The pop-punk band blink-182 was set to release their new album NINE on September 21st, 2019. The album was set to debut the same day they wrapped their 20th anniversary tour – which featured the band performing their classic album Enema Of The State in full including the song “Aliens Exist.” An organic trend on Facebook had the internet clamoring about storming Area-51 the same night. Our main objective was to connect the viral Area 51 trend to our album release in order to promote blink-182's new music.

In order to connect the album release and tour finale to the viral internet trend, we turned Barclays Center into Area-51. Since the album’s name (NINE) celebrates the band’s nine albums, we dressed nine Columbia Records employees up as aliens and set them lose in New York. Each alien was associated with one of blink-182's albums, most recognizably the nurse from Enema of the State. Their final destination was Barclays Center, where they would hand out album merch, posters, and join the band on stage for the song “Aliens Exist.” We invited fans to arrive dressed as aliens while we worked with influencers and the band to maximize the stunt online. Any fans who also came dressed as aliens to the show were given the new album on vinyl.

The strategy was two-fold:

1) Embrace the irreverent side of the band and the #StormArea51 movement to engage the predominantly male blink-182 fans with a fun, responsive event that celebrates their anniversary tour while promoting their new album.

2) Combine old-school guerilla marketing with digital tactics, including paid ads, emerging platforms (such as Community), and local influencers with national reach. By targeting fans in the NY market who had already engaged with the album campaign, we jump-started interest in the Barclays event, yielding press coverage that exponentially increased the scope of the campaign throughout release week.

- Posted “Missing Alien” fliers across campuses. Posters urged Gary, whose name was taken from a famous blink song, to be returned by September 20th, the day of the Area 51 raid and album release. The phone number on the flyer played a song from the new album.

- Seeded the flyers to blink-182’s reddit.

- Rebranded our Facebook event to mimic the viral Storm Area 51 Facebook Event and encouraged fans to come to the show at Barclays Center dressed as aliens.

- Original Storm Area-51 Facebook page shared our event.

- NINE aliens took the subway to Barclays Center.

- Influencers and press outlets shared videos of the aliens running around New York, revealing that Barclays Center was their destination.

- Encouraged user generated content by taking pictures with fans and having the aliens join blink-182 on stage during “Aliens Exist” to bring the night home.

Our campaign reached 33M+ followers, earned 285K+ in engagement, and garnered nearly $75K dollars in media value.