Legendary artist Tony Bennett has one of the most celebrated careers in music history, stretching over more than 70 years. In 2018, Tony Bennett teamed up with jazz icon, Diana Krall, to release a duets album, Love Is Here to Stay, consisting of songs from Tin Pan Alley songwriter George Gershwin. The album was first announced on Tony Bennett’s 92nd birthday across Bennett’s and Krall’s social media accounts, along with the album’s cover art. Leading up to the announcement, fans were able to submit their birthday wishes to Tony Bennett and he shared a few fan birthday wishes on his social media channels. From there, Fame House and Verve Label Group collaborated on marketing the album, with a focus on bringing the fans into the creative process.

This began with the rollout of a trove of behind-the-scenes teaser content featuring footage of Tony and Diana constructing the album together in the studio. Lyric graphics and videos from the album’s tracklist were posted across each artist’s social channels to continue to build anticipation amongst fans. Additionally, we hosted an email for entry sweepstakes giving away a hand-drawn sketch from Tony himself featuring the album tracklist.

Next, the campaign utilised singing app Smule to launch the ‘Duet With Tony’ campaign where fans could record themselves singing along to the album title track, ‘Love Is Here to Stay’, alongside Tony Bennett himself. Fans recorded themselves singing Diana Krall’s parts on the track ‘Love Is Here To Stay’, giving fans a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to duet with one of the most illustrious vocalists in history, Tony Bennett. Fans could then share their duets to their own social media, generating further awareness for the album.

Following the release of the album, a video of the full song was released featuring fan submissions singing alongside Tony Bennett. Tony Bennett shared the video on his YouTube channel and social media platforms as a thank you to fans for their involvement. On album street date, Tony Bennett took over Travel & Leisure’s Instagram Stories featuring his travels, artwork and new album, Love Is Here To Stay. The direct-to-fan e-commerce offering further reflected this theme of bringing fans into the creative process.

Within the first 48 hours of the pre-order, fans had the opportunity to purchase an exclusive album package that included a print of Tony Bennett’s own painting of his view from his NYC apartment, alongside a collectible VIP lanyard and a digital pre-order of Love Is Here to Stay. A limited number of fans were also offered the ability to purchase tickets to an intimate performance by Tony Bennett and Diana Krall at the Rainbow Room in NYC on 12th September, where they performed songs off their new album.

As a capstone to the Love Is Here to Stay campaign, the team built a virtual tour showcasing George Gershwin’s history using Google Maps, milestones in Gershwin’s history, tracks from the album and narrated historical moments.