When it comes to generating excitement around an upcoming album, teasing is a powerful strategy, and Billie Eilish has clearly understood this. As a matter of fact, she succeeded in deploying a teasing campaign that got everyone talking about the release of her third album. At the heart of this campaign was a strategy that caused a sensation: the use of the “close friends” feature on Instagram.
She decided to add all her followers to her “close friends” list on Instagram. As a reminder, this feature allows a user to select accounts from among their followers who will be able to access “private” stories, not visible to people who aren’t part of the user’s “close friends”. Here, Billie Eilish had shared enigmatic visual teasers of her next album with her “close friends”. These exclusive glimpses fueled theories and excitement among members of her community, building excitement around each story.
After adding her +100 million followers to her “close friends”, over 7 million people decided to follow her on Instagram to join her exclusive group. In total, her followers grew by 6.4% on the platform.
In addition to the use of “close friends” on Instagram, Billie Eilish deployed other strategies to announce the release of her new album. These included changing her profile picture to a distinctive shade of blue, as well as using GPS coordinates to locate billboards linked to the album’s release in several cities around the world.
The album’s release date has been announced: May 17! In the meantime, in a final and equally successful activation, she offered a pre-sale of limited editions of personalized albums, with a CD and card painted and autographed by herself, to strengthen her bond with her fans.
All these activations demonstrate a real success in promoting her next album: by combining creativity and exclusivity, Billie Eilish has succeeded in generating worldwide excitement for her upcoming project, while strengthening her connection with her fans.
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