阿黛尔爆红背后：营销机器如何运转

    已经好久没有一首歌能像《Hello》一样火爆了。

    自从10月23日首播以来，这首失恋主题的流行歌曲就像圣诞节早上迫不及待地撕碎礼品盒的孩子一样，撕碎了音乐界的各种纪录。到目前为止，这首歌曲取得的部分成就包括：上线24小时之内在Vevo上的视频点击量最多（顶掉了泰勒·斯威夫特）；5天内在YouTube上被观看1亿次（将麦莉·赛勒斯挤到第二）；第一首发布首周下载量就过100万的歌曲；登顶Billboard百大单曲排行榜榜首等等。据《娱乐周刊》报道，《Hello》创下了音乐界最近15年以来最大的单周销量。

    这一系列耀眼的成就充分说明了英国女歌手阿黛尔的当红程度，以及人们对她的新歌的期待。但这一切也离不开阿黛尔和幕后团队实施的一整套极其高明的营销手段。下面我们就来揭秘这架营销机器是如何高速运转的。

    辉煌的开始：营销曝光很重要

    这首歌曲最初亮相时还笼罩着一层神秘的面纱——歌曲片段首先出现在英国热门真人秀《X-Factor》的一段30秒钟的广告中，但这支广告只出现了歌曲开头几句，既没有确切说明这就是阿黛尔的新歌，也没有泄露她的新专辑《25》即将发行。这支广告播出几天后，即便各种猜测开始满天飞，阿黛尔和她的经纪人仍然保持沉默。

    仅仅这样一则扑朔迷离的广告，已经足以令社交媒体嗨到癫狂，更将蛰伏三年之久的阿黛尔直接拉回舆论中心。

    对于这次复出亮相，来自研究公司Midia、专门从事音乐行业分析的马克·马利根给出了极高的评价。他认为，“这是针对现代音乐营销手段的复杂化而祭出的一剂解药。他们说，‘我们不会搞那些花里胡哨的东西，不会发布空洞浮夸的视频什么的’。”

    一首为粉丝群写的歌：瞄准你的客户

    不知有多少阿黛尔的歌迷曾爱上过专辑《21》的悲伤与心碎。《Hello》的直接受众就是这批歌迷，因而迅速地将他们吸引了回来。只不过这次，歌曲的主题做了些调整，阿黛尔貌似开始责备自己，而不是和她分手的恋人。

    如果阿黛尔想让新专辑重现或接近《21》所达到的1100万张销量，重新吸引她的粉丝群无疑是非常重要的。阿黛尔和泰勒·斯威夫特这种艺人不一样，泰勒·斯威夫特拥有非常集中的狂热粉丝，很容易就能动员起来，而阿黛尔的歌迷更加分散和碎片化，这就要求新专辑的营销必须继续抓住重点。

    马克·马利根表示：“阿黛尔有一些非常特殊的情况，这也给她带来了挑战。泰勒·斯威夫特的粉丝群体要比阿黛尔狂热得多，比如说现在有‘泰粉’，但没有‘黛粉’。很多人喜欢阿黛尔，并且爱上了她的上一张专辑，但并没有一个核心的歌迷群体会明确地把自己认定为阿黛尔的粉丝——就像斯威夫特的粉丝们那样。”

    不同的渠道：零距离接触客户

    马利根认为，阿黛尔的上张专辑《21》的成功，很像一场立足草根阶层的总统竞选——阿黛尔这次可能依然会走这个方向。新专辑可能会通过多种不同渠道向粉丝进行推广。比如，在Facebook上发布的帖子，上文中提到的神秘广告，进一步发布MV和可下载单曲等等。

    让上个月月末，阿黛尔还现身《周六夜现场》，并在纽约市的无线电城音乐厅举办了一场名为“仅此一夜”的演唱会。

    而最新的线下渠道是，BBC已经开始炒作这首歌曲的首次现场演出。

    There hasn’t been a song as powerful as “Hello” in a long, long time.

    Since its Oct. 23 debut, the post-breakup ballad has torn through music industry records like an eager child goes through presents on Christmas morning. Among its achievements so far: Most video views in the first 24 hours on Vevo (displacing Taylor Swift), 100 million YouTube views within five days (knocking Miley Cyrus down to number two), the first song to be downloaded 1 million times in its first week, and a debut at the #1 spot on Billboard’s Top 100. “Hello” had the biggest sales week of any tune in 15 years, according to Entertainment Weekly.

    It’s a remarkable series of achievements that demonstrably show the popularity of and demand for new material from the British songstress, but it’s also due to some incredibly savvy marketing by Adele and the team behind her.

    A Brilliant Beginning

    It started with mystery – a 30 second commercial during the U.K.’s X-Factor, that featured the opening lines of the song, but nothing else. There was no confirmation that it was the singer. Nor did it let on that her new album 25 was imminent. And both Adele and her representatives stayed silent for days after the commercial aired and speculation ran wild.

    That ad alone was enough to whip social media in a foam-mouthed frenzy and put the singer squarely back in the center of the conversation after a three year hiatus.

    “It was the antidote to the complexity of modern music marketing,” says Mark Mulligan, a music industry analyst at research firm Midia. “They said ‘we’re not going with something fancy – no bombastic video or things like that’.”

