Behind The Campaign :: Metallica
Metallica released 72 Seasons – their 11th studio album and first new studio album since 2016 – in April 2023. This was a major release and part of setting up a huge world tour, so no stone was left unturned in terms of giving this maximum impact. Doug Oswandel (head of the digital department at Q Prime, the band’s management company), Brant Weil (head of Q Prime’s marketing department) and Marc Reiter (head of creative at Metallica HQ) explain why it all started with a bang, how the album’s concept shaped things creatively, where new platforms were embraced and why fans were at the centre of everything.
Actionable takeaways
Compiled by Music Ally’s team of marketing experts, these condensed action points are to help you get started and apply them to your own work:
- Planning campaigns early: Allow yourself time to conceive and implement interesting campaigns so you’re not running into timing issues. The team started to plan for the campaign about one year before the release, with weekly meetings at the minimum. This allowed them to tap into new opportunities and realise a multitude of ambitious ideas.
- Create localised/multilingual content: Metallica’s multi-language lyric videos and ASL videos are an excellent example of how to cater to a global audience and ensure the artist’s content can be enjoyed by as many fans as possible. The creation of ASL videos may be attending to a relatively small proportion of the audience, but it shows a keen awareness of all types of fans and such attention to detail shows an act that actually cares.
- Get creative with non-traditional marketing tools: Building and maintaining an archive, especially for big acts with a long history, can pay for itself over and over again by enabling whole new types of activations. Fans care about an act’s history and want to see those acts do interesting things with their past to add new perspectives on their present. Google Maps is not typically an app you associate with music marketing but the team behind Metallica’s campaign shows that it can be a great tool for rewarding superfans and generating hype around a world tour.
- Rely on existing references: If a campaign idea seems difficult to realise, do some research and find previous campaign examples – and find out who has worked on them. This can lead you to the teams that could help you realise your idea.
- Introducing music via new partners: An act that sits on their laurels is an act that is doomed to never bring in new fans. Of course, super-serve existing fans – but also go to the platforms and channels that can introduce whole new generations of potential fans to both the artist’s catalogue and their new material. Understand the opportunities available at each partner and what makes sense for your artist. Metallica’s team explored various different partnerships with companies such as Netflix, Fortnite and Roblox. On Fortnite, the team was able to secure an Emote as well as an Icon Station and on Roblox they strategically inserted four songs into some of the biggest games that appeal to a slightly older audience, as well as digital goods that users could buy or earn for their avatars.
Setting up for a major return
It is not uncommon for Metallica to leave large gaps between studio albums. Their previous one was 2016, the one before that was 2008 and the one before that was 2003. The band started working on the new album in 2021. Discussions and planning for 72 Seasons began around spring 2022.
Marc: Nearly a year before the release, we knew that something was coming. We didn’t know exactly when but we also knew that the landscape had dramatically changed since 2016 and we needed to adapt.
Fortunately the Q Prime team had released a lot of records between the last Metallica album and this Metallica album, so we were well versed in what the landscape was like and what the marketplace was like.
Marc Reiter
Fortunately the Q Prime team had released a lot of records between the last Metallica album and this Metallica album, so we were well versed in what the landscape was like and what the marketplace was like.
It’s a very large team that includes two record companies: Universal for ex-North America; and Warner Music/Rhino for the US and Canada.
We started bringing them on in late summer 2022 when we began weekly Zooms and other weekly meetings with them. Our own meetings were at least weekly, if not daily, from the summer on.
Building a campaign around the album concept
The 72 seasons of the album title refer to the first 18 years of someone’s life, the period in which their identity, their personality and their tastes are often defined.
Marc: The overarching theme was that this was a deeply personal album for the band. James Hetfield, who writes the lyrics, certainly bared his soul in a very deep and honest way. It was impossible to ignore that, nor did we wish to ignore it. The fine line was trying not to exploit that but to actually make sure that people were aware of it.
When we started to see the lyrics and understand the themes and the messages behind a lot of these songs, we all realised very quickly that this was something that many people, if not all people, could relate to.
