Def Leppard celebrated the 30th anniversary of their seminal album Hysteria with a seven-disc expanded edition, prepared with Def Leppard frontman Joe Elliott acting as executive producer. The challenge was to engage superfans, to whom the boxset appeals, and more casual fans, where our objective was to grow sales of existing formats such as vinyl and CD. As the band’s catalogue is not available digitally, our objective was to translate fan experiences into physical sales.

Fans “joined the Hysteria” via a series of promotions designed to bridge the gap between the digital and physical worlds. For the super-engaged fans, we held An Evening With Joe Elliott, featuring the singer in conversation with Planet Rock DJ Paul Anthony. The event was streamed live on Facebook from London’s Gibson Guitars showrooms in front of an audience of media and 50 competition winners selected via media partner Planet Rock. The 1.5-hour live stream reached over 1m people.

The Def Leppard album cover generator was a simple tool that allowed casual and superfans alike to create a personalised Hysteria album cover with their photo and name written in the Def Leppard font, sharing it using #Hysteria30 for a chance to win a boxset. There were over 25k visits to the generator and 10k images were shared in the UK. Although the primary aim was awareness rather than data collection, we achieved a 40% increase in mailing list signups on the already extensive Def Leppard database.

In a nod to Def Leppard’s 1980s roots, we also created a Pac-Man-inspired Def Leppard game, which allowed players to choose their characters from the 1987 lineup of the band.

All of this was rounded out with video content filmed with the band: a YouTube mini-documentary created by in-house brand, uDiscover; guitar tutorials with guitarist Phil Collen created by US label Universal Music Enterprises; and a series of Hysteria 30 shout-out videos from celebrity fans, including Queen, AC/DC, Aerosmith, Megadeth and Mötley Crüe.