How the best PR campaigns can inspire you
With marketing now considered one of the most important and pivotal areas in the career of a modern-day DJ and producer, the way you can maximize your exposure to a large audience has never been more important. The best PR campaigns lead to maximum publicity and can provide you with many tips and tricks on how to push your own campaigns in future.
Helping you gain inspiration for some creative sparks behind your own campaigns, here are a few of the most memorable, and impactful, PR campaigns of recent years which helped elevate the artist at the center of the campaign to enhanced heights.
The Calvin Harris shirtless campaign
In early 2016, British superstar Calvin Harris posted a tweet saying:“I feel partly responsible for all these shirtless DJ selfies on Instagram and I just want to say sorry because it’s horrible”. The tweet came about after the DJ was photographed almost completely naked for Armani’s new underwear line. After he posted a picture of the photo shoot in question on his socials, many DJs seemed to follow. Diplo, Steve Aoki, Martin Garrix, Alesso and even Dillon Francis all posted half-naked pictures of themselves on their socials. The extra publicity it caused saw Calvin soon snap up a lucrative Las Vegas residency, with the UK producer now classed as the richest music star in the EDM scene.
The Martin Garrix photo app
One of the most popular ways to position a PR campaign is to connect with fans on a personal level. So what better way for the Dutch star to interact with his ever-growing fanbase than via his own app, which allowed Martin’s trademark logo to be added to photos of fan faces, painted across the eyes, and mouth area. Not only did the stunt lead to a flurry of Garrix-inspired profile pictures across social media, but a website was also designed which encouraged fans to join team Garrix and their photo could even be shared by the DJ himself. The idea was simple but helped boost Martin’s brand massively, with the youngster later being crowned DJ Mag’s #1 DJ in the world for both 2016 and 2017.
Overcome your fears with Hardwell
When one of Hardwell’s closest friends, Skiandre, dared him to jump out of a plane when he became #1 in the DJ Mag Top 100 DJs Poll, he agreed. Living up to his end of the deal, the ‘Spaceman’ producer jumped out with three of his closest friends and one of his managers. The clip went viral, amassing over 500,000 views in a short space of time, with many EDM blogs worldwide sharing the footage. The Dutch star’s management team urged fans to also overcome their fears, like their hero, with many uploading videos to Twitter, showing them partaking in extreme sports using the #Hardwell hashtag – improving his profile hugely, as a result of this highly clever marketing campaign.
Getting sweaty with Bob Sinclar
Perhaps one of the best times of the year to get creative, is around the Autumn, as more and more DJs clamor for votes from fans in the Top 100 DJs poll. With various producers creating incredible content and viral video marketing based on this poll, Dutch duo Oliver Heldens and Don Diablo even teamed up to create the #VoteFuture hashtag, with both DJs endorsing each other’s campaigns on account of their future house roots. But perhaps the edgiest, and hilarious, so far, was that of Bob Sinclar.
It was this video of Bob, where he draws attention to the poll in a very, edgy, yet hilarious way. As you can imagine, the video was soon shared numerous times, with the clever tail-end of Bob’s ‘vote for me’ link sticking in the viewer’s mind.
Dillon Francis raises DJ awareness
No stranger to tongue-in-cheek humor, comedian and producer Dillon Francis shot the below video in downtown Los Angeles, aiming to raise awareness for DJs by handing out free food. The skit was Dillon’s own unique and refreshing way to broaden his name in the electronic dance music world, with the American star since headlining several huge performances at events like EDC Las Vegas.
Armin van Boarding
Upon releasing his ‘Embrace’ album, Dutch trance giant Armin van Buuren decided to use the mammoth population of the annual Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) to gain traction towards the release, via the use of a flyboard. In one of the canals in the center of Amsterdam, a flyboard pilot made quite a stir, and after drafting in a large audience via his aquatic tricks, he ‘surprised’ Armin with a briefcase containing the very first physical copy of ‘Embrace’. A superbly crafted PR campaign that utilized all the key features of a successful project, including amassing the largest possible crowd, in the busiest possible place, at the most populated possible time of the year.
As you can see from many of the above campaigns, when it comes to marketing strategies in dance music, all publicity is good publicity. But one of the most popular ways to position a PR campaign, is to connect with fans on a personal level, thus maximizing your potential reach. Whether your content is edgy, humorous, or interacts well with fans or large crowds, make sure that your campaign is well thought-out, and amusing in order to successfully boost your profile to the masses. As a general rule when it comes to PR campaigns, the more memorable the campaign, the more successful the artist.
