Deep Cutters

Marketing Campaign

Inventive solutions to promote new music.

Winner

Winner: Logic - 1-800-273-8255

Logic used his single as a bigger platform for vulnerable people. Using the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline number as the title of his single, meant that as the 1-800-273-8255 track gained momentum so too did awareness for the suicide prevention hotline so much so that since he, Alessia Cara & Khalid performed the track at the VMAs calls to the number increased by 50%.

Finalists

Tennis - Yours Conditionally, We Can Die Happy

After splitting with their label, Tennis achieved the #9 highest selling vinyl (behind X and Y) by playing to their strengths with a much smaller team rather than grasping at straws, a common struggle among mid-level acts. Urban Outfitter co-sign, Vinyl Me Please record of the month & support tours with The Shins & Spoon helped.

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French Montana - Unforgettable Dance Challenge

It was started by a handful of Instagram influencers and was promoted further by the likes of Diddy, Rae Sremmurd and more propelling the “unforgettable: track to the top of the charts by keeping in heavy social rotation.

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RAC - Blockchain

First to market to release a full-length album on the ethereum blockchain. First to market to release a full-length album on the ethereum blockchain. First to market to release a full-length album on the ethereum blockchain. First to market to release a full-length album on the ethereum blockchain

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BOMBA ESTEREO - Mixtape Exchange

A site where fans can create Spotify playlists and send them to fans on the other side of the world. A site where fans can create Spotify playlists and send them to fans on the other side of the world. A site where fans can create Spotify playlists and send them to fans on the other side of the world.

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Jury

Angel Reyes - Digital Strategist - NUE Agency
Charlie Forster Anderson - Lawyer & Muscian - UMG
Emily Williams - Sr Director Digital Marketing - Downtown Records
Eric Raicovich - Director of Brand Insights - UMG
Tomas Uribe - CEO - Stereotheque

Music Tech Startup

Businesses improving how we create, teach, promote, consume, and monetize music.

Winner

Royalty Exchange

Royalty Exchange is an online marketplace for buying and selling royalties through auctions. All historical data for each song and catalog is publicly available, as is the final sale price. A hugely pro-artist innovation of the status quo where royalties are locked in a black box forcing artists to exercise audit rights and litigations to get paid what they’re legally owed.

Finalists

JAAK - Blockchain

Creating a blockchain network for the music industry to give a global view of rights information and remove friction in all areas of the digital supply chain.

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Jukely - Promotion

Jukely is a concert membership. Instead of buying tickets to individual shows, put yourself on the guestlist to any of hundreds of events in 16 cities for one flat monthly price.

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Amper - AI

Amper is an artificial intelligence music composer and API that creates & customizes original music for your content.

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Splice - Content

A cloud platform for music making, collaborating and sharing.

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Jury

Bas Grasmayer - Product Director - IDAGIO
Matt Brinkworth - Head of Digital - Omnian Music Group
Alonso Gillagomez - Creative Digital Strategist - Freelance
Ben Ferster - Art Director & Photographer - Freelance

Music Video

Not your average performance or narrative music videos, these artists approached the format in new ways.

Winner

Glass Animals - Agnes

‘Agnes’ was the saddest song Dave Bayley had ever written. To simulate the weight of heartbreak of the song’s main character, Agnes, Bayley performs the song in a Human Centrifuge Machine, used by astronauts for G-force training crushing its subjects under extreme gravity. To get the shot they ran it 18 times - an excruciating process that Bayley described as “being slowly sat on by an elephant..” To pull this video off, the band overcame great technical, physical and emotional distress giving a powerful tribute to the real heartbreak in Agnes.

Finalists

Charli XCX - Boys

Self-directed, Charli XCX flips the script on sexual exploitation of female pop stars with a cameo packed video with the boys doing sexy stuff. In a cultural arena of #METOO, this made what looks like a simple, glossy pop video an important piece of cultural commentary.

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OKGO - Obsession

567 domestic printers, savvy choreography, stop motion effects, and filming the performance at 36 times slower than the original, OK Go created the world’s first “paper mapping” project, which took 2.5 years to complete.

