The group already had a big social media following, especially on Facebook; we soft launched by sharing a new website, which quietly featured a photo of the new album cover (a painting by Brighton-based artist Sarah Shaw). We then targeted ambiguous display ads at the pool of users who visited this new site after being referred from the Daughter socials, as we moved early to associate the artwork with the band and record. We then fully launched the album a week later (after also teasing gifs from the ‘Doing The Right Thing’ video) with an album pre-order, new single and a Songkick partnership for a limited number of underplays.

The first video also went through the band’s YouTube channel rather than Vevo, in order to reach the earliest fans, and was timed for 8am UK to hit the majority of their younger fanbase – rewarded with it trending on Twitter across Europe.

With big support from radio and streaming services, we moved to our next stage of online promo, with the launch of Timeline. Something we all agreed on early was that the band are relatively quiet on socials, but their fanbase are very busy there; so we decided a focal point of the campaign should be fan-sourced content, which led to the creation of Timeline on the band’s site, which pulls photos, videos, text from Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr posts that use #ohdaughter, which is the group’s social handle. We were overwhelmed by the response, with hundreds of submissions – from live photos to tattoos of lyrics to embroidered album covers – and this allowed us to keep socials busy and ensure that there were constant mentions of the band as anticipation for the new album grew.

Central to the campaign has always been word of mouth for a band who have a real emotional connection with their fans, and this mechanism allowed us to share the creative works of people and allow them to feel a genuine part of the campaign.

Almost 12 months after release, we still have daily updates. As part of this focus on the band’s site as a genuine, evolving hub for exclusive access to Daughter (in order to develop the aesthetic of the campaign and for retargeting etc.), we also developed the 3 Films feature, tied to the three lead videos from the album which were directed by the BAFTA award-winning Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard. It featured exclusive behind the scenes images, plus interviews with all parties and copies of the short stories that inspired each short film.

We partnered with Spotify for the campaign, leading to huge streaming numbers in week 1 and beyond, plus Songkick has been valuable in growing an already strong live following, culminating in a sold-out Brixton Academy show this autumn. Around the show we invested in Snapchat geofilters, and also used Twitter’s new Camera app to capture live gifs and videos from the show, giving unprecedented access for their international fanbase.