`Plastic Beach` was the third album from Gorillaz, the virtual band of

Client
EMI
Agency
M&C Saatchi/Mark Sydney
Product
Gorillaz – Plastic Beach album
Title
Plastic Flowerz
Media
Dimensional Direct
Country
Australia
Date
July 2010
20 unique plastic flowers were made and mailed to the 20 most influential music
bloggers in Australia.
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Background
‘Plastic Beach’ was the third album from
Gorillaz, the virtual band of fictional
characters created by Blur frontman
Damon Albarn and comic book artist
Jamie Hewlett.
The album was inspired by the story
of a huge floating island out in the
middle of the South Pacific composed
entirely of discarded plastic - and it was
this concept that inspired a colourfully
creative launch campaign.
The challenge was to make an
ageing band still appear cool on a
budget of a paltry $3,000.
The campaign objectives were to:
achieve 35,000 album sales in the
month of March, debut at #1 on the
Australian charts and achieve gold
album status by the end of March.
Idea
Music lovers are avid followers of music
blogs. They have an enormous influence
over what‘s considered cool and,
ultimately, what people actually buy.
The agency wanted to get these
key influencers excited about the
new album and, more importantly,
to share their passion with their
audiences.
Artist Jane Gillings was
commissioned to create a unique
set of plastic flowers, each made
from bits and pieces of jettisoned
household plastic.
One week before the album
launch, the flowers were delivered to
20 key music bloggers. They came
with a package containing a USB
stick loaded with a wealth of unique
content, as well as the album itself.
The bloggers also received a
hand written note on musical
notation paper from one of the
band’s characters, Murdoc Niccals,
demanding that these influencers ‘go
and tell [their] bloggy minions.’
Results
There was a 70% response rate from
bloggers, resulting in 8,000 social
media impressions in the first week.
Plastic Beach got to #1 in the
Australian charts within a week of
launch (the first country in which it
did so).
There were 35,675 sales of the
album on CD and 7,188 digital sales,
achieving gold album status as hoped.
Editor’s Comment
As one blogger noted: “Hey, record
labels, this is how you get us to write
about your band!’
The beauty of this campaign is
that it amplifies the experience of the
album, rather than just describing it.
The plastic flowers would have
made the story behind the album
startlingly real, suggesting the bigger,
more subtle themes that occupy
Gorillaz compared to most other
bands.
Gorillaz were about to launch ‘Plastic Beach’ in Australia.
There was unique background material on a USB stick, plus a hand-written note
from Murdoc plus the album.
As well as the flower, they got a whole load of other stuff too.
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70% of the bloggers mailed responded. The album went to No.1 in Australia.