Album Release Client Studies
Ian Flanigan's debut album "Strong" is the first dive into mainstream country for this troubadour artist. Debuting September 2nd, 2022, this campaign has stacked two radio singles (and a single for content) as the lead promotional strategy: "Grow Up" Released on May 14th, 2021 debuting live on NBC's The Voice finale with featuring artist, Blake Shelton, and runner up radio single "Last Name On It" which debuted June 17th, 2022 with 7 ads in first two weeks of radio impact date (July 11th, 2022).
In terms of music marketing, it doesn’t really get any more diverse than this campaign.
We will take a quick glance at the promotional rollout of an up and coming artist so far. Our main focus:
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Multiple singles release strategy
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TV
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Brand Partnerships
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Heavy emphasis on video content
In this teardown, we'll detail the promotional calendar covering the 4 month run, up to the "Grow Up" single release, and the following 12 months leading up to the second radio single, "Last Name On It," so you can see how an independent label rolls out their newest up-and-coming artist in mainstream country.
Key People
Artist: Ian Flanigan
Labels: UMG, Reviver Records
Management: Jason Spiewak, Noble Steed Music
Agent: Kinkead Ent.
Publicists: Noble Steed Music, Nightcap Entertainment, 2911 Enterprises
Content: Nightcap Entertainment
Marketing: Cool Is Forever, Nightcap Entertainment
Consulting: Nashville Music Consultants, Nightcap Entertainment
Radio: Studio 2Bee
Featured Artists: Blake Shelton
Key info
Artist: Ian Flanigan
Title: Strong
Release date: September 2nd, 2022
Timeline:
"Grow Up" May 14th, 2021
"Under a Southern Sky" February 25th, 2022
"Last Name On It" June 17th, 2022
Format:
LP: Strong (Retail)
3 Singles: Digital & Streaming
LP: Strong, Digital & Streaming, Extended Vinyl, Vinyl Limited edition
Singles: 3
Length: 37.75
Genre: Country
Merch Items "Strong"
-3 digital singles
-1200 Vinyl
-300 Purple Limited Edition Vinyl
-1 T-shirt
-1 hats
-1 poster
Merch Items "Grow Up"
-Digital Single
-2 T-shirts
-1 hat
-1 poster
Merch Items "Under a Southern Sky"
-Digital Single
-1 T-shirt
Merch Items "Last Name on It"
-Digital Single
-1 T-shirt
Flanigan's roll-out strategy focused on brand partnerships, music videos, TV performance, merch for each single, and a cadence for each release, building up to not only the album, but his profile.
Music videos: 2
Performance Videos: 3
Tour: 15 shows (5 showcases)
Visualizer & Lyrics: 3
Trailer: 1
Behind-the-scenes: 1
Livestream: 4
TV appearances: 2
May 20th, 2021: The Voice season 20 debut performance with Blake Shelton
May 27th, 2021: Taylor guitars Social Media Takeover
October 13th, 2021: Good Day Houston feature
October 17th, 2022: Southern Weekend Episode feature
February 24th, 2022: Country Radio Seminar showcase
March 10-13: Opener for Blake Shelton
April 25th, 2022: Live in the Vineyard showcase
April 27th, 2022: Fox News Feature
May 2nd, 2022: Rockwood NYC showcase
June 11th, 2022: CMA fest debut
August 8th, 2022: The Talk Show with Eric Metaxas pilot episode feature performance
The campaign started with a national debut of the single "Grow Up" performed by Ian and Blake on NBC's The Voice finale. From there, we used brand partnerships and giveaways to support a strong pre-save campaign and to grow Ian's connection wit his fans. As the tour supported his release promo, we used local morning shows like Good Day Houston and Fox News to feature Ian's story. Expanding on his narrative we booked him on The Southern Weekend, an Opry TV Circle Network series, showcasing his lifestyle and music. Each lyric and official video was featured on platforms like Sounds Like Nashville and Cowboys & Indians. Pivoting to radio, we introduced him as an artist to CRS with a showcase. Touring continued to pick up with a strategic hit as an opener for Blake Shelton's Spring Blake tour. Radio and Sync promo continued strong with a featured performance at Live in The Vineyard. We hosted an industry showcase in NYC to enhance his exposure, and followed up in Nashville at the CMA fest. After the release of "Last Name On It" Ian taped the pilot episode of Eric Metaxas' new talk show.
Tiktok Influencer Campaigns:
Playlist Placement:
New Music Nashville (Spotify), New in Country (Apple), Breakthrough Country (amazon), The Round Up (CMT), Wild Country (Spotify), The Country Spectrum (CMA), New Music Friday (Spotify)
Advertising
Grow Up:
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Spotify Marquee Ad - $1,500
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Facebook/Instagram Release Ads - $3,500
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Taylor Contest Ads - $1,500
Under a Southern Sky:
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More streams playlist campaign - $350
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Lyric Video ad. (boost vid views) - $250
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Boosted posts for April - $100
Last Name on It:
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Spotify Marquee Ad - $1,000
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Facebook/Instagram - $2,000
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TikTok - $1,000
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YouTube - $1,000
#2 on country itunes charts
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Stats
Socials:
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Instagram: starting 30k current 35.5k
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Facebook: starting 20k current 26k
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Twitter: starting 5k current 6.5k
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YouTube: starting 4k current 7.7k
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Spotify: starting 30k monthly listeners current 65k monthly listeners
Sales History:
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Last Name on It* (June 2022)
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streams
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Apple - 49.25K WW streams // 40.5K US streams
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Spotify - 236.5K WW
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Lyric Video - 29k views
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Under A Southern Sky (February 2022)
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532.6K WW Streams // 474.9K US Streams
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Apple - 24.8K WW Streams // 20K US Streams
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Spotify - 118.9K WW Streams // 90K US Streams
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Pandora - 2.09K WW Streams // 2.09K US Streams
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Amazon - 386 WW Streams // 362 US Streams
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Lyric Video - 16K Views
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Grow Up (feat. Blake Shelton)* (May 2021)
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2.313M WW Streams // 1.637M US Streams
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Apple - 397.79K WW Streams // 325.28K US Streams
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Spotify - 1.6M WW Streams // 1M US Streams
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Pandora - 229.11K WW Streams // 229.11K US Streams
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Amazon - 86.63K WW Streams // 83.04K US Streams
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Lyric Video - 132K Views
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Official Video - 34K Views
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*Grow Up - Focus track being worked at radio
*Last Name on It - Focus track being worked at radio
Summary
Final thoughts
We are honored to have been a key consultant and lead content/social media director on this project. In summery, socials grew (on average) 20%, cumulatively streaming is over 3 million, "Last Name on It" has ads on KKBQ/HOUSTON, KILT/HOUSTON, KBEQ/KANSAS CITY, MUSIC CHOICE/NYC, WJVC/LONG ISLAND, KNUC/SEATTLE, and KSON/SAN DIEGO, we have acquired new partnerships with Pickle jar and Denon (along with Taylor and KICKER), and Ian is in conversation with a media company pitching a lifestyle show.
What worked:
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Emphasize content to sustain interest and social and streaming growth over a year period
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Treat each single like it’s own campaign with whatever your means allows you to create, i.e.: merch, video content, fan engagement strategies and publicity
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Build in elements that show your personality to build interest in your character, which deepens the connection with fans. This includes documentary style content, behind the scenes, interviews and showing your favorite things.
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Brand Partnerships to build hype and utilize larger audiences