PR campaigns
Corporate to the Core: Album Release Campaign for Independent artist.
Awarded Best PR Campaign at 2024 Gold Carpet Gala
October 6th, West Lafayette, IND. | 132 Days Until Release
For a local band, dropping your debut album on a Thursday and going back to Calc 2 Friday is no small feat. Local campus band, Please Her, spent countless hours creating their musical baby, a project that encapsulates the boisterous, groovy spirit of the underground music scene. Breaking through the collegiate hustle and bustle to capture the fleeting attention of the student body, converting casual listeners to fans was a task that would elevate the symbolic birth of their musical baby, and I was honored to face it.
Where to start on this all-encompassing campaign? Enter the release plan, a spreadsheet with checklists, dates, and the blueprint on the strategic communication that would ensure this release was iconic. As the band put the finishing touches on their recordings, I began ideating a story that would fit the group’s brand and intended story of the record.
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October 30th, West Lafayette, IND. | 108 Days Until Release
Ironically titled Public Relations, this album's sonic styles held a campy sound that would fit with a post-ironic, fun story. The band, seniors on the brink of entry-level careers, rumored to have “sold out” of the Purdue music scene by going on two national tours last summer, aligned with the trendy, salient ideas of corporate core, taking on the mysterious imagery of an imaginary Public Relations firm with a playful twist. I worked with the band’s art director, Mikey King, to plan a corporate photoshoot in old Krannert conference rooms.
At the shoot, I produced short-form content for TikTok/Reels to post preceding the release for worldbuilding and hype generating. These built lore for the rollout that the group had actually “sold out,” gone into business, and were physically searching for the album which they could not find.
Finally, I built fully-functioning, heart shaped pinata to be broken at one of the band's shows filled with stickers that read "where's the album?" and “this is a publicity stunt,” to symbolize the end of the old era allude to the beginning of the rollout. As fans broke apart the cardboard, symbolic shell, I hit the ground running with the rest of the campaign.
photos by Mikey King. Edits/Concept by me.
December 10th, West Lafayette, IND. | 67 Days Until Release
I began my three-week fling with GoDaddy studio, my graphic design tool. II won an award for this campaign, andI thanked this platform in my speech, on which I made:
Stories galore: posts with interactive elements centered around garnering pre-saves, repetitive advertising, and generating excitement. I took advantage of band birthdays that fell around the campaign, creating a branded series of birthday stories. I created a custom “where’s waldo” style image with a hidden link, and, of course, a bunch of corporate core jokes such as a workweek calendar or team groupchat story that built upon the short-form lore above.
Guerilla marketing: a series of posters that appeared as yellow journalism-era newspapers with a QR code to the band’s Linktree, put up around campus.
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Lyrics zine: a 12-page deck intended for both social media and physical distribution that featured artwork of each of the song’s lyrics, behind-the-scenes, extras, and acknowledgements to fans. This was a gift to the listeners after the album’s release to further the relationship between fan and band, allowing fans a sense of impact on the creation they are listening to.
Long-form content: I worked with Mikey once again to plan, design, and shoot a music video later in the semester. I created three long-form videos to be posted after the album’s release to increase album/social engagement. First, a parody of famous internet music reviewer, Anthony Fantano, in which the band jokingly rated their project a “not good.” Then, two parodies of the Genius Behind The Lyrics series where the band hilariously explained the album’s lyrics also jokingly.
With every promotional asset now completed, I scheduled each post and moved to a two-way, adaptable “plug and chug” model for social media that worked in accordance with the release plan, social calendar, and the needs of our followers.
January 1st, San Francisco, CA. | 45 Days Until Release
I took a break from vacation to wipe all social media posts on the band’s account that were not part of the campaign and set in place their new profile assets. Observant fans took to DM to ask what is coming.
I began a media list of press contacts from a variety of publications and mediums. Small outlets were prioritized so the group can retain that local, collegiate, DIY feeling. Catering to each media contact, I created different pitches and press releases that fit each journalists’ vibe. This could include something as simple as an Instagram DM, or a formal email with a semi-professional press release.
I then finalized the plans for the release concert, set to occur the Saturday after the release at a local venue. San Fran was cool, I guess. Back to work.
January 25th, West Lafayette, IND. | 21 Days Until Release
With three weeks to go, the release date was announced on social media. The date, strategic as ever, was to assure the record would not compete with actual celebrities’ Friday release trend and to newsjack Valentine’s day. This date allowed the headphones of midwestern college students to have a soundtrack for their walk to class, uninterrupted.
February 15th, West Lafayette, IND. | Release Day
As I was finishing my lunch, the album hit streaming platforms. I sent out the press materials to my media list and watched data roll onto my computer screen. The release show was a hit, with record attendance at the venue in years. Spotify streams increased by 442%, Instagram accounts engaged increased 219% over the course of the campaign, and content interaction increased by 113%. The album was featured in many press outlets, with more coming. Most importantly, the fans old and new of the band are pleased with the project and excited for what is to come.
This PR campaign was a triumph not only for a local artist, but for the entire underground music scene. With more eyes on the strategic moves of Please Her, other local artists reap the benefit of a flourishing creative effort on campus. I had a blast creating and executing this campaign and cannot wait to do more in the future.
Single release campaign for independent artist.
With large plans and evil schemes for a debut album in store, I took to my duties as media manager for local band Please Her to ensure a successful release and teaser of what is to come via the Calc 2 single release campaign.
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For this project, it was crucial for to protect and bolster the DIY, underground, small-town branding of the band. To do this, I curated a list of online press outlets, specifically smaller social media-based blogs to target. The press release for the single read more similarly to an Instagram DM from the band themselves than a journalist. A sample pitch is as follows:
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A situation all too familiar: your boothing has to do homework at the booty call. Funky, fresh, and totally relatable, “Calc 2” packages a tale as old as Tinder into a dancy parcel of disco rhythm sections and perfectly weird synths. This song was written in half an hour, initially played at DIY shindigs and college parties as a call to the student-heavy audience. That is, until hundreds of people learned the hook, Please Her knew they had a banger on their hands. The world needs to hear “Calc 2” exponentially.
With the power of spreadsheets at my fingertips, I both created and scheduled a series of interactive, cross-platform content to promote, resulting in a 30% increase in online reach for the song. For socials, the theme was school. I played upon some of the propaganda seen around the band's campus and made assets that run with collegiate life.
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I then worked with the band's art director to release limited edition shirts that would drop upon release of the single. The merch sold out almost immediately at the show without a formal social media post.
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Lastly, I worked with a local student group to negotiate contract and plans to film a music video for the single.