Los Angeles, CA (Top40 Charts/ Universal
Music Enterprises) - By offering her numerous fans fresh and creative ways to take part in promoting her music career in the digital universe, Katharine McPhee has been reaching out like few other artists. From helping with a fan's wedding playlist to calling fans during an album listening party, from giving fans opportunities to create videos and splash pages to having them design a fashion set, Kat has involved them in getting the word out about her sophomore album, Unbroken (Verve Forecast Records), released January 5, 2010.
"Katharine is an incredibly talented artist and performer," said Bruce Resnikoff, President/CEO of the Verve Music Group. "Our goal is to build on her already successful career, broaden her fan base and further develop fan loyalty. We feel that the best way to accomplish this is for Katharine to use digital marketing efforts like this to interact directly with her fans."
So, anticipating that her song "Lifetime" would become a favorite at weddings across the country, Verve staff proposed a contest to Project Wedding, the new wedding site from eHarmony. The promotion asked users to listen to and comment on the song. The winner of a random drawing would then receive a phone call from McPhee to discuss selecting appropriate songs for a wedding playlist.
Meanwhile at Facebook, fans were encouraged to create their own online Unbroken listening parties. The fan that attracted the most members-more than 300 in just two days-won an advance copy of the album, a catered pizza party and a "thank you" phone call from McPhee.
At Polyvore, one the highest trafficked fashion sites on the web, more than 1,300 users submitted designs for a fashion set for the singer-songwriter. Another user-generated promotion asked fans to create their own splash pages for her website. Hundreds from around the world sent in their artwork. In turn, they alerted their friends to view the results via Facebook and Twitter. The same viral approach and word-of-mouth marked the success of Kat's Karaoke Challenge, for which fans were invited to upload videos of them singing the first verse and chorus of "Had It All." Thanks to the Facebook Status Update, Comments and Like features, the video clips spread across Facebook, with some garnering more than 600 "likes." The fan with the most "likes" won a prize. Round Two of Kat's Karaoke Challenge will launch soon.
McPhee also teamed with Blair Fowler, teen host of the popular YouTube channel Juicy Star 07, to shoot two videos for that channel. The videos have earned more than 1,000,000 views. In addition, Verve's digital marketing gurus created a VIP List feature for McPhee's website and elsewhere that offers mobile alerts and sends key content and information to her e-mail list, which has grown from zero to 30,000 in only six months. The "behind the velvet rope" access to all things Kat-related thus rewards her most dedicated fans.
"The digital marketing we're doing at Verve is focused on enhancing the bond between Kat and her fans," said Resnikoff. "In the end, her success begins with those fans."