28th November was when everything was announced for maximum impact – but it had to stay a secret until then
On 28th November, the band announced pretty much everything – the album release date, the world tour dates, the first single (‘Lux Æterna’) and its video. It was a carefully managed process to ensure it was all a surprise for fans.
Marc: It was a very conscious decision that the band and management came up with. Cliff Burnstein [long-term manager] and Lars [Ulrich, drummer] initiated that idea. Once everyone grasped the magnitude of dropping everything at once – the album title, the album cover, the first track, the first video, the tour dates, et cetera – we all bought in right away.
I’d say we did a remarkable job of keeping it secret. I’m not patting ourselves on the back by saying that. The huge and multinational Metallica family did an amazing job of keeping this all quiet until 28th November.
Brant: We knew early on how many instant grats that we were going to put out [ahead of the album]. We were going to put something out again fairly early on in 2023. We had the roadmap of knowing that this many songs were coming before release. The question was: how do we make those events? We’re only going to have the big secret announcement once.
The announcement was so big and, because there was no setup, all the things that you would do to lead into a track – like cutting the behind-the-scenes [content] – we did after ‘Lux Æterna’ came out. The two weeks that you would use to build up to a song release was the two weeks after ‘Lux Æterna’ came out, which really took us into the holiday season.
We didn’t get buried because it was shot out of a cannon so strongly. It carried us through the rest of the year.
We didn’t get buried because it was shot out of a cannon so strongly. It carried us through the rest of the year.
Brant WeIL
A multi-lingual approach and the centrality of YouTube
Being a huge global act, the band are very conscious that English is not the first language for many of their fans. Taking that into account shaped the campaign. YouTube was the key platform for this. They had also created products for specific markets in the past (like putting live EPs out in South America and releasing live DVDs only in France and Mexico).
Doug: With ‘Lux Æterna’, we started with five lyric videos in various languages. By the end of the setup, we had eight different languages [including English, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish and German].
Marc: It was pretty simple. Metallica are a global band. When we started having our meetings in earnest with Universal, they expressed a desire to have different languages for the lyric videos so that fans around the world could follow along much easier – and not have to incorporate Google Translate themselves. We did the work for them.
It’s such a US-centric campaign most of the time as they are a US band, but we wanted to be truly international.
DOUG Oswandel
We would have loved to have done it in 30 languages, but timing was our biggest enemy.
Doug: We leaned into YouTube really heavily. During the pandemic, we had Metallica Mondays where every Monday there was a brand new and unseen concert put up for fans to watch and engage with. That ties into our desire to take care of fans and make everyone feel included.
Over time, we’ve really seen the value and want to take care of those fans [in specific markets] and make them feel special. It’s such a US-centric campaign most of the time as they are a US band, but we wanted to be truly international.
Slipstreaming the band’s music on Stranger Things and inside Fortnite to open up new audiences
The band’s 1986 track ‘Master Of Puppets’ was used in Stranger Things in July 2022. As with the show’s use of Kate Bush’s music, the sync had enormous impact and introduced the band’s music to new audiences. This was amplified further through a partnership with Fortnite.
Brant: We were lucky that Kate Bush kind of came out of nowhere – so Netflix’s ears were perked about looking to maximise this. We had the benefit of being able to talk with Netflix and come up with ideas before it came out and do a bit more marketing once it happened than if we had just been taken by surprise. They were very willing partners.
Doug: Fortnite were interested in working with ‘Master Of Puppets’, so the emote was actually for ‘Master Of Puppets’, but at the same time we did an Icon Radio station. On that was catalogue and the new song [‘Lux Æterna’] as well. We used it as a way to introduce the new music and the catalogue to the Fortnite fans.
Roblox partnership
This was a move to reach the older audience on Roblox, using the band’s music and creating bespoke digital goods in the gameplay.
