Mike Patton and his bandmates are men of many projects, so when it came time for Tomahawk to release their first album in six years, we wanted to make sure fans were excited and ready. Music marketing has changed a lot since 2007, and even more since Tomahawk’s last tour in 2003. We needed to make sure fans were digitally and socially engaged before release day.
If you’re a regular follower of The Daily Rind, you know that we’re big fans of Webdoc. Webdoc enables its users to create rich media posts in seconds. We like Webdoc because (with the help of their team) we were able to build a custom doc for Tomahawk that brought fans into the picture — literally!
Fans could use either a webdoc.com-housed app or a Facebook tab. To keep the participation barrier low, the Webdoc is compatible with built-in camera devices. No camera? No problem. Fans have the option to upload an image from their computers as well. The pictures that fans take or upload are sized and filtered to match the Oddfellows artwork. Every album cover is shared within the Webdoc, but fans can also share on Facebook and Twitter thanks to a pre-populated (but editable) message.
What were the results? In 6 days, the band saw 577 uses of the Webdoc and over 6,400 clicks driven from Tomahawk’s Facebook page. 24% of fans who saw the initial Facebook announcement clicked on the post and 14.5% created their own unique Facebook post about the Webdoc. For a band that hadn’t posted to Facebook in a few weeks, this meant a 1,111% increase in reach.
What’s the most important metric, though? Sentiment. Fans had fun!
Oddfellows is out 1/29 on Ipecac. Get it on iTunes here.
Bay area thrash pioneers Testament release their tenth studio album, Dark Roots of Earth, next week on Nuclear Blast, and we wanted to do something a bit out of the ordinary with the promotion of the record.
Since Testament have been building an extremely loyal fanbase since the early eighties, we wanted to find a way to engage the fans beyond just Facebook and Twitter, and to encourage them to share something meaningful with the band and each other. Enter The Orchard Marketplace‘s partner Webdoc!
Through Webdoc’s help, we were able to create a customized Testament experience in which fans can share photos related to the band. More specifically, playing off of the album’s title, Dark Roots of Earth, we asked fans from all across the earth to upload their photos of them at Testament gigs, with members of the band, holding Testament merch, etc., and so far the feedback has been incredible.
Every reply is branded with the Testament logo, album info and the hashtag #darkrootsofearth. Visit the page on Webdoc to see the app in action, but as of this writing it has seen 101 replies, 964 views, 9 likes and 6 reposts. It’s exciting to be able to bring so many fans’ physical experiences with the band onto the web in such a fun, community-oriented way. Thanks Webdoc!
Testament’s Dark Roots of Earth hits stores 7/31 (US) on Nuclear Blast. Pre-order it on iTunes.
He knows you want him. Mr. Worldwide, Mr. 305, Pitbull — whatever you may call him — has a hold of his fans. Nine years since his first release, Pitbull is still in the spotlight. So when on May 8th, 2012, Pitbull released Original Hits, an album of his earlier songs, it came as no big surprise that it hit #134 on the Billboard Top 200 (though it was definitely still exciting!).
So how does an artist use the Internet, which is already swarming with free streaming services and thousands of other artists, to sell his or her songs? In this article, we’ll go through the digital advertising plan of Pitbull’s album and his successful results as an example of what an artist can do.
To start, here is a quick overview of the results of his campaign. Pitbull’s first week sales were 3,753, of which 66% were physical. Original Hits was #119 on the Top Current Albums Chart, #134 on the Billboard Top 200, #13 on the Current Rap Albums chart, #19 on the Current R&B albums, and more… And, only a week after its release, 15,275,050 total impressions were delivered. Not too shabby!
Within the campaign, we used many different components, one of which was VEVO. The objective of using the premium music video platform was to build awareness about the album, with an emphasis on impressions and reaching Pitbull’s younger core fan base. So before all VEVO videos, specifically Pop, Hip-Hop/Urban and Latin genre videos, advertisements and banners of Original Hits at Best Buy would roll. The ads, which only ran until May 16th did extremely well! While our focus was on driving impressions, the pre-roll spot led to a 3.29% CTR, which accounted for more than 80% of the campaign’s activity. This led to 572,388 Best Buy impressions and 3,547 total clicks.
Are you one of those people that gripes every time Facebook changes something on you? Just when you had mastered “poking,” Zuckerberg goes and takes it away. Well, earlier this month, Facebook announced that all artist pages will take on the Timeline format by March 30th. But, hold your gripes! The Orchard’s Interactive Marketing team is here to walk you through the Timeline. EMBRACE THE CHANGE! Here, we will show you the various upgrades that come with the Timeline and how you should use them to your advantage.
1. Get Covered
The new Timeline gives artists a creative outlet to display a large cover photo (850 x 315) at the top of their new profile. To add an image to your cover, go to your Timeline, and click “Add Cover” at the top of the page. You can upload a photo or choose one from an existing album. You can then reposition the photo so that it appears exactly as you want. If you want to change the photo, simply click the image and select “Change Cover.” Here is an example of Torche‘s updated cover photo displaying their upcoming album artwork.
A few apps and services have popped up since the announcement of the migration to the Timeline. Here are some worth checking out: CoverJunction (allow fans to upload and share your cover photo while tracking shares), MyFBcovers & CoverCanvas (create a customized cover). Meshuggah saw over 100 cover photo shares and uploads of their album artwork from fans after one day of implementing the CoverJuntion app.
NOTE: Covers may not include…
Part of my role is to craft and monitor The Orchard’s digital footprint and online personality. Generally, this leaves me little time or energy to worry about how my own personal brand is reflected online. Not this week! Between the new Google privacy policy that goes into effect today and having to prepare my Facebook page for the eventual Timeline launch on March 30th, it’s time to pause and think of ways I can have a better online persona (and maybe even be a better person in the process).
Since “What I should do better” is a bit open-ended, I’m constraining myself to apps in the Marketplace (can’t stray too far away from The Orchard). Here are five things I should do:
If you’re way too tired or focused on SXSW to make any parallels from this list to your business, here you go:
Now, back to my Facebook Timeline….
