The cover for the A Celebration Of Endings album provided two memorable visual motifs: the Pantone colour block; and the paint stroke that covers the eyes of the figure on the front. We repeatedly referenced these during the launch of the campaign.
We sent out physical Pantone postcards to fans with a hashtag, website link and a cryptic message to build anticipation. We then archived the band’s Instagram posts and uploaded the Pantone image in their place. That same day we placed the paint stroke across all of the band’s Spotify Canvases. It was also used as the image for the band’s first Instagram filter for lead track ‘Instant History’.
The full album artwork was revealed via a gamified Instagram Stories video, which was connected with a competition to meet the band. Fans had to guess what they thought the finished artwork would be by capturing a screenshot when the image’s moving parts shifted into place. They then had to repost the image for a chance to win.
Fans were then invited to submit their own artwork to the band’s Spotify Canvas Of The Day campaign. The best submissions were shared on Biffy’s Canvas.
Throughout lockdown, we maintained engagement across social media using livestreams (while encouraging fans to dress up for the occasion, using #BiffyDressUp), tutorials and a series of games. Simon Neil from the band also performed in the Twitch Stream Aid event to raise funds for the WHO’s Covid-19 Solidarity Response Fund. His set included the first live performance of ‘Instant History’.
The final track to preview the album was ‘Weird Leisure’. We launched a Pantone Treasure Hunt, which encouraged fans to find codes hidden throughout Biffy’s Instagram page. Once fans had collected all of the codes, they could enter them to a custom-built microsite to hear an advance snippet of the track.
In the week leading up to the album release, we uploaded a mini-mix of each track to Spotify under the pseudonym Cliffy Byro. Each letter of the pseudonym was added to the Canvases of the first 10 songs in the complete Biffy Clyro playlist on Spotify, creating a puzzle that fans worked collectively to unlock. Finally, we boosted preorder by creating an animation to highlight the album’s striking Zoetrope vinyl format. The day after release, we hosted an innovative livestream show which saw thousands of global fans watch the first full live performance of the album. It provided the springboard for ‘Space’ to become the biggest track from the entire campaign.
• A Celebration Of Endings became Biffy Clyro’s third UK #1 album.
• The seven livestreams hosted on Facebook and YouTube reached 7.5m people.
• The ‘Instant History’ lens was used 20,000 times, achieving a reach of 170,000.
• The band’s social media following grew by 50,000 during the campaign.
• Our series of Instagram stickers from the ‘Tiny Indoor Fireworks’ video accumulated over 3.4m views.
• The album artwork was reposted 1,700 times, with a reach of 1.6m people.
• The ‘Space’ video has been viewed 800,000 times, including a thousand viewers during the YouTube premiere.
• The Zoetrope vinyl edition sold out all 2,000 copies within a few hours of the animation being posted on socials.
• James and Ben Johnston hosted a game/trivia night with fans, reaching 60,000 people.
• A request for fans to send their videos for the band to use in the backdrop of their Radio 1 Big Weekend set resulted in 300 entries.
• The campaign featured Biffy Clyro’s first two YouTube premieres for ‘Space’ and ‘Tiny Indoor Fireworks’.
• The Twitch Stream Aid was watched by a global audience of millions and raised $2.8m
Project Budget
Demographics