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Young Thug - Wyclef Jean

Director, Ryan Staake, claimed Young Thug never showed up to his own video shoot so instead, he made a video of how the shoot fell apart and Thug as a diva. It’s hilariously entertaining, but was this real or the concept all along?

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Too Many T's - Featuring Alexa

Interactive video where Alexa sings along triggered by voice commands and pausing while she answers. The result is a duet between Alexa and Too Many T’s that you can listen to at home using your own Alexa device, when played within earshot of your sound system’s speakers.

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Jury

Nur Ozdamar - VP Strategy & Brand Partnerships - Universal Music Group
April Yablonovitch - Account Executive - WAVO.me INC

Tour: Off Stage

Recognizing innovation in touring: Off-Stage: Creativity show marketing and promotion.

Winner

Major Lazer - Cuba

In a landmark concert where Major Lazer played outside the US Embassy once Obama re-established diplomatic relations with the nation. The show was flooded with people who learned of Major Lazer’s music from pirates who smuggled music through USBs and CDs. Apple Music produced a slick documentary detailing all the work that made this historic concert possible, which is an incredible story of how artists grow in a place completely isolated from the world.

Finalists

Depeche Mode - Come Back Tour

Let 1 fan a day take over their FB page (7.3 M) to share photos & stories of the band. The promotion was wildly successful with the band outselling Ed Sheeran & Bruno Mars.

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Frank Ocean - Festival Set

Frank Ocean had Spike Jones direct content for wall to wall 4k screens which was accompanied by surround sound PA.

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American Authors - Shazam Backstage

Brilliant Shazam integration where fans could visually Shazam American Authors’ backdrop to win meet & greets with the band after their set.

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Jury

Arielle Rubin - Director of Digital Strategy - 7S Management
Pergo - Tour Manager - Train (band)
Rob Nassif - Owner - Hen House Artist Management

Tour: On Stage

Recognizing innovation in touring: On-Stage: Innovation in show production.

Winner

Ariana Grande - Dangerous Woman World Tour & Manchester

Projection tracking-sensors were built into Ariana Grande’s in-ears which could map her and her dancers on stage. The result was a responsive stage production built like no-one else before her. Additionally, her heart-breaking fundraiser for the Manchester terrorist attack victims was brilliant done.

Finalists

St Vincent - Fear the Future Tour

A captivating one woman show with the opening act being a film directed & written by her. VIP packages included a session with her guitar tech where fans learn how to get her sound.

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The Fever 333 - Randy's Donut Shop

A bait-and-switch move where rumors of LetLive’s final album circulated. Fans met at LA’s Randy’s Donut Shop to hear the news, which turned out to be a viral pop-up show in the back of trucks where Jason Butler announced a new band, The Fever 333.

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PVRIS - 2017 Headline Tour

For using the rock stage as a platform to fight LGBTQ rights in Trump’s America.

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Jury

Arielle Rubin - Director of Digital Strategy - 7S Management
Pergo - Tour Manager - Train (band)
Rob Nassif - Owner - Hen House Artist Management

Art Direction

Exceptional visual art direction at every corner of a campaign including social media, ad units, tour, videos, and album artwork.

Winner

Brockhampton - Saturation Trilogy

Three albums in one year, Saturation I, II, and III allowing the upstarts to maximize exposure and create a crossover boy-band brand of art-school cool and uncompromising attitude. Visual branding is of paramount importance with track names having a strong visual style across artwork via their Youtube channel, website, and social channels..

Finalists

Sevdaliza - ISON

Everything she does is thoughtfully curated, e.g.: her ‘Amadine Insensible’ video was made entirely from self-created Shutterstock clips that explored the objectification of women, which were made available to purchase on the site.

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The XX - I Dare You

In a collaboration between Alasdair McLellan, Raf Simons, and The xx present a love letter to Los Angeles.

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Avey Tare - Eucalyptus

The record was intended to be heard as a whole so it was released as a stream on his site with different visuals for each track. No advanced singles, no conventional music videos, just a beautiful listening environment for the full body of work..

