Good marketing makes you look. It can be the simple gesture of an artist replying to fans on social media or a poster advertising campaign. It might make you look for a few seconds, remind you of an upcoming event or an album release. This battle for attention isn’t new. Looking through the lens of advertising the goal is to become and remain front of mind. It plays on the availability heuristic that says people will overweight what they can most recently recall. Arguably it’s the understanding of this behaviour that has contributed to the always-on attitude we now wrestle with when it comes to social media. Advertising is of course only one element of a wider marketing plan but it’s an example of an area which initially focusses on making people look.
Great marketing on the other-hand is one that makes you think. It creates a pause. That pause should elicit a connection and subsequently create an action. When you hit upon exceptional marketing it becomes non-transferable. It’s the work spent focussing on ideas that feel so intrinsic to the artist that removing their name and replacing it with another artist would render the original message incompatible.
It’s a simplistic notion but great ideas draw inspiration from a true understanding of who the artist is. Once you’re working at this granular level your ability to contextualise the messages in your marketing will have layers that create the non-transferable status we seek.
It’s worth taking a quick moment to acknowledge originality. Ideas and the evolution of them take inspiration from many areas. Some consciously and more less so. While a lot of ideas have a clear reference point, sometimes the simplicity of manoeuvring just a little to achieve the great might be all that you need. This pays homage to Virgil Abloh’s 3% rule; tweaking something by only 3% can generate an entirely new contribution to the overall output. When building on what has come before the focus isn’t replication but to take the nucleus of the idea and make it your own. This is how we strive to make our marketing non-transferable.
The good and the great don’t need to be mutually exclusive. It’s not to say the good doesn’t have a place. And while marketing isn’t reduced to what we can put up on a billboard, advertising provides us with a helpful comparison between the two states of play.
Aphex Twin – Blimp vs Album Itemisation
Was he the first to take the concept of producing an itemisation of costs that went into making an album? Potentially, but possibly not. What makes it great is that when you consider the intricate and neurotic nature of Aphex Twin’s music, the detail employed feels so very much the artist. It's this inseparability we’re striving to achieve. The ah ha moment where what is being communicated couldn’t be anyone else’s than what we’re experiencing right in the moment. The good still has a place; do I still want to see an Aphex Twin blimp as I’m walking down the street? Yes! Was he the first? No. But the guy does own an tank (see here, read here) so his choice of alternative transportation to promote a new album felt very much in his wheelhouse.
Tyler, The Creator – Call Me If You Get Lost Billboards
The simplest of ideas can often be the most effective. If you name your album “Call Me If You Get Lost”, the leap in that being your billboard with a number for people to call won’t feel all that far away. Services like Community and Laylo have popularised the method of phone mailing lists for a while so Tyler isn’t the first to utilise this in his marketing. However, the lack of context on the billboard to create intrigue. Using the album title in of itself as the call to action. This approach creates an unquestionable synchronicity. On the flip side you have a traditional album poster. It features the artwork, artist, and track title. It’s informative, you’re resurfacing something back to people’s front of mind. It might make you think that you need to go and listen to the album and that can be enough.
slowthai – Nothing Great About Britain Billboards
Provocative in it’s own right, slowthai’s debut album title reflected the artist who made it. The billboard advertising campaign that accompanied the album’s announcement addressed a mix of social, gender and racial issues in Great Britain. The simplistic layout; short bold statements followed by the album title ‘Nothing Great About Britain’ went for reduced noise and high impact. From the serious (homelessness death rates) to the funny (a poll of people who actually like Boris Johnson), slowthai’s entire proposition was divisiveness and an unapologetic energy. At the time these billboards didn’t feel like they could have been anyone else’s. (Full disclosure, OOO worked on slowthai’s Nothing Great About Britain album).
Lil Nas X – Montero Billboards
When told by country music’s establishment that his hit Old Town Road wasn’t country, Lil Nas X went off and secured a remix featuring one of the genre’s biggest stars, Billy Ray Cyrus. One of the best clap-backs in recent memory. When it came to his album advertising he adopted a similar spirit. Proving that he doesn’t take himself too seriously while simultaneously gaslighting those who attempt to stifle his creativity.
Maggie Rogers – In-Person Ticket Sale
As we've discussed, creativity and ideas in marketing are evolutionary. Sometimes you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. As long as we absorb the genesis of a preexisting idea into the artist, we can build upon it and execute it in the right way. In the case of Maggie Roger’s recent tour announcement, it came with the opportunity to buy tickets in real life. At the venue's box office. Which included the opportunity to buy tickets from Maggie herself. This ticket sale was before the wider online sale. Structured this way it allowed room to create tension. If you’re motivated (and able) to make the effort to step out from behind your screen you'll be rewarded. And as such, tension released. Ticket pre-sales are commonplace, some via mailing list signups, others by all manner of super-fan segmentations methodologies. And likewise, these in-person sales have been done before. But if you can execute ideas with consistency, make them your own, you can future-proof your marketing.
Billie Eilish – Vanity Fair Interview
Reinventing the filmed interview format has taken us down paths from hot sauce to chicken shops. These are a fun source of entertainment but does any of it feel particularly intrinsic to the artist? Is the very format bringing more out of the artist because of it’s environment?
Vanity Fair’s interview of Billie Eilish in 2017, at the age of only 15 following a breakout year is an endearing insight into the teen’s outlook on life. Switching between the unfathomable experiences she was having and all the unknowns that were to come. Cut to 2018 and an interview revisiting Billie provides a beautiful conversation between the two versions of an artist and ultimately, a person. As a concept the format could be used again and again but at the time, the meteoric rise of such a young artist creates an emotional punch between optimism and self-reflection. The entire interview speaks for itself and the huge impact only a year can make.
Good marketing? Some other examples I recall is Radiohead - Kid A blips and of course Creeper - Eternity, in Your Arms missing posters rollout, both very minimalist and made a buzz.
nice read and joining your mailing list.
Good read. Thanks for sharing, love your logo and aesthetic.