Wrong Crowd was released in April 2016 and, as it had been three years since Tom Odell’s debut platinum-selling album, we began planning at an early stage and identifying key campaign goals.

Our digital team’s core goals were to re-engage Tom’s fanbase, challenge what was expected of Tom and to ensure he was even more accessible across the entire campaign in a bid to convert potential fans. We worked with our insight team to identify Tom’s most active fans, lapsed segments of his fanbase and finally those potential fans we were keen to reach during the album campaign and beyond. Using this research, we plotted our campaign starting with the basics such as engagement across social channels and reaffirming the fanbase’s familiarity with streaming services as the chart reporting had changed since the last album release.

In our pursuit of reaching both lapsed and potential fans, we collaborated with social influencers whose work suited the direction and vision Tom had for the album or who had shown previous interest in Tom. He then worked with them to create bespoke video and visual content across YouTube, Instagram and Vine.

To premiere the first video of the campaign, Tom partnered with Fyuse, a spatial photography app which allows users to capture 360 photos in such a way that they appear to be 3D, to launch a new music feature. This allowed fans to experience new music in an entirely new and visual way. We introduced unique fan moments such as international pop-up shows and surprising superfans with Tom giving them a lift to the album playback in his Mini. We gave fans access to a WhatsApp activation via a number that was only shared once. Tom personally used the group to send private messages to the fans, as well as logging in to chat to fans one-to-one.

Beyond the album activity, the group became extremely effective in activating international fan groups.

We’ve since moved to Facebook Messenger for his current European tour.

Tom’s live and TV performances have always shown to form a deep connection with fans and new audiences. With this in mind we set to achieve this in the digital space by partnering with BuzzFeed and Sakks Fifth Avenue to reach new potential fans via Facebook Live activations, whilst introducing candid Facebook live moments throughout the campaign, including a live performance from Tom’s Paris hotel room.