Doug: The Roblox partnership was unique. We partnered with them and they found some of their biggest games that appeal to the slightly older Roblox audience. For the weekend of release, we had four songs that each experience could use. They got the Metallica music in it – there were two old songs [‘King Nothing’ and ‘For Whom The Bell Tolls’] and two new ones [‘Lux Æterna’ and ’72 Seasons’].
With that, we created digital goods that fans can buy for their avatars or to earn for their avatars through playing the experiences. From where we sit, it was a success in hitting different and younger fans with the music and letting them experience it.
Using TikTok to tease the new track
The individual band members all recorded their isolated parts of the first single and they were individually posted on TikTok, building up to a full band performance.
Doug: New technologies have emerged since their last album and around Stranger Things we had some good success with a couple of duets. The fan engagement around duets and the technology of TikTok was a nice way to tease a song and engage that community on the platform. The whole world’s moving towards TikTok so it felt like the right place to do something and a unique opportunity to market in that way.
They’ve been active on TikTok for a couple of years. They did a Stranger Things duet with a clip with Joseph Quinn [who plays Eddie Munson in the show]. That was the first real push there. And then it was mostly using repurposed content or clips. This was the first time that the band had really shown themselves and interacted on the platform.
We’re always looking at TikTok and any new technology: if and how we should lean in. We’re looking at how to maximise each platform so it’s a constant conversation. What can we work with on the platform, what makes sense for the band and what makes sense for their audience?
Listening parties and supporting retail by making it a focal point for fan communities
Retail, especially indie retail, has always been key for the band, so it was a given they would lean into working with record shops via listening parties and special physical products.
We like to provide Metallica fans with a forum to get together with other Metallica fans.
Brant WeIL
Brant: A theme that is not just for this record, and is just Metallica in general, is the fact that Metallica fans like to be together, whether it’s online, whether it’s at the shows or whether it’s at listening events in theatres. Indie retail is an extension of that.
We like to provide Metallica fans with a forum to get together with other Metallica fans. Obviously the listening parties are there to get fans to buy the record, but really it’s to have a place where Metallica fans can go, at a midnight party or the day of release, and celebrate being a fan with other fans.
We gave a lot of tools to stores to make them feel like they were little Metallica stores that night before or the day of, to create a spot for people to go and be together while they’re experiencing this record and sharing it.
We try to not go overboard with product. There were five vinyl variants, a couple for different retailers and then two for metallica.com. There was a cassette and a CD as they still sell a tonne of CDs. There were two vinyl offerings; one sold out right away the other one sold out over time.
Doug: We also did a Spotify Fans First exclusive cassette. It was a black cassette because the one we were selling on metallica.com was yellow.
Cinema playback
Based on a launch plan for the 1991 Black Album [aka Metallica], the band put on a multitude of cinema screenings of the album playback, again giving fans a physical space to congregate.
Marc: Back in 1991, before any of us were involved with the band, for the release of the Black Album, it is still one of the greatest release ideas I’ve ever heard or seen. They rented out Madison Square Garden, invited fans there for free and did a listening party in the Garden where they played the new album.
They came out and introduced the record, hung with the fans a little bit, but it was simply coming to Madison Square Garden and hearing the new record. I still think that was just an absolutely genius idea, especially at a time when there was no social media or anything else.
We were looking back at that idea and thinking how we could adapt to the current marketplace where there isn’t an opportunity to have a much larger reach. We said, “What can we do to have the world’s largest listening party ever?” We have a history with Trafalgar Releasing, having done some theatrical events with them in the past, most notably the S&M concerts that were performed in 2019 where we did a theatrical release for that.
We got the band to do an interview where they introduced each of the songs so there was a nice little video interlude. Everyone could hear a song, digest it a little bit, come down from the adrenaline rush of hearing something for the very first time and then hear the band introduce the next song for a couple of minutes.
The Metallica fanbase around the world were rabid to hear the whole record, because they’d been hearing about the whole record for several months and had only heard four songs up until that point. It was the perfect storm. We were hoping to have 2,500 screens around the world in maybe 50 or 60 countries. It ended up being over 3,400 screens in 81 countries.
