Plastic Beach is the 3rd studio album from the animated band Gorillaz. It is premised around a strange floating island deep in the South Pacific - one made entirely of plastic debris and the washed up remnants of humanity. Our client, EMI, approached us with a tactical brief to promote this album to all fans of popular music. With a budget of only $3000, we knew our best strategy lay in targeting key music influencers.Objective:Get quality and in-depth coverage of the new album by creating something that stands out from the thousands of albums and media releases being sent to music journalists every week.

Strategy:We commissioned an artist to supply ‘relics’ from Plastic Beach – a series of unique plastic flowers made from various household discards. Positioned as a tailored 'little prezzie' from Gorillaz, these were sent to prominent music journalists and bloggers, along with album information and assets.Results:Plastic Flowerz saw a 70% response rate from targeted bloggers, resulting in nearly 8,000 social media impressions and helping Plastic Beach reach No.1 on the Australian charts within a week of launch. The first country in which it’s done so.

1. In early February, we commissioned artist Jane Gillings to create 20 plastic flowers out of various household discards.2. We handcrafted personalised letters from Murdoc, one of the band members, along with a PDF detailing the back-story behind the album.3.The week before album launch on March 2nd, we hand delivered individualised plastic flower packs to key music influencers.4. Targeted blogs and social media accounts were constantly monitored for updates.5. Follow up letters (from Murdoc) were sent to those who hadn’t posted in the first week.

Plastic Flowerz saw a 70% response rate from targeted bloggers, resulting in nearly 8,000 social media impressions and helping Plastic Beach reach No.1 on the Australian charts within a week of launch. The first country in which it’s done so.

In the over-hyped and competitive music industry, we got people whose opinions are really valued, to talk in-depth about the new Gorillaz album.

“Hey record labels, take note; this is how you get us to write about your band!” - Pedestrian.TV, leading Australian culture blog referring to our campaign.