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NEAR TRUTHS: KINGDOMS
File under: The enemy of my enemy is my friend. (3/26a)
ONE SHINING HITS LIST
She shoots, she scores! (3/26a)
YTD MARKET SHARE
Zeroing in on the elite teams (3/27a)
BEST IN THE WEST:
STEVE BERMAN
High time for another Eminem skit (3/26a)
MUSIC REVENUE TOPPED $17B IN 2023: RIAA
Streaming subscriptions lead the charge. (3/27a)
THE NEW UMG
Gosh, we hope there are more press releases.
TIKTOK BANNED!
Unless the Senate manages to make this whole thing go away, that is.
THE NEW HUGE COUNTRY ACT
No, not that one.
TRUMP'S CAMPAIGN PLAYLIST
Now 100% unlicensed!
Blighty Beat
BEHIND THE ELVIS PHENOMENON
1/13/16

Elvis album If I Can Dream—a collaboration with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra—was last year’s surprise blockbuster release in Blighty from Sony Music CG after racking up a cool 900k sales in ten weeks. Behind Adele, it was the biggest selling new album of 2015 in the U.K. and is still flying off the shelves, sitting at #2 on today's midweek charts. So what is it that gets the Brits reaching fever pitch for The King?


The nature of the U.K. market, where marketing and promotion can be better contained due to national TV and radio stations, certainly helped the case. A combination of the Elvis legacy, an ITV documentary that aired on day six of week one release, a 40-second TV ad (that can be seen above), Priscilla Presley in market doing promo, the first-ever animated campaign for music on Kindle, and an A List spot at BBC Radio 2 created the perfect storm that culminated in a triple-platinum certificate, says Sony Music Commercial Group’s VP of Marketing Phil Savill, who helmed the project with Senior Marketing Manager Olivia Walker.

“It’s a fantastic album, which helps,” Savill tells us. “It’s a cliche to say, but you’ve got Elvis’ voice, which is absolutely phenomenal, and coupled with a fantastic orchestra it’s a brilliant concept that has been superbly executed. Anything with Elvis starts on a really high level anyway−you talk to virtually anyone and they love the whole feel of Elvis, so we had an amazing plot right from the get-go, and followed that with a number of key drivers; big TV spend, big press spend and a big outdoor campaign leading into Christmas.

“One of the other reasons why it was successful was the fact we bided our time to make sure we had the plot lined up properly. It could have been released in Christmas 2014, but we didn’t have the documentary lined up, so we waited until we had a fully formed plot and delayed the record for another year.”

L-R: Olivia Walker, Priscilla Presley, Phil Savill

The split between physical and digital was around 95/5%, and hugely positive customer reviews helped shift units. On Amazon, If I Can Dream has been reviewed over 2k times, with a score of 4.8/5 (Adele’s 25 is 4.7 with around the same amount).

Don Reedman came up with the original idea and produced the album with Nick Patrick and Priscilla Presley, while Sony U.K. Chairman and CEO Jason Iley and COO Nicola Tuer gave Savill and Walker the budget and freedom they needed.

The one million mark is around three weeks away and Savill’s not ruling out 2m by year-end. With 40k sold last week (more than most albums sold to reach #1 in the U.K. last year), a few more tracks to take to radio, and some likely spikes in Mother’s Day on 3/6 and a re-broadcast of the ITV documentary, it’s not an unlikely feat. Watch this space.