Nina Nesbitt - Mountain Music campaign

Nina Nesbitt - Mountain Music campaign

Mountain Music album cover shot in County Wicklow, Ireland. Credit: Wolf James .

Released independently on Nina’s label, Apple Tree Records, Nina’s latest album “Mountain Music” marked a new direction - taking her music back to her roots. The label partnered with FUGA on the global campaign. With Nina hugely engaged and actively involved in all aspects, we looked to craft a fan-first campaign to introduce her evolution as an artist while staying true to her incredible storytelling and songwriting. Thoroughly planning out the narrative and creative for the album from the outset - including shooting all of the creative in County Wicklow at the start of the year - we built out a strategy to connect the new music concepts and album themes to the outside world.

Key Campaign Elements:

• Mountain Music Microsite: we launched an interactive microsite that took fans on a virtual road trip, exploring deeper meanings of album tracks through videos, photos, and Nina’s own handwritten notes, whilst also encouraging them to upload and share their own experiences. The map was hand designed by a fan, following a brief from Nina who wanted to create a truly unique way to visualise and understand the album, the site lives here. The concept of the album experience being a road trip was something we threaded through the entirety of the campaign, including creating limited D2C bundles with road trip stickers amongst other items.

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• Marketing concepts: Through the hugely visual lyricism of the album we were able to derive a lot of interesting marketing concepts which lead to partnerships with Badiani's where we offered fans free ice creams (lyric reference 'Anger'), OOH Billboards across Scotland with lyrics “I got in trouble with my Scottish humour” (lyric reference 'I'm Coming Home').

  
  

• Fan Engagement: included personal handwritten notes from Nina which were hidden around the UK ahead of new single releases, multiple pop-up fan events, launching Nina's Discord channel, and worked with OpenStage for more direct connection. To promote the single 'Anger' we launched a global competition for fans to enter to win a Rage Room experience - reflecting the song's theme of feminine rage.

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• Content: live session videos were filmed for every song at Middle Farm studios in Devon where the album was recorded - which also developed into a documentary of the album which was launched in front of a very exclusive number of fans the night before the album release. The only official music video for the album came in the form of the very compelling 'Anger' music video which took us back to Northern Ireland to again drive back the essence of the album concept.

Key Campaign achievements:

• Awards: 'Mountain Music' was the UK Folk chart number 1 album. Plus the album and single 'Pages' have been nominated at the UK Americana Awards.

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• Press: Nina achieved a BBC radio 2 playlist single with 'Anger', the first of her career after positive internal and fan listening feedback. Plus playlisting at Radio X, Absolute Radio and MTV UK. The album received a 4* review from The Times and received hugely positive support across folk / Americana blogs in the US.

• Live: live dates with Stevie Nicks and LeAnn Rimes truly placed Nina into the new genre and put her in front of a huge number of potential new fans.

• Global streaming support: strong partnerships resulting in playlist placements, a Spotify Fans First exclusive vinyl, multi-territory mobile banners and billboards in London and New York from Amazon, Spotify and YouTube.

  
  

This campaign was about ushering Nina into a new era in her career while creating genuine fan connections. Every element tied back to the album’s themes and Nina’s vision, making it cohesive and truly authentic.