We decided to give bloggers and music journalists something they wouldn’t ordinarily expect: a unique relic from Plastic Beach.We commissioned an artist to supply 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 a hand written letter from Murdoc himself and a USB drive containing the exclusive story behind the album, plus free tracks, videos and artwork.

Naturally, our objective was in-depth coverage from as many bloggers as possible.

Plastic Beach is the 3rd studio album from 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.But with thousands of albums and media releases being sent to music journalists every week, how do we get in-depth and quality coverage?

Plastic Flowerz saw a 70% response rate from targeted bloggers, resulting in nearly 8,000 social media impressions and helping Plastic Beach reach #1 on the Australian charts within a week of launch. The first country in which it’s done so.

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

“thankfully the Record Label number crunchers were for once overpowered by the creative-types Good or Bad, a campaign this brazen will always be blogged about and I’m certain that was EMI’s intention.” - Whiteboydancefloor, leading Australian music blog.

Most albums are promoted using A4 type-written media releases and a copy of the CD. In true Gorillaz style, we did something completely different. We gave music influencers something genuinely cool to own and write about. “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.