A demonstration of

• > Active Engagement
• > Digital/Online
• > Earned
• > Entertainment / Content
• > Multimedia
• > Owned
• > Paid
• > Consumer Insight

Licensed to sell

Personal engagement with fans plus exclusive content successfully restored an artist’s sales base.

The challenge

Over the past five years, average album sales in Taiwan have decreased by 30% as a result of illegal downloading. The previous album release from Jolin Tsai, one of the country's most popular female singers, had only sold around 200,000 copies. Our challenge was to build anticipation for her new album so that fans would purchase in advance rather than copy it illegally after release

Our insight

There's an insatiable hunger to know more about the stars, to feel as close to them as if they were friends. Through fan mail, we knew that the public wanted to see more of Jolin's dance skills, preferably in longer video performances. By transforming her into a film star, we could develop multiple opportunities for audience engagement, and through exclusive content, we could build a sense of excitement and anticipation for the release of her new album

Our solution

We hired an acclaimed director to shoot a feature film starring Jolin as Agent J. SMS messages were sent to fans inviting them to buy ‘VIP' tickets to the film's premiere. Via a dedicated website, fans could download Jolin's ‘mission briefing' to their phone, inviting them to enter a prize competition. We used movie-style posters to generate pre-sales. The day before the album launch, we achieved an industry first - simultaneous screening of an ad across 21 TV channels featuring footage from the film. The ‘VIP' premiere and the after-show mini-concert generated massive coverage across local media channels, helping to stimulate pre-release orders

The results

• No. 1 album of the year
• 80,000 pre-orders of DVD/album (400% up on norm)
• Sales up 33%