New Order’s first new studio album since 2005 and their first on Mute, Music Complete was released on 25th September 2015.
The campaign was teased and then launched in June with a series of audio/ visual trailers.
The album pre-order campaign launched in late July in tandem with the radio premiere on the Chris Evans show on BBC Radio 2.
The campaign was built around the band’s audience – targeting the hardcore fans first and then building out slowly to casual fans and a new audience. As the band hadn’t released a full studio album in the modern digital age, the campaign reflected both the traditional side of a New Order release alongside newer approaches.
Social media alongside remarketing tactics were established to directly target the band’s fans whilst traditional promotional activities complimented the marketing approach. A strong media campaign with major press features, big radio targets and sustained marketing activities upfront of album release took place whilst only concentrating on one single.
Music Complete entered the UK charts at #2, giving the band their highest charting album since Republic in 1993.
Press reviews across the board highlighted the band’s return to form, many calling it their greatest work since Technique in 1989.
The band have seen massive gains across their social media domains, with nearly 1m new likes on their Facebook page since the launch of the campaign. A brand new YouTube channel now boasts over 16k subscribers and their Spotify profile has gained over 40k new followers with their monthly listen counts now regularly passing the 1m mark.
Both singles from the album have been playlisted at BBC 6 Music, BBC Radio 2, Absolute and Radio X, showing the diverse appeal of the band and the quality of the music on the new album.
Key learnings include a deeper understanding of the New Order fanbase and what methods work with regards to the balance of preorder/sales messages versus general updates.
Outside of the music and the band, a lot of the success is down to the strength of the team assembled; from the label through to management and the external promo teams, a close working relationship and strong teamwork lead to a well-executed campaign which will see the album sustain post-release into a lengthy campaign. It was noted in the outset that previous albums came out strong but then didn’t always have a long shelf life, which was something we wanted to avoid and as it currently stands we are planning through to at least a year post-release.
Project Budget
Demographics