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Lawrence Rothman - The Book of Law

Lawrence created 9 different alter egos complete with a backstory, wardrobe, photoshoot that play all the textures of their personality on the record. There was even a 50 card playing deck with own rules and intentions based on Tarot.

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Jury

Chelsi Zollner - Production Manager - Biz3 Publicity
Sam Proud - UX/UI Designer - Proudspark
AJ Moser - Content Strategist - Big Spaceship
Mishaal Abbasi - Brand Strategist - Uncommon Bold

Brand Partnership

Artist and brands creating new ways to promote each other’s work from the standard slap-on-a-logo-and-call-it-a-day approach.

Winner

Joss Stone - Total World Tour

Joss Stone’s social and music project ‘Total World Tour’ is an audacious goal to tour every single country while completely balancing her carbon footprint - 2.7 million miles of travel! Stone partnered with Energy Revolution, a UK charity that tackles the live music sector’s impact on the environment. ‘Total World Tour’ commenced in 2014 and finishes in 2019, so far the project has planted 3,000 trees in India and invested significantly in renewable wind energy, building a cleaner future for everyone. See more

Finalists

Frank Ocean x Grand Theft Auto

GTA partnered with Ocean to expand the success of Apple’s Blonded radio by bringing the format to GTA Online, to a dedicated new audience of gamers for Frank Ocean.

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PHARRELL x LOUIS XIII

To illustrate the effect of 100 years of maturing fine cognac, Louis XIII collaborated with Pharrell to write and record a single to be archived for 100 years.

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Chainsmokers x Bumble

Band surprises a Texan collage with a campus visit. Through Bumble, fans slipped right to crack geo-targets codes for a chance to meet the band, with one fan getting to introduce the band on stage

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White Denim x North Face

The North Face released White Denim's "Rain Drop" single as part of the launch of their Apex Flex APX raincoat, teaming up with the band for a rain drenched performance at SXSW and tying in with Spotify who, relying on data from Accuweather, were able to send the single to listeners wherever it was raining.

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Jury

Jen Ryan - Director of Brand Partnerships - Splice.com
Priya Autrey - Sr. Director Marketing & Sync - Rostrum Records
Josh East - Creative Director & Head of Licensing - Circulate Group & Leaky Sync

Use of Data

Marketing made smarter thanks to the use of data.

Winner

2 Chainz - Pretty Girls Like Trap Music

2 Chainz leveraged geolocation data with his pink trap house located in Atlanta to increase engagement with his fans and to raise awareness for his album via Instagram.

Finalists

Franz Ferdinand - Spotify Fan CLub

Made the Spotify pre-save button the way to join the FF fan club and get BHS footage from the upcoming album.

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Shelita Burke - Drive

Determined through data science that she needed to release a new song every 90 days to keep her fans the most engaged and to continue building her fanbase.

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Shaking Circus - Midnight Oil

An ever-changing music video, that pulls random short video clips from YouTube based off of specific search terms related to the content of the song.

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Jury

Andreas Hindenäs - Head of Digital Marketing - Universal Music (SWE)
Moody Jones - Director of Marketing - Empire
Eric Drake - Lawyer - Fulton Co. District Attorney’s Office

Use of Platform

Pushing an existing platform or technology beyond it’s core function for music marketing.

Winner

Sabotage - Artificial Intelligence

Using artificial neural networks and sourced lyrics, Spotify and team were able to create a new song from dead Brazilian rap legend Sabotage.

Finalists

Ed Sheeran - Snapchat

Sheeran got his own lens on Snapchat with a 30-second snippet of ‘Shape of You’ to help promote his new album.

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The Academic - Facebook

The Academic hacked the 15 second delay in Facebook Live to create an mesmerising music video.

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Anderson Paak - Instagram

Using the Instagram profile grid to make a never ending mosaic of upcoming information, Anderson Paak has one of the most intriguing feeds for an artist.

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Aldo the Band - Facial Recognition

Using face recognition technology that made every single person on Internet sing the latest tune by Aldo The Band.

