Karen O (of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs) signed with Julian Casablancas’ label, Cult Records. Kobalt Label Services has joined Cult as its label services partner, with the first release out the door being Karen’s solo album.
In support of Karen O’s debut album, Crush Songs , we wanted to create a global event that also felt local. To achieve this we partnered with Sofar Sounds to create special playback events in cities around the world. The idea was to get fans a place they could physically engage with and be part of the campaign without having to fly Karen around the globe.
We built a special site for the initiative, featuring a map of playback locations, where fans could sign up for a chance to attend one of the events. Winners would then be invited to a location to listen to a vinyl copy of the album pre-release. (With Karen making a surprise appearance at the NY show.) The page also pulled in content from Twitter and Instagram with specific hashtags making a kind of web-based look into what was going on not only around the events, but the entire album campaign. (Pre-release, this would create buzz about the record; then during the event, it would be a place to see what was going on around the globe in real time.)
We had great signups, filling all events. The hashtags on Twitter and Instagram allowed fans unable to attend to still get a feeling for the events as they were going on. It also allowed fans in different cities to have a view of other participating cities. This was particularly interesting in that Karen actually appeared at the NYC show as a surprise.
KEY LEARNINGS
Using a combination of social media, web development and actual events, we created a special playback experience that not only allowed fans to get involved locally, but also tied in the rest of the world via the web and hashtags. And Karen turning up at one event spread globally, allowing fans to interact with one another around the record.
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