Call Me Ace
Independent Billboard-Charting Artist Uses Music to Call Out Racial Injustice, Burn Out & Work-Life Balance
Client
Call Me Ace: Music with a Cause
Year
2019
Scope of Work
Brand Messaging Development, Public Relations
Industry
Entertainment
Here's the Stitch
(aka Situation)
Determined to use his music and professional knowledge as a gateway to connect with disenfranchised communities, Call Me Ace encourages his supporters to live a rich life, not just a life full of riches through timely music releases.
Call Me Ace is an independent hip-hop artist, millennial professional and creative tech entrepreneur, whose debut album, Airplane Mode, hit #3 on the iTunes Top 40 US Hip-Hop Album Chart as well as #50 on the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Album Sales chart.
Determined to elevate the buzz he created on his own, Ace desired brand awareness ahead of the release of his second EP, Working From Home.
Our Approach
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To kick-off our 12-month campaign, we audited Ace's online presence, conducted a competitive coverage analysis to identify unique narratives and updated/created all pitchable assets.
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Our strategic communications and marketing strategy aimed to gain local, regional & national publicity via blogs, podcasts, digital,
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Print & unconventional publications; as well as be mindful of appearances and strategic partnerships. Based on our market research, there was an opportunity to not only leverage Ace's artistic achievements, but also frame narratives around his millennial perspectives on business and lifestyle topics.
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Additionally, as we the unforseen pandemic occured, Ace released Working From Home: Extended which elaborated on news topics like burnout, work-life balance and social justice. We worked with Ace to use the EP's pre-orders as well as Google’s gift-matching program to raise $10,000+ for Faith In Action’s Live Free campaign to end social injustice.
Our Impact & Client Milestones
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Within the first month of pitching the "Working From Home" campaign, we secured an exclusive with Earmilk--a nationally recognized music publication--for the "Gold Cuffs" single, which contributed to the first 1,000 Youtube views.
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The month the EP dropped, we wrote and distributed a press release which got picked up by 228 platforms, totalling an estimate of 11M+ impressions.
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In the following months we garnered a total of 61 placements, totalling an estimate of 419m+ impressions.
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At the end of the 12-months, our efforts were complemented by Ace's songs "5:15am" and "No Assistance" getting added to the NBA 2K21 Next Gen Gaming Experience (featuring songs from 2 Chainz, Lil Wayne, CHIKA, Pop Smoke, Tame Impala, Drae Harris, The Weeknd, JID, Jack Harlow, Juice WRLD and More)
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Notable media coverage: FOX Soul, Afro Tech, Blk Creatives’ Twitter-chat summit: FEARS, Medium, Urban Magazine, Live with DJ A-Rod, Sheen Magazine, LA On Lock, Global Money World, Central Sauce and more.
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In 12-months, we were able to produce 4x more media coverage for his brand, compared to the year prior to working with us.
After the first year of working together, we continued our collaboration for another 12 months to continuing raising brand awareness--particularly for his project "Out of Office." Our PR support resulted in:
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37 placements (Estimated impressions: 3B+)
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Notable coverage: HipHop Dx, KAZI Magazine, Def Pen, Hype Magazine, Audiomack (playlist), xoNecole, Sheen Magazine, Pie Radio UK, Travel Noire, Digital Journal and more.
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Invites sent to selected media to attend a virtual listening party (which had 100+ attendees, including a journalist from Hip Hop Since 1987)
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Being a semi-finalist for BET's #BETAmplified contest
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A press release announcing Ace's collaboration with the Ford Mustang
