The Danish duo The Raveonettes burst onto the garage rock scene in 2001 with their now infamous first two albums inspired by the Dogma 95 movement. They created a set of rules such as all songs could only be written in B flat, no hi-hat allowed and vocals recorded in one take.
Fast forward to 2016 and the Raveonettes are at it again with a new set of prescribed rules. This time they decided to write, record and release a track every single month of 2016 and assemble the Anti-Album. Each song is written, recorded and released in the same month. No work is done in advance.
We developed a digital marketing campaign around this concept that heavily focused on remarketing and re-engaging fans based on the ‘hype cycle’/‘engagement loop’ theory. As well as monthly track deliveries, the band also supplied highly stylised lyric videos for each track and studio teaser trailers.
Each single release was treated as an ‘album release’ in the conventional sense, with socials, website and monthly newsletters being rebranded, audiences being segmented, digital advertising scheduled, all with an eye to growing streaming figures and D2C sales. With the release of each monthly installment, fans are driven towards theraveonettes.com to build remarketing pools. Fans are presented with the option of pre-ordering the album, downloading this month’s track or to listening to it in a playlist environment on both Spotify and YouTube encouraging multiple streams and/ or subscriptions.
The Raveonettes will be concluding the campaign by not only releasing the album, but also by hosting a special intimate prelaunch party in San Diego on 21st January 2017 where they will perform the album in its entirety. In total, 150 tickets for the party have been given away for free via the band’s mailing list and fans will be flying in from all over the world to see this special performance.
Despite being a rather unconventional release strategy (and only being two-thirds of the way through the pre-release phase,) with a small advertising budget ($270 per track), the ‘anti-album’ and the band not actively touring has already achieved the following results:
• $36,000+ in D2C sales
• 1,500,000+ audio streams
• Inclusion in 70+ playlists that have driven over 700,000 streams on Spotify alone
• 6m Facebook impressions • 150,000+ YouTube views on ‘anti-album’ lyric videos
• 128% increase YouTube channel subscribers, 28% increase in views and 23% increase in watch time compared to the same period in the previous year
• 20% increase in Instagram followers since the campaign began
The lifespan of this campaign has forced us to experiment with new formats to keep fans engaged (360° video, Facebook Canvas etc.).
An extended ‘pre-release’ phase enabled us to identify which tracks to push at radio come the album’s conventional release early next year. We have been able to fine tune our digital advertising strategy with the release of each track building a better understanding of the band’s current audience and reengaging fans who have fallen out of the loop. As the campaign unravels, we are finding new discoveries, not only about The Raveonettes, but how the traditional release format may be turned on its head in the future.
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