SellaBand
What they asked us to do...
SellaBand is an online company which offers a new model for free legal distribution of new music by enabling a direct relationship between developing artists and their fans. The site enables ‘Believers’ to buy shares in unsigned bands to fund, when they reach $50,000, the professional recording and distribution of an album – including A&R, marketing and publishing.
Primary goal:
- Consumer-focused campaign to raise awareness of SellaBand, and the concept behind it, amongst potential ‘Believers’.
Secondary goals:
- Create positive traction with trade media
- Influencer targeting for strategic partnerships e.g. analysts and other online peers
- Raise awareness amongst potential advertisers to support revenue growth
What we did...
To build awareness among potential ‘Believers’, Cohn & Wolfe built a consumer focused campaign which highlighted SellaBand’s key messaging:
- For the first time, music lovers could have a say in the music that they want to listen to by putting their money where their mouth is.
- That SellaBand is a new business model for the free distribution of quality, unsigned music.
The campaign included the following elements:
- Guru training (to develop messaging & campaign content)
- Start-up PR
- “Anti X-Factor” storyline
- “Buy a band for Christmas” storyline
- Briefing day for priority media (held in London)
- Publicising the first UK artist / band to hit US$50,000
- SellaBand London Showcase
- Press briefing, attendance and interviews
Our results...
Prior to Cohn & Wolfe’s campaign work the UK was ranked as SellaBand’s fifth largest market, with between three and four percent of site traffic coming from these shores. As a direct result of the work that Cohn & Wolfe have carried out, the UK now accounts for over 12% of all visitors to the SellaBand site and is now the second largest market.
During the six month campaign, the following opportunities and coverage were secured:
- Introduction and seeding of SellaBand information across more than 50 UK media targets, including:
- 18 print-media interviews
- 2 broadcast interviews (BBC 24 and BBC Five Live, the Money Programme)
- 12 national print articles (including: The Guardian and The Evening Standard)
- 3 online articles (VNU.net, Reuters and Bloomberg)
- 3 regional print articles (The London Paper, London Lite and The Evening Standard)
- 12 consumer / trade articles (including: Stuff!, FiveEight and NMA)
All the coverage secured during the campaign communicated the core messages to existing and potential Believers; that SellaBand is a way for music lovers to have a say in the music that they want to hear by voting with their wallets.
Client Quote...
‘‘When we launched Sellaband we wanted a PR agency that understood what we were trying to achieve. Cohn & Wolfe understood our proposition perfectly. They have a fantastic team who constantly exceed our expectations and are a real pleasure to work with. It’s been a very positive experience and, together, we’ve achieved some amazing results”
Johan Vosmeijer
Managing Director and Founder
SellaBand