and allowed people to discover his music for the first time. The Orchard teams tied in organic digital marketing and paid advertising to amplify the record and Mercury Prize nomination. Moses saw the biggest percentage increase in album sales – 37.8% – of any shortlisted artist.
The digital marketing campaign involved creating a landing page for the Dark Matter website, a Dark Matter “Stranger Than Fiction’ Instagram filter, out of home billboard advertising, special vinyl editions, listening parties (Tim’s listening party), album playbacks, and playlist takeovers.
WOJTEK
The Orchard Artist Services team worked with Poland-born Berlin-based neoclassical artist and composer, WOJTEK on his debut album Atmosphere. The goal was to fully record and produce an album that was carbon neutral, while also inspiring others through the campaign to reduce their own emissions and raise awareness about the climate crisis. What resulted was an album distributed solely digitally, along with a website / CO2 tracker to go hand in hand with the album. The tracker showed the CO2 emissions produced behind each aspect of the recording and production. An interactive infographic showed the process of producing Atmosphere while also providing tips to inspire musicians and listeners to consider their carbon footprint.
OASIS
This October marked the 25th Anniversary of Oasis’ What’s The Story (Morning Glory), the UK’s third biggest studio album of all times. Commemorative limited edition 25th anniversary vinyl formats were made available and the Ignition team led on a comprehensive digital marketing campaign. Read more about The Orchard’s recently announced partnership with Ignition Records.
