There are many steps that go into curating an effective music marketing plan. The first step we took was conducting market research for three days. We looked at different music artists’ marketing campaigns as well as how they distribute their music. Looking at examples of Childish Gambino, Mumford & Sons, Lil Nas X, and Tyler the Creator, we were able to come up with ideas and notice patterns found in niche and viral marketing. Lil Nas X’s approach was drastically different from the three other artists since he heavily relied on buzz marketing to promote his music. His music videos and social media posts contained controversial topics that motivated conversation whether good or bad. As a result, Lil Nas X kept his name in the media for a long time. Many people were exposed to his name and encouraged to check out his music videos and music to see where the controversy lay. Childish Gambino and Tyler the Creator target a more niche market, which means while their marketing reaches fewer people, they have a stronger, more loyal following. Consequently, these artists were able to get more creative with their campaigns and lean into more of an artistic approach since their fans would not stop listening. For instance, their billboards would contain phone numbers to call where people could listen to sneak-peeks of their new singles, they would drop surprise albums on random websites, and their albums were very visual with many music videos and concept art. A pattern seen from all these artists in terms of distribution is the use of streaming platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, etc. Any music would be available for purchase digitally, and cross-convergence would be embraced with CD’s and vinyls.
Next, we started brainstorming what we wanted our campaign to look like. Our plan contained a mixture of digital and buzz marketing. A big thing we wanted to focus on was the branding of our artist, BLÜME. This meant coming up with a cohesive color palette and theme in our campaign. After brainstorming, we decided on using kelly greens and different shades of pink as well as colorful flowers to be associated with BLÜME. As for our marketing campaign, we came up with many ideas: billboards, Spotify advertisements, music video releases, live performances, interviews, a strong social media presence, merchandise, collaborations with micro-influencers on TikTok, and a pop-up shop. These ideas were derived from our market research, research on different forms of marketing that we did as a class, and prior knowledge on marketing. We discussed how to execute these ideas and decided that one of our biggest events would be the music video release and the pop-up shop. Having to produce the music video ourselves, we decided on taking an artistic and promotional approach that would fit the theme of the album. Our group knew we wanted to incorporate many flowers and bright colors in the video, so we tried to pick a shooting location that would allow us to do that. We settled on a local park that has many hills and greenery. Additionally, we made a storyboard and planned out the different shots we wanted to include in our video.
Throughout the course of this project, we have encountered some challenges that could have been unavoidable. The biggest problem was time management. Although we are back on track and have a majority of the project complete, we should have better organized our time so we had more time to edit and account for any mishaps. Being absent from class for one day alone set us back, and we could have finished sooner if we truly focused on the project without getting distracted. Our next steps are to shoot the music video and edit it, as well as transfer our marketing plan into a presentation form. The music video shoot will be two days, one for the majority of the video, and the second day for any re-shoots. The editing process will also be done over the course of one day. Since the presentation has already been started, and the information has already been found, it will not take long to complete. Our project is on track to be finished on time and is overall a campaign to be proud of.
