GLOBE, IRIS WORLDWIDE & BARCLAYCARD CAME TOGETHER IN THE THROES OF LOCKDOWN TO LAUNCH AN ARTIST-FIRST NEW MUSIC PLATFORM DESIGNED TO REPLACE THE INVESTMENT, ENDORSEMENT & EXPOSURE THAT CAME WITH THE LOST LIVE CIRCUIT OF 2020.
SHARE THE STAGE GAVE FESTIVAL HEADLINERS AND FUTURE FESTIVAL SUPERSTARS THE OPPORTUNITY TO SHARE THE VIRTUAL STAGE AND THE AUDIENCES THAT COME WITH IT, IN THE WORLD’S MOST ICONIC RECORDING STUDIO, ABBEY ROAD.
With the live music sector declining due to lockdown, Barclaycard a long-time partner, supporter, and advocate of UK Summer Festivals switched that support from live events to virtual ones. In weeks of a National lockdown being announced, we created Barclaycard Share The Stage. A new music platform that saw Festival headliners share the limelight with support acts who have lost a whole Summer of music. A platform that had to mean something to both artists and music lovers alike.
Share The Stage was born.
A long-form content series, shot in the World’s most famous recording studio, Abbey Road, completely in lockdown. Four festival headliners giving a platform to eight of the hottest emerging artists of the year. For the artists, it was the first time for them seeing their band members and getting to reform in the truly iconic setting of Abbey Road proved to be a winning formula. Brought together with our taste-making host Fearne Cotton. We worked with Abbey Road on a plan to re-open the iconic studios safely after 10 weeks of silence. Filming 12 artists, across 2 studios in 5 days. Given the circumstances & the COVID restrictions, we had to adapt everything. From stripped-back crew numbers through to innovative equipment choices. Deep cleans between every artist & the most agile production team we’ve ever worked with.
Once recorded, we delivered a label marketing approach to ensure we delivered the episodes to the best possible audience. For example, Lewis’s fans would be treated to his wonderful cover of Celeste’s ‘Strange’ and we’d created a rollout strategy utilising UMG’s first party data with FUSED that would aim to convert those headline artist fans into supporters of our emerging talent.
We achieved highly successful results across the campaign. Paid, owned & earned.
There was a 600% overperformance on press coverage (140 pieces on launch day alone) , a 35% view rate on Barclaycard’s YouTube (the highest-ever for a brand campaign and over double the anticipated benchmark), over 87 million impressions served, and over 15 million views of the content in just a few short weeks.
The shows were such a hit with the public that Globe secured a one-hour special highlights show on Channel 4.
‘Anyone that took me on tour I owe a tremendous debt to. That’s why if we can help in any way to return the favour…which we have been able to do a couple of times, it is nice’. – Lewis Capaldi
Full list of featured artists:
Celeste / Easy Life / Gracey / Jetta / Joy Crookes / Mae Muller / NOISY / Olivia Dean