NEWS: ALL TIME LOW OFFERS FANS A BIT OF "SUNSHINE" ON A CLOUDY DAY
During a worldwide pandemic where the entire planet has come to a halt, many artists in the music industry are seemingly one step away from being taken off of life support. Current events have been grimly layered with daily reports of postponed music festivals and cancelled tours for the world’s largest chart-toppers. However, one band has demonstrated they still have a pulse and has offered fans a glimmer of hope by using the power of music to connect people around the world in a safe, socially-distanced manner.
All Time Low has a reputation for connecting with fans on a personal level from their decade-old fan club (named the “Hustlers”) to pop-up acoustic performances in small venues, they are a band who is truly driven by the music they create. Unsurprisingly, they are also no stranger to the unique marketing techniques they use to promote it, like kidnapping their own drummer, creating a designated Sunshine Hotline for fans to call, and even mailing birthday cakes.
In anticipation of the new album, Wake Up Sunshine, set to be released on April 3, the band orchestrated sending secret overnight packages to select fans all over the country from P. Anne Daws (Pandas – of course). During a full on quarantined lock-down, the last thing fans expected was a Fed-Ex employee knocking on the door with a special delivery.
Upon opening the package, All Time Low fans, or Hustlers, were greeted with an unmarked, sealed white envelope containing one Polaroid photo, and one set of instructions. The instructions read, “There’s more than meets the eye…#WakeUpSunshinePolaroids”.
After scanning the image on the app, the Polaroid came to life using Augmented Reality technology that previewed small clips of behind the scenes footage from the recording process.
As the Sunshine Hotline promised, “panda-monium” ensued. Twitter blew up with the hashtag #WakeUpSunshinePolaroids relating to the various packages that were received. Video clips from the Polaroids included anything from Rian playing a tambourine, to Alex sampling vocals, to Jack and Zack trying to get a hot pink dildo suction cupped to their face in the pool.
The timing for this promotion was impeccably coordinated. Fans began receiving packages on their doorstep in the early afternoon and the band then hosted a livestream mid-afternoon to engage with fans further. This led up to the worldwide release of their next single, “Melancholy Kaleidoscope”. During the live stream, Alex Gaskarth lip-synced the lyrics into the camera while playing the audio in the background, and the comments flooded in.
For a band that touts on building shared experiences, the update to not push back the record release date allowed their followers to express a collective sigh of relief. All Time Low named this album in 2019, and ironically they could have never predicted the literal ray of sunshine this new album will offer during the cloudy days that still lie ahead.
Nicole Cortese