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Jury

Angel Reyes - Digital Strategist - NUE Agency
Felipe Delphorno - Head of Strategy - Circulate (IRL)

Experiential

One-off shows, pop-ups, parties and other special live events to brilliantly promote music.

Winner

Gorillaz - Spirit House

For one weekend the virtual band became real in 3 locations. Gorillaz transformed spaces in Berlin, Brookyln, and Amsterdam into physical places for fans to explore the cartoon architecture the band has established over the years through video and online media. The first taste of the house was made in the 2017 VR video for “Saturnz Barz”, an AR app released shortly after let fans explore more, but it was the physical Spirit Houses laden with easter eggs that was especially delightful for fans.

Finalists

Oh Wonder - Ultralife Film Screening

For their Ultralife album, Oh Wonder shot a documentary of the album making process. On the eve of its release, the band hosted a screening event of the documentary and listened to the record in full with a handful of lucky fans.

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Solange - A Seat at the Table Performance

Interdisciplinary performance at NYC’s iconic Guggenheim museum with reimagined songs from ‘A Seat at the Table’ examining its themes of inclusion and space. All attendees wore white in a memorable night.

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Spotify - Rap Caviar Tour

An activation of a different kind — Rap Caviar Spotify playlist comes to life in an inaugural tour further solidifying it as a tastemaker rap brand.

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Rise Against - Wolves Scavenger Hunt

Scavenger hunt where fans ran around London answering band trivia to win sold-out show tickets. In the final hours of the hunt, coordinates revealed the location of a secret acoustic set where participants could meet the band.

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Jury

Rachel Dady - Head Writer - NickMusic & TeenNick (Nickelodeon)
Laura Ferranti - Marketing & Event Manager

Merch

New solutions to merch that grew revenue and audience.

Winner

Childish Gambino - Vinyl VR

Combining new tech (VR) with old tech (vinyl), Donald Glover & team translated his vision into a package fans could seamlessly engage with in multiple dimensions. While others are constantly looking for ways to cut costs on vinyl packages, this project showed that fans will respond well when care, intentionality & quality are central to the process.

Finalists

Fall Out Boy - Fidget Spinners

Hijacking the hype of fidget spinners, Fall Out Boy created their own fidget spinner that had a bluetooth speaker with their new song.

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Dirty Heads - Stick E Pens

Limited Edition Cannabis vape pen to kick off summer tour season.

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Shawn Mendes - Leo the Lion

A replica of Shawn's own childhood stuffed animal, Leo arrives wearing a blue Shawn Mendes t-shirt.

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Travis Scott - Action Figure

A Travis Scott 12" Collectible action figure as seen on "The Rodeo" album cover, including authentic La Flame chain + medallion.

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Jury

Cameron Schaefer - Head of Music & Brand - Vinyl Me, Please
Maddie Brady - Director of Marketing - Eleven Seven Music
Taylor Dempsey - Digital Marketing Manager - Centricity Music

Fan Experience

Unexpected experiences that enhanced the music for fans.

Winner

Cross Faith - Live Headbang

A simple but effective tactic of keeping people’s attention on their new song, the metal group made their new track only available to fans who headbanged along. Using movement tracking technology and fan’s personal webcams, the song plays when you’re headbanging and stops as soon as you get dizzy.

Finalists

Logic - 1-800-273-8255

Logic’s song ‘1-800-273-8255’ which is also the suicide prevention hotline number has increased calls to the number by 50% since VMA performance.

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Chance, The Rapper - Civil Rights Film

Chance bought out a showings of the Story of Thurgood Marshall to allow fans to show up and watch for free.

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Chainsmokers - Bumble Visit

The band partnered with Bumble allowing college fans to swipe right and crack geo-targeted codes for a chance to meet the band.

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Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile - Mixtape Exchange

Jury

Luis Martinez - Strategist
Veronica Reynolds - Founding Member - Blockchain Lab at UCLA
Brian Reitz - Marketing Manager - Music Audience Exchange