On February 28, Charli XCX announced the release of her album entitled “brat“. As soon as the announcement was made, the album cover sparked heated debate. Criticism was rife: some found the cover sloppy, the typography blurred, marked by an absence of artistic reflection. However, these criticisms unwittingly served her cause, generating increased visibility and therefore free publicity for the album.
Faced with the controversy surrounding the cover, fans began creating and sharing memes parodying it. Very quickly, these memes invaded social media, and the green color of the cover became instantly associated with the “brat” album. Charli XCX’s marketing team cleverly exploited this trend by launching a “brat generator”. This tool allowed fans to create their own visuals inspired by the album cover, with a green background and the famous blurred typography. This initiative boosted fan engagement and solidified the album’s presence in the public mind. Also, a Meta and Google pixel on the meme generator page enabled the marketing team to retarget all fans and those interested in the initiative with ads promoting the album.
In a bold new step in her promotional campaign, Charli XCX launched a TikTok live showing a green-painted wall on a street in New York, her third most-listened-to city on Spotify. Fans quickly identified the location and, after a tweet from Charli XCX revealing the exact address, rushed to the spot. The event culminated in a surprise appearance of the singer for a spontaneous showcase.
A few weeks later, Charli did another TikTok live to show that the green wall was being repainted white, initially causing disappointment among fans. But as the live stream progressed, letters began to appear on the white wall, revealing the message “brat and it’s the same but there’s three more songs so it’s not“. This clever revelation announced the release of the long/deluxe version of the album.
There are a number of reasons why the release of this album was such a success:
- The campaign felt totally authentic, thanks in particular to the natural and spontaneous reactions of fans, who played a crucial role.
- By enabling fans to create and share content, Charli XCX transformed her community into real players in her promotion. The creation of memes and the use of the brat generator generated considerable buzz, reaching a very wide audience. This offered the artist a genuine advertising retargeting opportunity, enabling her to reach all these new people again later on.
The album sold 30,000 copies on vinyl in its first week, taking it to number one on the vinyl album chart. The deluxe album was able to dominate the Billboard Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart in its first few weeks of release, with 17 of its 18 tracks charting in its first week, representing over a third (34%) of the entire 50-position chart.
Receiving a multitude of five-star reviews, “brat” is now described by many media as “one of her best”, “a confessional LP that never loses its energy”, and “an in-your-face instant cult classic”.
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