Creating ASL music videos
Fully aware that some fans are hard of hearing, the band created a series of videos with American Sign Language.
Brant: That came out of being at a festival where there’s a translator. Eleni Psaltis, marketing manager on our team, just thought, “How do we do that with the videos?” We talked about the best way to do it and she went and found the organisation and they did it.
Doug: Every song on the album has a music video, and every song has an ASL video and lyric videos. It’s similar to the non-English lyric videos. How do we be more inclusive for all of our fans? We have fans from all walks of life.
A playlist generator based on the first 72 seasons of your life
A playlist generator, My 72 Seasons, was created where, after you added your birthday, a playlist of music from the first 18 years of your life, peppered with new and old Metallica songs, was created.
Doug: This is the one thing that is a direct inspiration from the album title. As your life is formed from the first 72 seasons of your life, so are your musical tastes in many ways. We thought it’d be a great way to represent that and to have fans experience that by reliving their first 18 years of life. And to have some Metallica along the way.
Creative Corporation out of the UK built it. The challenge for that was finding data that speaks to the world’s catalogue. We found some databases that would go back and we pulled from the user’s music listening history.
We don’t believe songs expire after release date. We love our fans listening to any of our music. Wherever you came in to be a Metallica fan, whether you’re a brand new fan from Stranger Things or Fortnite or you’ve been there along the way, we want you to experience the whole catalogue.
Creating a Google Maps integration for the world tour
Inspired by Elton John’s farewell tour when it hit LA, where his team worked with Google Maps to mark up locations of significance to his career in the city, Metallica extended this to apply globally for the history of the band.
Marc: What Elton did was pretty cool, but that’s only one market. We asked: how can we do this with the entire tour and beyond? I went to Doug and Doug made it happen.
It seemed like an easy idea, but it was all but impossible to execute! Yet Doug got it done, with help from a lot of other people at Q Prime and at Universal. I give all the credit to Doug and his team, because they made the impossible happen with that.
Doug: We partnered with Modern English, who built the Elton map.
The Metallica tour is two nights in each city. It’s usually a Friday and a Sunday. They’re doing 20 markets over the two years that we announced and it’s two dates in each market, a different setlist, a different opener. “No repeat weekends” as they’re being called. Because there’s a day off, and we know people are travelling, we try to provide some value in some things to help the community, to guide them in a way and give them an experience that is more than just a show.
On the day off in between, we’ve got some events going on. They vary per market. Sometimes it’s a Q&A with [photographer] Ross Halfin, sometimes we have a little movie festival or there are a couple of cover bands playing in some markets. We’ve got all this activity and we want fans to find it and navigate to it easily.
With the history of Metallica, we built a massive database that’s still evolving. When you go to M72map.metallica.com, it brings you into that. There are current events that you can navigate, or you can see the history of places they’ve played, whether they still exist or not, which has been quite a challenge when you think back through 40 years of venues as a lot aren’t there [any more], but there are dots on a map.
The band has done a very good job of archiving their career. We’ve got a lot of information, data and photos that we could build into this map and give fans a new experience.
In addition, there’s a scavenger hunt in most markets. If you open the map at the right time, there may be a new dot on it and you can go and find it. It’s all about giving our fans a great experience while building community.
The tour that was announced was a two-year tour. So this map will be evolving for two years.
Partnerships with DSPs
In Amsterdam, at the start of the tour, the band worked closely with both Apple Music and Amazon Music to create bespoke content for them.
Doug: Zane Lowe from Apple and the crew flew out to the first day of the show in Amsterdam, did a sit-down interview with all four members which you don’t see happen too often. We had an overall big partnership. It came out great. We’re still cutting it up and using clips on our socials. So is Apple.
With Amazon Music, we did an Amsterdam session. The band went into a studio and we filmed four songs. Four videos are going up on Amazon Music and the audio as well.
Main band images: photo credit Tim Saccenti
