Call Me If You Get Lost: Campaign Launches According to Tyler, The Creator
“Rolls Royce pull up, Black boy hop out”
Tyler The Creator has been on a helluva run. The rollout for his most recent album, “Call Me If You Get Lost,” has been nothing short of stellar.
With the deluxe version of the album “The Estate Sale” version of the album being released last week, he gave us a masterclass in bringing sustaining interest in a project a full two years after its release and tour.
That’s super hard to do when attention spans are super limited.
Consider this…
We’re in an era where music streaming platforms upload over 100,000 songs per day (Yes, you read that correctly). And Spotify just released data saying that millions of songs on their platform barely have ONE SINGLE STREAM.
That means while getting people’s attention is hard enough, keeping their attention is next to impossible.
But that’s where Tyler The Creator comes in.
According to Billboard “Call Me If You Get Lost” is the first album to dominate the charts in three separate years (it claimed the #1 spot again last week). And if you look at this Google Trends report it validates the interest. There’s a peak in search volume for every year of dominance:
Again, the rollout was great. And it’s the focus of today’s piece. It doesn’t matter if you in tech, auto, or CPG, there’s something you can learn from each phase of his album release.
That said, let’s get into it… Call Me If You Get Lost
THE PRE-LAUNCH
Marketing is about making people aware of your product and how it meets their needs to incentivize them to buy it.
And whether the product is a drink, a mop, or an album, good marketing requires reinvention, i.e. refreshed brand positioning and constant reminders that let people know who you are in such a crowded market.
This is especially important before you launch a product, and with ‘Call Me If You Get Lost’ Tyler’s pre-launch did three things:
It Built Anticipation
Teased a new brand positioning.
Created mystique
I. The Anticipation
In June 2021, fans in Los Angeles were greeted by a billboard that simply said “Call Me If You Get Lost” with a phone number.
Internet sleuths called the number and quickly discovered that the billboard was attached to Tyler, the Creator. While no album title or released date had been announced, the billboard included a phone number for fans to call.
Upon calling the phone number you were greeted by a voicemail message. Unbeknownst to anyone at the time, that voicemail message would be a part of the album releasing soon after.
That brings us to the next part of the campaign:
II. A New Brand Positioning
Tyler is a seasoned artist who shows his progression with each album. Look at the picture below for reference of how his visual ID has evolved over the years.
The album prior to CMIYGL entitled “IGOR” found Tyler wearing a blond wig with shades exploring the theme of unrequited love.
This time around it saw drawing upon something new, and familiar to many of us: A Series of Unfortunate Events
IGOR was no more. We were now with Tyler Baudelaire.
III. The Mystique
After days of speculation, Tyler officially confirmed on Twitter that he had a new studio album on the way.
After teasing his first single “Lumberjack,” fans heard a familiar voice accompanying Tyler, The Creator on the song. It was none other than DJ Drama!
What did that mean?
Not only was Tyler dropping an album, he was releasing a…
GANGSTA GRILLZ
If you don’t know what Gangsta Grillz is, it was popular mixtape series created by DJ Drama in the early 2000s.
Gangsta Grillz was instrumental in building the careers of Southern rappers like T.I., Gucci Mane, and Jeezy. However, after a crack down in bootlegging and a raid from the Feds the Gangsta Grillz series faded into obscurity.
Or rather, it WAS in obscurity.
Tyler’s announcement brought new life to the Gangsta Grillz series.
A non-street rapper doing a Gangsta Grillz tape was practically unheard of. And now, Hip-hop’s most left of center rapper was doing one. It screamed exciting.
THE LAUNCH
As Tyler continued to promote the album created a world around the music — from the album art to the visuals and the aesthetics threw listeners into the world of Tyler Baudelaire.
After the 25th, he moved fans further down the funnel from awareness & consideration to interest by:
IV. Releasing videos
Music videos have always been an essential part of releasing a music project. They are 3min commercials telling you that the product is worth buying.
However, with the ease that most people have in accessing video equipment today, there’s been a drop in the quality of music videos from a concepting angle.
The bulk of videos these days consist of people standing around luxury cars surrounded by their friends. Very exciting, right?
Not For Tyler.
In keeping with the albums theme, Tyler released visuals that further cemented who his new character Tyler Baudelaire was.
Fans never knew if he was going to use prosthetics to make himself look like an old man with an umbrella, or if he’d use film-grain & filters to age the camera footage.
As such, excitement around his album continued to grow.
V. Announcing The Tour
The true measure of an artist’s viability is how many hard tickets they can sell. Some cap out at 250 person rooms, others can do stadiums, but for both it’s a reflection of how strong their presence is in the market.
As “Call Me If You Get Lost,” continued to build steam, it was time to get people to reach a purchase decision.
That usually manifests itself in the form of album streams or tour tickets.
THE POST-LAUNCH
These days album releases only generate buzz for a bout a week or so after their release — maybe a month if you’re lucky or a superstar.
VI. Capitalizing Pulse Moments
Although Call Me If You Get Lost dropped in 2021 Tyler had plenty of PR-able moments that extended the shelf-life of the album including: A Grammy Win and a loosies to keep the buzz constant.
His good friend Nigo (who you might know from Human Race), decided to drop an album. Tyler was fresh off of a Grammy win and used that moment to not only help a friend, but also release a visual that matched the style of his album.
By doing so he kept the story going that much longer, and his album kept afloat on the Billboard 200.
All brings us back to the inspiration for this case study…
The Deluxe Album.
The deluxe album is a tried & true tactic for extending the lifespan of an album. Essentially it’s the same album with maybe 3 new songs, and the songs could vary depending on the retailer.
These days deluxe edition albums aren’t quite as effective as they were. Artists treat them as a money grab and don’t do much to differentiate them - much like how remixes have become stale (another story for another day).
However, Tyler’s recent release of “Call Me If You Get Lost: The Estate Sale” gives brands a blueprint for extending the product rollout beyond the initial window.
This deluxe edition hit streaming sites almost a full TWO YEARS after the album and tour and you know what… It’s working.
Why? Because its release wasn’t reliant on hitting first week KPIs or counting streams — it’s based in the fan experience.
That meant not giving fans a measeley 3 songs. Instead Tyler gave them 7, along with new visuals including refreshed album art and videos.
That’s dedication. That’s a deluxe edition.
VII. Rewarding Fans Of the Journey
Remember, the typical shelf-life for an album these days can be mere hours.
Reminding fans of the work you’ve put out already and making it feel fresh to them is incredibly hard to do.
A big part of doing that is reminding them of the pieces of the story that didn’t make it the first time. It shows a level of vulnerability that most shy away from in the age of polished branding/positioning, etc.
THE BOTTOM LINE IS…
Tell a good story. That’s it.
Think of a traditional product — maybe something you’d find in the CPG category and consider how lessons from Tyler’s rollout can be applied. How are you building anticipation or changing your brand positioning? Is it a radical shift? Should it be? What are the plus-up moments?
All of these are poignant questions that you can tell Tyler asked while he was working on “Call Me If You Get Lost”
So with all that said…. Tell a great story, and drip it out over time. Revisit it a year later or even two. Go back in the archives, treat it like it’s new.
There’s no rules to this sh*t lol. Or at least, I haven’t found any worth following. Just saying…
Peace.