In the studios of the British Broadcasting Corporation, The Beatles performed music for a variety of radio shows. On Air – Live at the BBC Volume 2 presents the sound of The Beatles seizing their moment to play for the nation and includes 37 unreleased performances plus interviews and conversation from the studio.
The release was a great opportunity to engage with Beatles collectors, but we also wanted to address the wider audience of those who first listened to, and had their lives changed by, The Beatles on BBC radio in the early 1960s.
Working with Apple Corps and Motherlode Media, UMC created an immersive On Air microsite on the band’s main website to provide a focal point for the fans. Through this campaign hub we debuted a selection of bespoke content, including a series of minifilms, exclusive pre-release track streams and previously unseen imagery.
Pre-release streaming:
Full-length pre-release track streams were delivered via the On Air microsite giving superfans a first taste of the muchanticipated album. To reach a wider audience, an embeddable player designed to look like a vintage radio was created to give access to 30-second clips from a 14-track sampler.
In an attempt to extend the reach and bring the “DJ’s radio dedication” of yesteryear into the present day world dominated by social media, users were able to make dedications on the Vintage Radio player via Twitter using the hashtag #beatlesdedication. The embeddable radio player was serviced to press & became the most shared story on NME.com on the week of release. The radio player was also repurposed to create a YouTube album sampler to further extend the reach.
Mini film series:
To further engage the fans and drive repeat traffic to the central campaign hub from platforms including YouTube we created a series of short films using archive photos and studio chatter featured on the album. The aim for these films was to provide some insight and historical context for the release. Chapters 1 and 2 are currently live on the On Air microsite, with further chapters to come.
Results:
•Week 1 sales ‘On Air’ finished at #12 with over 25,000 sales across all formats
•Album now certified gold
•Visits to www.Beatles.com increased by 200% month-on-month during the course of the campaign
•On average the reach of posts specific to exclusive track streams generated 3x more engagement on Facebook than a typical post.
•Over 100,000 views on first two mini films to date.
Key learnings:
By drawing connections with the personal stories of radio programming of the time – and film footage of the era – we were able to connect a release of specialist tracks with a much wider audience. The scheduled delivery of bespoke content was key in engaging knowledgeable fans who already knew the history of the band. Using the content across different platforms – and strong social support of the wider promo plot – resulted in widespread exposure for the album and, ultimately, a strong chart position.
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