Sony Music’s Partnerships team was presented with the opportunity to help construct Topman’s re-entry into the world of music partnerships. After years of no engagement within the music space, the idea from the brand and their agency Somethin’ Else, was to reignite an old project around music video partnerships.
Knowing the challenges this would present (contentious hosting rights, music licensing, creative ownership etc.), we worked alongside Somethin’ Else to shape the proposition around an artist-based passion project focusing on telling a story of collaboration.
Through research on audience data and knowledge of the brand’s objectives, we quickly identified that singer, songwriter and actor Raleigh Ritchie would be the perfect collaborator – and set to work developing his idea to create a short film.
From the offset, we had two key objectives in mind:
1) reintroducing Topman’s involvement in music-based content in the most authentic and impactful way possible; and
2) extending the lifespan of Raleigh’s debut album (You’re A Man Now Boy) over the summer months and through festival season.
The resulting content included five short episodes detailing the BTS process, along with the short film Hi Maintenance, Raleigh’s first self-directed piece which was inspired by the album track ‘Cowards’.
As well as starring in, directing and writing the film, Raleigh also worked alongside awardwinning string arranger Rosie Danvers (Adele, Kanye West, Paloma Faith) and producer Chris Loco (Emeli Sandé, Rita Ora, Leona Lewis) to create the film’s score – all of which was captured for use across artist and brand social channels.
The campaign was supported by a prepromotional media partnership with NME which invited fans and aspiring creatives to be involved in the shoot. In order to enter, applicants were directed to a bespoke Raleigh Ritchie hub on Topman.com, which also hosted all supporting content.
The short launched on 4th August alongside a collaborative digital, social and PR strategy. Combined, it has received just under 850k views and has gained the most fan engagement from any content posted on Topman’s channels in 2016. Coverage from both print and online press has been huge, with support from publications that include Hunger, Wonderland and Creative Review.
Topman has had a successful first step back into the music world, with Somethin’ Else and Sony Music successfully guiding them throughout. As a result, they are already planning additional musicfocused activation for 2017 and beyond. Some key results from brand and artist side listed below:
TOPMAN
• By re-investing in the music space in such a creative way, Topman has bought itself the kind of credibility within the artist and consumer communities that cannot be measured financially.
• With touch points across all of their social media platforms (Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram etc.) Topman has also gained additional followers which has been reflected with the content being some of their most engaged and viewed of all time.
• The final episode of the series (which has over 50k views to date) also specifically highlighted some of the trends and items worn in the film – which will no doubt see an uplift in sales once this seasons numbers are accounted.
• In addition, the joined up PR approach by the Topman in-house team and Joss Meek from Wired PR meant that for the first time Topman had coverage in music press, including The 405, Link UP TV and Celebmix.
RALEIGH RITCHIE
• Topman-specific benefits included; average weekly visits of 850k on the Topman x Raleigh Ritchie hub, a banner on Topman.com with average impressions of 20k and album messaging included in mail outs to Topman’s 1.4m UK database and 200k US database.
• Pre-launch, Raleigh was also invited to be a part of the Topman LCM ‘F’ROW’- a coveted spot, where he sat alongside fashion favorites including David Gandy, Dougy Pointer and Nick Grimshaw. This association along with the fashion specific press the project has generated is a great first step into the fashion world and has already resulted in demand for him in other fashion-specific campaigns
The main thing we’ve learnt from this project has been not to underestimate a big brand’s ability to be nimble in production, execution or roll out. With the help of Somethin’ Else, Topman was extremely open and willing to compromise on a number of creative points – which resulted in a true collaborative output. This level of true collaboration allowed our artist to authentically tell its story, all whilst fulfilling a brand brief beyond its expectations.
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