Marketing Strategies Behind Adele’s Success

Hello…

In light of Adele’s recent announcement of her new album, 30, and the latest success of her recent single “Easy On Me” which has been smashing records left, right, and center. I thought it would be appropriate to take a look back at what has made Adele into one of the biggest artists on the planet and whether or not a marketing strategy was involved in her overall success.

The Early Days of 19

Before fame and fortune hit Adele’s life, she originally started on MySpace, which for those of you who don’t remember is a slightly worse version of Facebook. She started writing bulletins and blogs, taking into consideration what people were saying which helped her figure out what does and doesn’t work. Whereas most CEOs and executives who work in the music industry don’t take most people’s opinions on board when deciding which new artists to decide to promote.

Thinking Big For Album, 25

While Adele is known for taking extended periods of time off between albums, 3 years after her second studio album, 21, fans we’re expecting news regarding a new album. In order to create hype to start a conversation among fans and media outlets, she released a short snippet of her single “Hello” which aired during an ad break of the X-Factor. The video didn’t give much away as it simply contained lyrics to the songs on a black background, however, this was a genius move on Adele’s part as the response both off and online was huge and helped towards to success of the singer’s third studio album, 25.

In order to continue building up the hype of the album, 25, Adele utilised other celebrities’ platforms to extend her audience reach for both the UK and US. For example, Adele decided to partner up with the BBC and Graham Norton to pull off a prank where she decided to impersonate herself with the use of prosthetics. This video alone raked over 40 million views on YouTube. After this, she looked at how she could capitalise on the US market by partnering up with TV host Jimmy Fallon to perform her single, “Hello” with classroom instruments. The video became a major hit and gained over 30 million views on YouTube, however by putting herself on these types of platforms help to boost her US audience reach and allow her to get her authenticity across to viewers.

Continuing With The Winning Solution For Album, 30

Last October, Adele made a brief comeback by making a surprise return on Saturday Night Live, a popular TV show in the US, where she addressed the fact why she wasn’t a musical guest saying “My album’s not finished, and I’m also too scared to do both… I’d rather just put on some wigs… have a glass of wine or six and just see what happens.” This short comment done in her pure comedic style helped to start speculations swirling around when her album may be released. 

On Friday before her recent single, Easy On Me, was released, projections of the number “30” appeared on a variety of landmarks across the globe including the Louvre in Paris, the Colosseum in Rome, and near the top of the Empire of State Building in New York. Again similar to the announcement of the single “Hello”, not much information was given away to help get media outlets talking about a possible comeback.

Another clever tactic Adele has recently exploited is the popular Instagram live feature that many celebrities have been using to promote new songs, albums, or even products they have been paid to advertise on their platforms. While we all know we love Adele for her authenticity, Adele is also very much aware of this too so what better way to get that across than to jump on Instagram live to her 42.4 million followers to answer fan questions and to play a short snippet of her recent single “Easy On Me” to help continue to market the song. As a result of her Instagram live, thousands of memes flooded social media gaining her, even more, media exposure which is helping to contribute to the hype of her highly anticipated album. This is all down to the fact that Adele herself is a brilliant marketing tool.

Spotify has confirmed that the superstar’s recent single, Easy On Me, has broken records including the global record for day one of streams, which includes both Spotify and Amazon Music. On Spotify alone, the music streaming service had confirmed that 19.75 million global chart-eligible plays we’re listened to on the first day of its release. 

All the work that has gone into creating hype around her latest album has also resulted in fans bringing back one of her older songs, “Love in the Dark” which has gained popularity again on the platform TikTok which has now gained thousands of video creations using her song.

Since her latest album, 25, was released the music industry has changed dramatically as the pandemic has boosted the use of streaming services such as Amazon Music, Spotify and Apple Music, and some wondered how Adele would adapt to a streaming-dominated world. But from looking at what Adele has already managed to achieve so far, it’s quite impressive, especially as she is currently in the US so most of her marketing and promoting of her new single and upcoming album has had to be done virtually.

Summary of Adele’s Achievements

• 19.75 million streams of “Easy On Me” on its first day of release.
• Over 87 million views on the Easy On Me, music video in the first 5 days of its premiere.
• Over 42.4 million followers on Instagram
• 25.3 million YouTube subscribers
• Over 1.1 billion streams on “Someone Like You” on Spotify

While Adele alone is a marketing tool in herself as her own authenticity and relatability have helped her to grow her fanbase significantly and sell millions of albums worldwide. It also helps to choose the right platforms to do this as it has boosted her reach massively with the impact of social media doing most of the work for her in order to promote her latest singles and albums.