This Week On The Desk
Behind The Campaign: Tion Wayne 📰
Signings ✍🏾 - Central Cee
Creative($) of the week 👩🏽🎨 - BNYX
Links 🔗 - Chicken Shop Date
Behind The Campaign: Tion Wayne
Artist: Tion Wayne | Labels: Atlantic Records UK
Single: Tion Wayne - IFTK (Feat. La Roux)
Team members
Austin Daboh – EVP
Rich Castillo – A&R Director
Max Lutkin – Head Of Marketing
Leila Singh – Marketing Manager
Tom Barthen – Marketing Assistant
Jonathan Chabala – Audience Manager
Georgia Devon Spick – Senior Streaming Manager
Ebi Sampson – press
Mel Rudder – radio
Wowa – video director
Nino Dormor – manager
Overview of Campaign
Overview of campaign
Tion Wayne is one of the most influential artists in the UK. After the cultural record-
breaking phenomenon that was Body in 2021, they wanted to further build upon Tion’s story, his brand and amplify his impact, not only in black music culture but also in wider pop culture.
The team knew that they could mobilize Tion’s engaged audience through the clever sample usage as well as engage the many fans who fell in love with La Roux and the original ‘In For The Kill’ record over 10 years ago.
They began teasing the record through organic videos of Tion on set with popular influencer Yasmine Lopez. The idea here was to merge both audiences together as well as tease the audio organically, something UK artists in this space don’t usually do with US influencers. This resulted in over 500k views in 24 hours on TikTok alone, with fans recognizing the sample and praising Tion’s use of it.
Following this, they made sure to utilize TikTok’s duet feature, which saw La Roux duet on Tion’s original teaser video. Fans loved the authentic reaction and quickly encouraged La Roux to “get in the studio (with Tion) to make what was deemed to be just a sample track a real collaboration.
The music video saw Tion and La Roux in a cinematic Mexican backdrop that rivalled a Netflix original commission. They intentionally hid La Roux’s involvement in the music video until the YouTube premiere (watched by over 5k people) to ensure it came as a surprise to fans. On TikTok, they replied to comments encouraging the collaboration with clips from the music video which quickly became La Roux’s highest video to date on the platform and one of the songs of the summer, with the record on over 60m UK streams. They followed up the first few weeks of success with more engaging content in order to bridge the gap between generations as well as audiences. The OOH campaign saw tweets made by fans plastered around the UK paying homage to the record and both artists – something that was picked up on by fans as well as online platforms.
Overall, the campaign was a true testament to two artists who are willing to push boundaries in order to reach new audiences, instinctive A&R-ing and long-term strategic marketing that was reactive and penetrated new ground through the use of social media.
Results & key learnings
• Peaked at #6 in the Official Charts
• Spent over 12 weeks in the top 40 • Nine weeks in the top 10
• 100m+ global streams
• Huge spike in TikTok followers with Tion’s increasing over 200k within three weeks of release
Campaign Breakdown
Campaign budget: $30,000-60,000
Audience demographic Age: 14-17, 18-24, 25-34
Location: London, wider UK, Europe
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Signings ✍
Central Cee signs with Columbia Records
British rapper Central Cee has signed a joint venture agreement with Columbia Records x Sony Music UK for two albums
Creative($) of the week 👩🏽🎨
BNYX - Producer | Instagram
Links 🔗
#WhoeverNeedsToHearThis
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