    A Song That Spoke to Her Base

    The song, too, spoke directly to the legions of fans who fell for Adele’s focus on heartbreak and misery on 21, quickly bringing them back to center. Only this time, the singer’s focus is tweaked – with Adele seemingly turning the blame on herself, not her departed lover.

    Reengaging her fan base is critical if Adele hopes to post album sales anywhere close to the 11 million copies 21 sold. Unlike a performer such as Taylor Swift, who has a tight concentration of enthusiasts that can easily be mobilized, Adele’s audience is more fragmented and widely distributed, which will require the marketing of this album to continue to be on point.

    “There’s something very different about Adele that makes it a challenge,” he says. “Taylor Swift has a much more ardent fan base. You’ve got Swift-ettes, but not Adele-ettes. Lots of people like Adele and fell in love with her last album, but there’s not a core group of people that identify themselves as Adele fans, like Swift.”

    Different Channels

    The success of 21, he says, was much like a grass roots presidential campaign – and that seems to be the direction the singer is going with again. It reaches out to fans in the mainstream audience in a variety of different channels (the Facebook post, the mysterious commercial, the simultaneous release of the video and downloadable single).

    Later this month, she’ll appear on Saturday Night Live and put on a one night only concert in New York City at Radio City Music Hall.

    And the BBC is already teasing the first live performance of the show:

    拒绝“潜规则”：坚持差异化

    但不要指望阿黛尔会彻底改变她对名气的看法。除了浑厚的嗓音和一贯的曲风，她“不按套路出牌”的个人风格也是出了名的。

    阿黛尔不喜欢出席音乐节和大型场合，相反更喜欢小范围的场馆。同时她也不喜欢把自己的音乐与广告挂钩。另外，阿黛尔除了会在歌里透露一些个人情况，她非常注意保护自己的私人生活，严格限制采访——哪怕是在推出新专辑的时候也不例外。当然，还有一些事情是无法掩盖的，比如生孩子。

    是否开放流媒体播放：留足发展悬念

    还有一个目前仍然不知道答案的问题，那就是阿黛尔是否会允许她的新专辑《25》在流媒体音乐服务上播放。大多数艺人一般不会介意，因为这样做有助于提高歌手的曝光率。但一些最畅销的艺人，如阿黛尔和斯威夫特，可能会担心流媒体播放会影响实体或线上销量。比如，泰勒·斯威夫特去年就从Spotify上撤掉了自己的歌单，并且要求苹果公司在其流媒体服务上试播时也要支付版税。

    据《纽约时报》报道，阿黛尔会直接参与这个问题的决定，不过她的立场目前仍不明确。

    阿黛尔这次还面临着一个比较大的风险：尽管粉丝们对《Hello》的曲风比较熟悉，但新专辑《25》的其它歌曲可能会采用不同的曲风。

    阿黛尔自己也曾经暗示，新专辑的曲风可能不会那么伤感了。她上个月在Facebook上表示：“我的上张专辑是一张分手专辑。如果非要我给这张新专辑打上一个标签的话，我愿意将它称为一张‘和解’专辑。与自己和解，与失去的时光和解，与我做过和没做过的事情和解。”

    随着儿子的出世，加之上一张专辑取得了巨大的成功，阿黛尔这次处于更有利的位置上，这或许有助于吸引那些日益变得更加成熟的歌迷，但也有可能会吓跑不少歌迷——毕竟他们还是在阿黛尔身上期待着某种特定的曲风。

    马利根表示：“艺人出唱片经常会有这种情况：第一张专辑肆意宣泄青春时期遭受的最大打击，往往会收录他们在这段痛苦期写下的所有歌曲，其中有些风格会延续到第二张专辑，阿黛尔就是这样的例子。而等到发布第三张专辑的时候，你的人生已经改变了。”（财富中文网）

    译者：朴成奎

    审校：任文科

    Refuses to Play the Game

    Don’t however, expect Adele to radically change her philosophy toward fame. Beyond her big voice and the universal themes of her song, she achieved notoriety by not playing by the typical rules. She doesn’t headline big music festivals or giant arenas, preferring intimate venues. She refuses to associate her music with advertising. And, beyond what she reveals in her songs (and cannot hide, like the birth of her son), she keeps her private life private, restricting interviews – even when there’s a new album to promote.

    The Spotify Question

    And there’s still the lingering question of whether she’ll allow 25 to be played on streaming music services. Most artists wouldn’t hesitate, as it increases exposure, but top-selling performers like Adele and Swift risk sacrificing sales of physical media or downloads. Swift, last year, pulled her catalog from Spotify and convinced Apple to pay royalties during trials of its streaming service.

    The New York Times says Adele is directly involved in the decision, though where she stands is still unclear.

    The big risk this time is that while “Hello” is familiar territory for fans, 25 may veer in different directions.

    The singer herself has hinted that this outing will be less maudlin. “My last record was a break-up record,” she said on Facebook last month, “and if I had to label this one, I’d call it a make-up record. I’m making up with myself. Making up for lost time. Making up for everything I ever did and never did.”

    And given the birth of her son and the tremendous success of her last album, it’s safe to assume Adele’s in a better place – which could either further engage fans who have themselves matured or scare them off, since they expect a certain kind of music from her.

    “There’s often this thing with albums for an artist to sing the greatest hits of their adolescence and all the songs they’ve been writing as they’ve gone through that pain on their first album,” says Mulligan. “With some that carries through to the second album and that’s the case with Adele. By the time you get to the third, your life has changed.”