I am a member of The New Electric Sound, a surf rock band from Provo, Utah. Having started in late 2011, the band had very little awareness, both locally and globally, but we were able to build a brand personality and sizable fan base from scratch using aggressive online advertising tactics, social media, promotional events, and integrated branding.
Problem
The New Electric Sound formed from scratch in late 2011. The band has 0% awareness, online presence or fans.
Objectives
- Build a strong brand personality
- Build a strong social media presence (Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, etc.)
- 3,000 ‘likes’ on Facebook
- Professional music video
- Local buzz
Brand Image
The brand image was constructed to reflect the music: lighthearted and fun, yet sleek, polished and trendy. The music is a blend of vintage 50s rock and roll elements with more modern styles, so the brand image is meant to reflect this tone.
Tone: Fun, hip, exciting, clean, sleek
Colors: New Electric Blue (#00ffff), White, Black
Facebook was the first step in our project to increase online presence. We setup a band Facebook page in late 2011. We wanted a large reach, so we targeted Facebook users in the United States ages 16 and up who fall into the category of alternative, pop or rock music.
Throughout 2012, we pushed various campaigns through Facebook, accruing fans across the country. We began developing a steady flow of Facebook fans.
Approximately half of our new likes came from our Facebook advertising campaigns.
Our most successful Facebook campaign came from promoting our new single Maybe. In one month–and with a budget of $5 a day–the campaign reached 95,370 users with a frequency of two impressions per person, generated 1,182 clicks and 1,303 actions.
All Facebook advertising has payed for itself and more in iTunes purchases, t-shirt sales, physical album purchases, and poster sales.
(January 2012 to January 2013 Facebook Ad Report)
Developing a Twitter presence is another crucial element of any social media campaign. By keeping a regularly updated and interesting Twitter feed, we have accrued 345 Twitter followers in just over a year.
We have also used Twitter to engage with fans, meanwhile connecting with other bands, venues and music labels.
YouTube
Our target market–millennials–are visually wired. So from the beginning, we knew YouTube would have to be a very significant element of our online presence. To begin to build our presence, we made personalized acoustic performance videos dedicated to individual fans for donating to our Kickstarter campaign:
Quickly we began attracting views and subscribers, but we needed a more substantial, professional video, so we hired Derek Pueblo–a Utah filmmaker–to direct and shoot a music video for our song ‘Heart Beat’. The video accrued over 50,000 views–and won several film awards.
Instagram became another important element of our social media presence. We keep our account up-to-date with interesting photos of trips, studio shots and sponsor shots. We have accrued 423 followers.
Website
Wikipedia
Local Buzz
KSL: Five Local Events to Liven Up Your Weekend
City Weekly: Surf’s Up in Provo
The Salt Lake Tribune: Local Sounds: The New Electric Sound
Daily Unsigned: The New Electric Sound
Benjamin Zabriskie 