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How Charli xcx has one of the best album rollouts this year
The marketing behind Charli xcx's new album "brat".
This year has seen its fair share of big album rollouts so far, especially in the pop space with Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, and now Charli xcx.
Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish pulled out all the marketing stops for their rollouts and Charli xcx’s new album “brat“ is no different.
I thought it’d be fun to do a deep dive into the rollout.
This newsletter highlights:
Charli xcx’s “brat” album rollout
Let’s dive in ⬇️
The initial announcement
On February 28th, Charli xcx formally announced her new album on Instagram by revealing the title, number of songs, album length, and that it was coming this summer.
One day later she released “von dutch”, the first single from the album campaign.
The announcement happening so far from the album release date is interesting - in an era of oversaturation, many artists condense their rollout and announce their projects closer to the release date in an effort to avoid losing people’s attention.
Pop is interesting in that many pop superstars announce their projects months in advance with this album being announced almost 3.5 months in advance.
The Pre-order
The official pre-order for the album launched on April 3, giving her 2 months to drive pre-orders and awareness of the forthcoming project. Over the next few months, there would be a slew of moments helping to promote the upcoming project.
Social media engagement
To engage her audience online, Charli xcx launched something called the Brat Generator - an online engagement tool that allowed fans to create their own versions of the album cover, using custom text in the same album formatting.
The generator was a tool to activate fans online and help contribute to the social conversation.
Charli xcx also utilized a private Instagram account called @360_bratt to share behind the scenes content and exclusive offerings.
Physical products
The physical products around this album were a big component of the rollout with 14 different kinds of vinyl, including one that had special diary entries written during the album creation process.
One of the vinyl was only available to followers of the private IG 360_bratt and some of the others were sold in partnership with Target as well as other record stores.
![](https://media.beehiiv.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=scale-down,format=auto,onerror=redirect,quality=80/uploads/asset/file/73bb5e5f-5c6e-4419-9fd8-703611015bb4/Charli_X_Twitter.jpeg?t=1720985860)
The vinyl push continued around the album release when on Tuesday June 4th the album was released early at record stores across the country during exclusive listening parties. The exclusive parties was a brilliant way to engage fans and also activate the social media of those record stores for additional awareness.
A few weeks after the album dropped the physical releases continued, with a “brat” towel launching this past Monday July 15th.
Charli xcx has released a Brat beach towel! ($60)
☀️: store.charlixcx.com/products/brat-…
— 🏁 (@concertleaks)
6:11 PM • Jul 15, 2024
Out of home marketing
Fans on social media shared content of different kinds of vehicles in the unique “brat” lime green to promote the album.
![](https://media.beehiiv.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=scale-down,format=auto,onerror=redirect,quality=80/uploads/asset/file/c1ee51b6-b9f9-401e-96e5-15c4d05618f0/Sophia_Hitchhike_Bushwick.jpeg?t=1720985896)
![](https://media.beehiiv.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=scale-down,format=auto,onerror=redirect,quality=80/uploads/asset/file/37ef792a-6a31-4878-8b3f-052b20c80c95/Charli_Twitter_Photo.jpeg?t=1720985960)
Press
The press portion of the rollout included multiple magazine covers from Rolling Stone UK, British GQ, Vogue Singapore, Face Magazine, and more. In addition, yesterday Billboard announced Charlie xcx was the face of their new issue.
It also featured interviews with outlets such as iHeart Radio, BBC Sounds, Resident Advisor, and more.
Interesting that a few of the magazine covers were in different countries, helping to promote Charli xcx and the new project internationally.
Brand Partnerships
On May 17th, Charli xcx and Marc Jacobs announced her involvement in their campaign for their Sack Bag.
![](https://media.beehiiv.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=scale-down,format=auto,onerror=redirect,quality=80/uploads/asset/file/be2d4a20-d03f-4878-b35b-9f5f410e3093/Charli_XCX_Marc_Jacobs.jpg?t=1721090321)
Live performances
Performing in front of fans continues to be important in this day and age and this rollout campaign had a bunch of big moments.
Charli xcx made her Coachella debut, performed at Primavera Sound festival in Spain, and announced a nationwide tour with Troye Sivan.
She also performed a Boiler Room set in March in Brooklyn, NY that garnered 40,000 RSVPs.
Overall
The in depth rollout helped her sell 77,000 album equivalents in the first week which is the biggest album debut of her career, charting at #3 on the Billboard Top 200 charts opening week.
Rough timeline (there may be things missing)
2/19 - The Face Magazine cover
2/28 - official “brat” album announcement
2/29 - “von dutch” song + video release
3/2 - Brits Awards
3/28 - Boiler Room set
4/1 - Vogue Singapore cover release
4/3 - “brat” pre-order
4/3 - UK arena tour announcement
4/4 - “club classics” and “b2b” song release
4/12 - Coachella performance
4/17 - announce nationwide tour with Troye Sivan
5/8 - Met Gala attendance
5/10 - “360” song + video release
5/16 - Rolling Stone UK magazine cover announce
5/17 - Marc Jobs partnership announce
5/31 - British GQ cover announce
6/2 - Primavera Sound festival performance
6/6 - “brat” album release
Thanks for reading, until next time.
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