The document outlines a marketing plan for an acoustic album by Lady Gaga aimed at appealing to mass audiences. Key elements of the plan include: releasing stripped back songs from her catalogue; pricing the album affordably at £8.99 to encourage high sales; distributing the album widely in stores and online; and conducting a digital marketing campaign using billboards, playlists, and a YouTube live launch to promote the "new era" and drive streams/sales of the album.

1. MD4217
Assessment
Charlotte Dale
Product – Acoustic Album for Lady
Gaga with the aim of continuing her
transition out of niche markets and to
appeal to a mass audience.
The album features a track list of
stripped back songs with a mix of
acoustic a Capella renditions of her hits
from across all 5 albums.
Marketing Aim - To mass market the
album so that Lady Gaga as an artist
can transition into new market territories
and appeal to as many people as
possible.

2. Price –
 The RRP for the album will be £8.99, about
average for current female soloists but highly
affordable.
 The primary aim of the marketing campaign is to
appeal to masses. If it was to retail at a higher
price point, it could limit sales to only die-hard
fans or music enthusiasts.
 A lower price encourages higher sales figures,
particularly from impulse buyers and increases
the demographic to lower ages and social
grades.
Place –
 Sold in high street stores, in particular
supermarkets globally. (ASDA, Tesco, Target,
Walmart)
 ITunes/Website directly for digital purchase.
 Available for streaming through Apple Music,
Spotify, Tidal.

3. Marketing Budget
P!nk
Budget - £10,000 - £15,000
Sam Smith
Budget - £15,000-£20,000
The 1975
Budget £25,000+
 Digital Marketing campaign in
partnership with Spotify and Apple
Music to create and promote playlists.
 ‘We saw an uplift of 90%
in catalogue streams and 30% in
streams
of ‘What About Us’ coming from these
two playlists. On average, fans of
similar artists watched a higher
percentage of the video than core
fans.’
 One week before release,
partnered with Spotify to put
up three billboard in London,
New York and LA.
 Debuted at #3 on the Spotify
global charts with 3.9m day-
one streams.
 Reached at #1 on the Global
Spotify charts and exceeded
4.5m daily streams at its
peak..
 253m streams to date on
Spotify – Sam’s third-most-
streamed track on Spotify.
 Rebranded themselves with
a pink grunge look
 Performed an exclusive
rooftop show in LA with an
interview after, livestreamed
as part of Zane Lowe’s show.
 Created pop-up shops in
London, Manchester and
New York.
Final Budget:
£30,000-£40,000

4. Audience Segmentation
These findings from YouGov as part of their profiling software pinpoints a demographic for Gaga’s previous
releases.
Approx. early 20s | Predominant female | Almost Liberal
Internet Marketing
Playlists (In particular
radio)
TV Promo Tour

5. Spotify Significance

6. Image Release
No Tears Left To Cry Release
The 1975
• Encourages Fan Culture and media
coverage: fan accounts, articles, twitter
moments, Instagram.
• Gaga has previously hosted competitions to
encourage fan creativity. E.g. designing an
outfit for her to wear or designing emoji’s for
her site.
• Releasing a set of images encourages fans
to edit the images, produce fan art.
• If a release doesn’t have any promotional
materials, it is harder to get media coverage
or build hype.

7. Image Release
Consistent Branding Encourages Fan Culture on Social Media Promotes New Era

8. Billboards
• Mass Exposure as it provides a guaranteed
audience.
• Free for the audience to consume, more likely to
engage.
• Proven to be effective – Sam Smith Case study
• Specifically targeted locations based on analytics

9. https://spark.adobe.com/page/BwKu4OyfCc75e/
EPK
• Used to accompany
the release of the
album
• Provides details about
previous releases,
ventures, and future.

10. Album Release: YouTube Live Launch
 To celebrate the album release, Gaga will host a
YouTube Live Launch on the day of release.
 Such events usually feature a selection of
performances from the album, interview with the host,
a worldwide fan Q&A, and behind the scenes of the
recording process.
 To encourage participation, the launch will offer the
incentive of access to tour presale exclusively for
viewers.
 Press across the entertainment industries (E.G.
Billboard, NME, E! News, Twitter and Cosmopolitan)
will also be invited to the event to encourage album
promotion following the event across different
platforms.

11. Snapchat Filter
• As of the end of December 2016,
an average of 2.5 billion snaps
were produced everyday from
the 158 million daily active
users.
• Increasingly being used as a
promotional technique.

12. Billboards raise
awareness of the album
release
Image release both on social
media and within the press
raises interest in the ’new era’
YouTube Live Release encourages the
audience to desire the album by giving
teaser performances from the album.
Buy/stream the album

13. Universal Music. (2018) [online] Available at: https://www.universalmusic.com [Accessed: 07/05/18]
Redfearn, D. (2016) Who is Joanne? Behind Lady Gaga’s New Album Title. [online] Available at:
https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop/7511076/lady-gaga-joanne-story-behind-album-title [accessed: 07/05/18]
Spotify Music. (2018) [online] Available at: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1HY2Jd0NmPuamShAr6KMms [Accessed. 07/05/18]
YouGov. (2018) [online] Available at: https://yougov.co.uk/opi/browse/Lady_Gaga [accessed: 07/05/18]
Music Ally. (2016) [online] Available at:http://musically.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Sandbox194-eoy-47284626.pdf [accessed: 07/05/18]
Carson, B. (2017) Here’s everything you need to know about how many people are using Snapchat [online] Available at:http://uk.businessinsider.com/how-many-
people-use-snapchat-user-numbers-2017-2?r=US&IR=T [Accessed: 07/05/18]
United States Security and Exchange Commission (2017) Snap Inc. Washington DC. Accessed at:
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1564408/000119312517029199/d270216ds1.htm#rom270216_4
Cestrian (2014). Advantages of Billboard Advertising. [online] Available at: https://www.cestrian.co.uk/advantages-of-billboard-advertising/ [Accessed on
07/05/18]
Walter, E. (2013) Social Media Stardom: 7 Lessons Marketers Can Learn From Digitally Savvy Celebrities. [online] Available at:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ekaterinawalter/2013/10/22/social-media-stardom-7-lessons-marketers-can-learn-from-digitally-savvy-celebrities/#7b721c9e7501
[Accessed on 07/05/18]
Bibliography