Album premiere can be one of the most effective ways to launch an album is designed and deployed correctly with the right syndication partners. This post looks at the many components involved in a successful premiere widget launch. This particular widget was built around the launch of Miranda Lambert's For the Record album. We had previously successfully launched similar widgets for the Pistol Annies and Kellie Pickler. (Also see the recent Pistol Annie's HTML 5 Premiere widget we recently launched).
This Miranda Lambert Four the Record Release Widget has the following component:
- Premiere Widget (Flash-based widget embedded on 5 partner sites)
- Mobile Application (used to collect badges and used to host the sweeps)
- Badges (collected and shared by users once their listen to an entire track)
- Splash Page (central marketing starting point for the promotion)
- Partner Sites (sites involved in distributing and syndicating the widgets)
We also examine the success of the campaign by looking at the following:
- Traffic Overview
- Project Case Study (See Here...)
- Ongoing Traffic ("After-life" effect)
Widgets:
As part of the promotion, we designed 5 widget, one for each song being premiered. The widget required users to listen the entire track before unlocking the QR Code. Once the QR Code was unlocked, users could scan it using their mobile device (or click on a link) to collect the badge for that day. When users collected a total of 5 badges (one for each day/song), there were then able to enter a sweepstakes
Because the widget were embed in news articles on partner sites, the widgets live on to this very day (for archival purposes) and continue to generate a small amount of traffic ("after-life"). Check them out here - they are still online and generating traffic (and under our control, meaning we can change the content) over a year later!
- EW.com: http://bit.ly/mirandawidget1
- US Weekly: http://bit.ly/mirandawidget2
- The Booth: http://aol.it/mirandawidget3
- Billboard: http://bit.ly/mirandawidget4
- Country Weekly: http://bit.ly/mirandawidget5
Mobile Application:
Once a user unlocked a badge there were able to "store" it using a mobile application. This application was optimized for mobile devices but was also accessible from desktop computers as well. Users were then encouraged to share their badges on social networks like Facebook and Twitter.
Badges:
We designed 5 different badges (one for each song/day) that users had to unlock and collect (and then share). Once a user collected all 5 badges, they were able to enter the sweepstakes at the center of the promotion. The sweepstakes allowed us to collect user names and emails and gave them the opportunity to opt-in to receive future updates from Miranda Lambert.
Splash Page:
We designed and deployed a splash page on Miranda Lambert's site that served as the central starting point for the promotion. The splash gave fans details about the promotions and links ot the different songs (the widgets were deployed on 5 partner sites on 5 different days).
Partner Sites:
The widgets were given to 5 high traffic publications that included Country Weekly, US Weekly, Billboard Magazine and AOL's The Boot. This exposure from these partner sites generate a huge amount of traffic over the 5 days. Because of the amount of traffic, we built the widgets and a scalable and secure backend that could easily handle the traffic. We also had mechanisms in place to prevent the widgets from being hijacked (since the promotion was exclusive to the 5 partner sites).
Traffic Overview:
As you expect, the traffic generated the the promotion was significant.
Project Case Study:
You can read more about the success of this campaign in the Sony Music Nashvile case study.
Ongoing Traffic
As I previously mentioned, all of the widgets are still alive and active today, and continue to generate traffic. We "disabled" the widget, essentially turning them into online ads that point to Miranda's album (check out the widgets using the links at the top).
