2022 marked the 40th anniversary of The Clash’s final album, Combat Rock, as the original line-up of Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon and Topper Headon. To celebrate, we released a special edition, titled Combat Rock – The People’s Hall.

The Clash have two main demographics: core fans; and an everincreasing audience of 18-35-year-olds who make up over 69% of streaming. Most of this audience comes from the sync of ‘Should I Stay Or Should I Go’ in Stranger Things.

As Season 4 of Stranger Things launched, ‘Should I Stay Or Should I Go’ grew across DSPs and TikTok as a younger demographic started to rediscover the song. To capitalise on this moment, we challenged TikTok creators from various verticals (painters, food artists, digital animators) to show off their creativity using the official sound. The content was re-posted on the newly launched official profile.

To further engage core fans and help grow the CRM database we launched a digital The Clash Certified Fan ID – a Sony Music UK first-of-its-kind campaign. Here, fans had to fill out a form with their name, the decade they became a fan, their favourite album, and their favourite Combat Rock song, to receive a personalised fan ID card that could be shared across socials.

Telling the story of Combat Rock to a younger audience was an important pillar of our social strategy. To do just this, we created a track-by-track Instazine, featuring lyrics, facts, and videos in a familiar, digestible, and engaging swipeable carousel format.

This campaign was the first instance of new, original visual content that represented the band’s music on their YouTube channel, including:

• A documentary film of legendary graffiti artist Futura reminiscing about his collaboration with the band in the ‘80s.

• Visualisers featuring exclusive content created by Futura and rare photography by Pennie Smith.

• 4K video premieres of ‘Rock The Casbah’ and ‘Should I Stay Or Should I Go’ attended by director Don Letts with fan Q&As.

To encourage streaming we partnered with DSPs on the following:

Apple Music:

• Album Of The Week.

• Don Letts interviewed by Strombo on Apple Music Radio.

Amazon Music: 

• Rediscover The Clash campaign.

Spotify:

• On-platform marketing