Case study: Measuring marketing lift around a holiday release

Case study: Measuring marketing lift around a holiday release

Our Music Marketing Playbook explains how CONNECT can help marketing teams plan, track and measure promotional campaigns in the music industry. 


Recently, Warner Music Group and Luminate put those strategies to work on a seasonal campaign fit for a legend. Here’s how we used CONNECT to measure marketing effectiveness for an A-list album promotion.





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Situation: Cher’s First Christmas

On October 20, 2023, Cher released her first-ever holiday album, titled Christmas. Warner Music Group supported the high-profile release with a promotional and publicity campaign that aligned with peak holiday shopping season. 


Promotional calendar and key dates
W47 2023 - W2 2024

October 6            Lead single “DJ Play a Christmas Song” released

November 23      Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

                                    Performed “DJ Play a Christmas Song”

November 29      “Christmas in Rockefeller Center” tree-lighting special

December 8         iHeartRadio Z100 Jingle Ball at Madison Square Garden

Dec 8 - Jan 5       Christmas Roblox event (4-week virtual event)

                              Featured “Drop Top Sleigh Ride,” “Angels in the Snow” and “DJ Play a Christmas Song”


 



Action: Tracking consumption and YOY growth

The Cher Christmas promotion ran from Week 47, 2023 to Week 2, 2024. We compared Cher’s total on-demand audio and physical (CD and vinyl) consumption growth during this period to that of the broader holiday music industry. 


In CONNECT, we used Dashboards and Analysis to measure Cher’s activity against industry benchmarks and make YOY comparisons. 



Artist Dashboard > Activity Over Time

On Cher’s Artist Dashboard, we set the Time Frame to include the span of the Christmas promotion, then used Data Controls to isolate On-Demand Streams (Audio) and Product Sales (CD and Vinyl).


For both activity types, Cher's combined U.S. Activity Over Time showed a significant jump in consumption coinciding with the album promo campaign. 

Cher’s U.S. On-Demand Audio Streams during Christmas promotion* / Same period previous year


Cher’s U.S. Product Sales (CD, Vinyl) during Christmas promotion* / Same period previous year


Tip: Save and share Dashboard URLs with settings applied
In the above examples, we applied various Data Controls to Cher's Artist Dashboard to isolate On-Demand Streams and Product Sales. 

You can share any Dashboard, Analysis view or most other CONNECT pages simply by copy/pasting the full URL. Doing so will preserve your settings and allow you (or someone else in your organization with a valid login) to revisit your analysis. 

Be sure to copy the entire URL. (Yes, it's long; that's how we track all the settings and filters).


For example, this link points to Cher's Artist Dashboard with our settings for Time Frame, Activity Type and Breakout View applied. 


Tip: Export Activity Over Time grids
If you don't want to share an entire Dashboard or need to access the raw data offline, export any Dashboard pane in grid form by clicking the ... menu at upper right.


Consumption data (with your settings and filters applied) will download in CSV or Excel format.

 


Analysis > Activity Over Time

Above, we found that Cher’s Dashboard showed increased activity during the campaign. But how did her holiday-season consumption compare to the rest of the music industry? CONNECT’s Analysis feature helped us find out. 



Within Analysis, the Trends tab aggregates week-over-week music consumption for the entire industry. Once again, we customized our Time Frame to include the promotional timespan and set Location to the United States. We also applied a Billboard genre filter to include Holiday/Seasonal music only. 

Then, we isolated On-Demand Audio Streams and Product Sales (CD and Vinyl) using the same settings we applied to the Artist Dashboard.  


Analysis, Holiday/Seasonal U.S. On-Demand Audio Streams during promotion* / Same period previous year



Analysis, Holiday/Seasonal U.S. Product Sales (CD, Vinyl) during promotion* / Same period previous year






*Time Frames set to display the period that includes the Christmas promo campaign (W47 2023-W2 2024).

Results: Significant growth for Cher

All in all, the results point to a highly effective marketing push. 


Industry benchmark: +11% YOY

Within the broader music industry, On-Demand Audio consumption grew +11% year-over-year from 2023 to 2024. Overall physical sales (CDs and vinyl) declined -10%.


Cher: +230% YOY

Cher’s total On-Demand Audio consumption rose +230% over the same period. And physical sales (CDs and vinyl) surged +1,894%. While this includes activity from her full catalog, the spike in consumption coincides with the Christmas album and its promotional efforts.



This outsized growth in streaming and sales suggests that Cher outperformed the music industry over the 2023 holiday season thanks to the Christmas campaign — even when accounting for the broader scope of her catalog. 








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