Queens artist Lexa Gates recently released her new album “Elite Vessel” and the rollout is one of my favorites of the year. Complete with an art installation, cinematic visuals, merch pop ups, and more, this rollout is a sleeper for one of the strongest of 2024.

I thought it’d be fun to break down and see what happened.

This newsletter highlights:

• Lexa Gates’ “Elite Vessel” album rollout

Let’s dive in ⬇️

1) Art installation

One of the biggest anchors to the campaign was an art installation Lexa pulled off in Union Square, NYC on Thursday 10/17 - the day before the album release. Lexa locked herself inside of a glass box for 10 hours leading up to the release at midnight.

What does one do in a glass box for 10 hours with no phone, food, or water? She wore headphones listening to the new album and gave passerby the chance to listen as well with 3 headphones placed outside of the box. Fans had the opportunity to hear what she was listening to as well as write and drop notes into a mailbox placed next to the glass box.

The installation felt like a museum exhibit with people waiting in line to come up to the box and get a glimpse of what was happening.

The result? The installation became explosively viral on TikTok, trended on the app, and some videos generated upwards of 50 million views.

@lexagatesangels

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The unique activation felt like a pattern interrupt from so much of the digitally focused releases we’re used to these days.

To continue the experience after the album release, she released a music video for the song “Alone” which served as a timelapse to the art installation.

2) Merch pop-ups

The rollout continued the IRL emphasis with pop ups in both New York and LA selling vinyl, tees, and sweatshirts. The New York one took place at KidSuper’s store in Brooklyn and at the LA pop up Isaiah Rashad actually stopped by to grab some vinyl.

3) DSP support

Amongst the traditional playlisting that many artists can receive, the rollout also included sizable looks with multiple different platforms.

For example, on Apple Music there was an interview with Nadeska.

There was also an awesome billboard in Times Square from YouTube.

4) Press

Press included top tier outlets like Rolling Stone, Billboard, High Snobiety, and more.

5) Music videos

The campaign saw the launch of a music video on release day for “Stupid” and 10 days later a cinematic new music video for “Alone”.

Incredible music and a robust rollout plan helped the album chart on 2 different Billboard charts and gain lots of attention.

Thanks for reading, until next time.