A former member of Little Mix, Jade Thirlwall released her first solo album That’s Showbiz Baby! this September, following the release of single “Angel of My Dreams” in July 2024.
For our latest Behind The Campaign, Music Ally spoke to head of marketing Will Stevens and head of digital Holly Stevens at RCA Records about their unique campaign approach to establish Jade as a solo act in her own right.
Here are the highlights:
- Leading with Jade’s vision, RCA took a bold stylistic direction from the getgo, inspired by the term “pop gone gonzo”.
- The team took an initial “leak” approach, using unofficial fan-led page the Jade Room to release snippets, easter eggs and other hints of something upcoming.
- To balance their more casual social media presence, they also collaborated with zine account Polyester and made appearances on talk shows like Later…With Jools Holland.
- The team also arranged a performance at the Brits, where she won an award for Best Pop Act.
- A number of festival activations, including at Glastonbury and The Mighty Hoopla festival, garnered more attention outside of Jade’s traditional fanbase.
- The campaign zeroed in on areas with the largest Little Mix fanbases, leading to stops in Brazil, the US, the Netherlands and Germany.
- Unexpected collaborations with artists like K-pop group Le Sserafim, The Blessed Madonna and Confidence Man added unexpected surprises to the album leadup.
- A pop-up appearance at UK contemporary sculpture Angel of the North almost got shut down by the police after a thousand people showed up from a dropped pin.
- The campaign earned Jade a number three in the UK just behind Ed Sheeran and Sabrina Carpenter, with 2,300 sales in week one.
Learnings from Jade’s campaign?
Stick to a vision. The campaign’s early commitment to a singular identity and strong visuals based on a unique tagline set the stage for everything – sound, aesthetics and public appearances.
Utilise cultural moments to shift scale. Anchoring around tentpole moments like awards, festival activations and talk shows brought Jade into the limelight and gave her a new context outside of Little Mix.
Familiarity, then surprise. Pull fans in with a mix of familiar media and release patterns, while also looking for interesting opportunities to bend expectations with collaborations, interesting outlets and more.
For more on Jade, read Music Ally’s full Behind the Campaign.
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