Believe strengthens artist-fan relationships through SMS and Voice

Online streaming revolutionized the music industry. Music became more accessible around the world and suddenly, artists found themselves faced with heavy competition.

Music promotion has become essential to help artists and labels stand out in the industry, and digital marketing has now become a critical tactic in growing an artist’s brand and awareness among their fanbase.

Believe is one of the world’s leading digital music companies. Across more than 50 countries, they ensure that the music from artists and labels reaches the ears of people who are likely to enjoy it by deploying marketing campaigns that are both innovative and fun.

Helping artists and labels connect with their fanbase

Believe is first and foremost a passion for music alongside digital marketing. The company’s mission is to build digital solutions best adapted to recording artists and labels at each stage of their career and development. 

Despite the rich diversity of Believe’s clients, they all have a common desire to build and sustain an enthusiastic fanbase. To accomplish this, Believe relies on Twilio to help create and deploy SMS marketing and voice campaigns to attract as many fans as possible and acquire the data to facilitate future interaction between the fans and the artist.

Taking Twilio for a test drive

Believe was first attracted to Twilio for its SMS and interactive voice messaging capabilities, which seemed to have the features and flexibility that Believe required. Angélique Renaud, Head of Direct to Fan, Marketing Intelligence, remembers the initial contact with Twilio as being immediately positive. “We could see that the platform’s capacities were all there. We only needed to try it out.”

The ease and simplicity of Twilio’s setup provided an additional argument in its favor and convinced Believe to test Twilio’s services, starting with SMS campaigns, then moving to interactive voice response. Twilio’s global presence, alongside its array of functionalities, met the varying needs of Believe’s diverse international artists.

Campaigns that bring the buzz

More complex marketing operations quickly followed, such as buying a specific phone number dedicated to an artist and then sharing that number with fans in the most authentic way possible. Artists could post “their” number on their social media pages, display it at the end of a music video, or even integrate it directly into the video’s plotline. Fans calling the artist’s number could encounter various interactive scenarios, such as quizzes, music, or even the ability to leave a personal message and receive a response by SMS. 

A few particularly impactful campaigns that Believe created using Twilio included: 

• A Finnish heavy metal group made a fake advertisement promoting the “hard metal hotline” and telling fans to call if they felt an urgent need for hard metal;
• The French singer Keblack created a hotline to accompany his song “Problèmes,” inviting listeners to call the number and share their problems—a big hit among fans.

One of Believe’s most successful interactive campaigns leveraged the fun-loving personality of the Belgian rapper Ico to create a scenario so compelling that enthusiastic fans participated by the tens of thousands. The campaign involved Ico posting a video on his social media pages in which he challenged a friend to a video game match, promising to share his phone number publicly if he lost. Upon “losing,” he created a special song to share the number. The response was phenomenal, with over 20,000 calls from fans in the first 24 hours. Callers were prompted by Ico’s pre-recorded voice to answer a series of fun and engaging questions, which allowed Believe to gather specific information to be used for more personalized fan communication in the future. Believe created another high-response campaign for the Australian pop group Tora, whose hit single “Call On Me” seemed by its very title to be predestined for a telephone-based campaign. According to Angélique, “In general, the approach is very well accepted by the artist. Making it happen is more complex, but with Twilio, I’ve never faced a technical issue that I couldn’t manage. Even my most advanced questions have always been handled easily by Twilio’s customer support. This is a platform that keeps its promises.”

Twilio powers hundreds of campaigns

Thanks to its collaboration with Twilio, Believe has already created over 100 campaigns (SMS, IVR, bots, etc.), which have achieved astounding numbers, usually resulting in an opt-in conversion rate of 30-40% for call campaigns and up to 50% click through rate for SMS campaigns. Certain campaigns, namely those involving access to exclusive content, have reached nearly 100% conversion rates. Moreover, customer feedback has been very positive; some artists have even referred to certain campaigns as being their own idea.

Angélique concludes, “Using Twilio’s telephony solutions, I can create campaigns, buy phone numbers, and meet very specific needs—even invite people to last-minute events. These are just a few of the services that are useful to us. I am fully satisfied with Twilio’s technical solutions, both in terms of the features available and in the robustness of the platform.”