This year Declan McKenna returned with his new album Zeros. Our ambition was to create an innovative and socially conscious campaign. We aimed to engage and entertain his young and social-savvy fanbase by opening up access to Declan through interactive online content.
The campaign launched in January 2020 with the release of ‘Beautiful Faces’. In the music video Declan performs in a dystopian TV studio, which quickly descends into glitchy chaos, with Declan himself slowly transforming into what became known as CGI Declan.
CGI Declan became a familiar part of the Zeros narrative, as fans followed his journey across the internet. CGI Declan launched his TikTok channel, getting involved in trending challenges such as flip the switch and the toilet paper challenge. The CGI clips, created by digital performance artist Alfie Dwyer, were a first for a music artist on the platform. To connect to the real world, we used the CGI character to drive pre-orders on Declan’s official store and to model official merch. On album release, we launched a series of Instagram filters in which you become CGI Declan or placed him into the world around you.
It was important for us to keep Declan front of mind – particularly as live music opportunities were not possible. To entertain his fans through lockdown, he livestreamed an Indie Pub Quiz on YouTube, co-hosted by Joe from Blossoms, and created a series of #stayhome performance videos featuring multiple Declans. To drive database sign ups, Declan rolled out an ecofriendly, digital-only ‘Zeros Zine’ available for free to anyone who subscribed to the mailing list. The ‘zine incorporated exclusive interviews, album ads and behind-the-scenes content. On release, Declan performed Zeros for the first time in full on a global livestream.
Declan fans are creative and love meme culture, so we shared the background files for the ‘Daniel, You’re Still A Child’ music video via WeTransfer and asked fans to send in their creations. Throughout the campaign we have seen the deep and lasting engagement between Declan and his fans
The key challenge for us was driving strong week one physical sales and chart position. The streaming numbers that Declan’s first record had accumulated over time showed how much his audience had grown, but it was important we were able to convert these new fans into album purchasers. We viewed D2C as an area of huge untapped potential, creating multiple album formats and merch bundles, many of which were available in limited quantities only. All of the album formats were manufactured using recycled or sustainable materials, a decision that aligned with both Declan and his young fanbase’s environmentally conscious ethos.
The result was a hugely successful first week that saw ‘Zeros’ debut at #2 in the album chart. We also saw a massive uplift in channel growth, interactions and streaming across the board.
Instagram
Follower uplift of 36% now at 438k followers 6.33m interactions
YouTube
Subscriber uplift of 24% to 371k subscribers Over 56.6m channel views
Spotify
Follower uplift of 46% to 611.3k followers Monthly listeners up by 50% to 3.3m
TikTok
Organic growth to 72.4k followers 401k likes
Project Budget
Demographics
