We wanted to create a global moment in time for the release of the first single, ‘Shout Out To My Ex’, centred around their first-ever live performance of the track on X Factor by executing a global timed release on the Sunday night immediately following the performance.
To maximise on this moment and take it to a global audience, we secured an exclusive deal with X Factor and ITV to live stream the performance on Facebook (ex-UK) – the first time this has ever been done.
To build anticipation of the performance, we used PR and social media to drive people to watch the show and didn’t tease more than a few seconds of the song, instead creatively using the lyrics as the main talking point and to drive intrigue. In addition, we shot bespoke video content with a cinematic feel on the set of the album photo shoot and single video shoot with the band which was in keeping with the desert ‘getting over your ex’ road trip and Americana campaign aesthetic.
The 10-second ‘Shout Out To My Ex’ “prequel” videos told the story of how the girls came together to embark on this trip of a lifetime and were released on the band’s social channels in the four days leading up to The X Factor performance.
To tie all of our elements together, the band also appeared in two X Factor promotional TV ads on ITV featuring them on their road trip car in the desert and officially counting down to their performance.
Other ongoing fan engagement activity included creating a real #ShoutOutToMyEx Telephone Hotline manned by the Little Mix girls where fans could call up and leave a message to their ex. We received nearly 5,000 calls in a week and it went down a storm with the fanbase and online press.
So what next? In the lead up to album release the road trip campaign theme continued with the launch of Little Mix’s ‘Glory Days’ Road Trip – a three-day global road trip challenge, mixing Snapchat Filters and real world road trip pit stops in over 20 countries around the world, giving fans the opportunity to experience a Little Mix journey of a lifetime as the fifth member of the band.
‘Shout Out To My Ex’ hit #1 on UK iTunes within two hours of the live performance, went straight to #1 on the UK Charts for three weeks and subsequently topped the UK Spotify & Radio Airplay chart. The track has peaked at #1 on iTunes in over 22 markets and has entered the top 20 in over 59 markets, also peaking at #17 on the Global Spotify Chart. This is officially Little Mix’s most successful single to date and our highest US chart position.
The X Factor Facebook live stream of the performance achieved 377k views in 24 hours – with 100k people tuning in live. The stream reached a total of 2.7m people. The girls’ performance video on X Factor’s YouTube hit 5m views in 72 hours before we made it private to ensure that we weren’t monopolising streams and downloads. This was by far the most-viewed video from this season’s X Factor.
Since release, Little Mix’s social media engagement has skyrocketed – our UK engaged audience on Facebook alone increasing by 422%. The video for ‘Shout Out To My Ex’ is the band’s fastest-viewed video – currently on over 65m.
Our launch campaign also helped us achieve one of Sony’s biggest album pre-orders on Glory Days, reaching 30k the day before release. We took a risk with the timed Sunday release of the song which lost us more than two sales days, but it paid off and there was undeniable value in mobilising a global fan base and driving them to one big moment. Arguably helping us achieve better results than if we’d stuck to the traditional release model and helping to cement Little Mix as of the UK’s biggest pop artists
Project Budget
Demographics
