It had been three years since George’s first 4x platinum album was released and in our research we learnt that not everyone had seen the content from album #1. In the lead up to the first single, we began re-engaging his lapsed fans with online ads, using previous videos such as his live sessions, Ezra Express, music videos and behind-the-scenes footage.

We also launched his weekly journal, a newsletter that George writes each week, giving his fans an insight into his week and the occasional exclusive. It has been running for 85+ weeks. This then bled into his March tour and studio sessions, both of which were opportunities to capture photos and videos, which we used leading to the album launch in January 2018.

Alongside our pre-order incentive, we ran x6 creatives on launch that aligned with our audience targeting. In the 10 weeks between launch and release, our advertising strategy was focused on who the audience was, where they are online and how engaged they were with George. We then ran a host of different ad creatives to take the fans deeper into George’s world. Most of these ads took learnings from what was overperforming on his socials organically and were therefore built around George’s personality, musicianship or humour. For example, one of our best-performing ads was a video of George watching his own advert. In a similar vein, putting George and his humour/smile front and centre in his lyric videos was a deliberate decision and something that resonated – with ‘Shotgun’ hitting over 100m views.

His pet project, the George Ezra & Friends podcast, was also an incredible format that allowed listeners to discover more about him and his guests, talking honestly about a variety of subjects. Around the album release, Apple Music hosted the live Abbey Road video sessions. Spotify hosted an intimate event at “Tamara’s” for his top fans.

Since release, we have continued to document George’s global touring story with videos and photos, reacted to organic social moments like the Shotgun Burp and continued to extend his ad creative.