How do you get someone to press play? This is the question local musician Kit Hughsen was determined to answer.
So I stepped in to help.
Branding & Strategy
Kit Hughsen
Kit Hughsen is an alternative indie artist. He started this latest project last year and recently released an EP called Push. But the trouble was… no one seemed to know about it and not a lot of people were streaming it.
Kit already had an Instagram account and a small following from a previously deprecated project but the account was idle. He also didn’t have a brand to elevate his new name.
So the easiest first step was creating an eye-catching brand and breathing life into a dormant Instagram channel to increase streams. The project is currently in progress but I can fill you in with how it’s going…
During initial brainstorming sessions, I asked Kit what colours he gravitated towards and how he wanted his brand to look and feel. He mentioned black, white, and yellow were his ‘power colours’ and that he liked certain fonts and darker sci-fi or cyber-punk aesthetics. So it was easy to narrow down a colour palette and font.
We kept the colour palette simple so we had the flexibility to add secondary pops of colour for future music releases. So, we chose a:
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Vibrant pastel leaning yellow as the main pop of colour.
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Charcoal black to give a moody tone.
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Couple of shades of grey to provide additional contrast.
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Pure white that could layer easily over the darker colours.
Creating an on-brand brand
With the art direction and typography set, I tackled how to illustrate his brand best as a logo. I was playing around with his initials ‘KH’ in a visual format but it wasn’t capturing the essence of his music. His music was catchy and heartfelt; something you would easily add to a playlist or put on repeat.
I started to look for abstract ways I could represent the letter ‘K’. I then noticed that the rewind or ‘repeat’ button from a music player sort of looked like a ‘K’. We had already narrowed down the font to Century Gothic Paneuropean, so I designed the repeat icon by tracing its shape from the ‘K’ in that font. I then integrated the icon into his name to create the logo. Kit loved the concept and approved it.
Capturing the essence of Kit’s music
Kickstarting Instagram to drive streams
With his brand ready to go, I could then focus on some audience and competitor research to help inform his Instagram strategy and plan. I evaluated his current Instagram followers and researched Apple Music and Spotify users and best practices to leverage Instagram’s algorithm.
Using this information, I put together an Instagram content marketing plan and content calendar spreadsheet. We’re still collaborating on populating the content calendar and scheduling content but so far I’ve:
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Rebranded his Instagram account.
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Created promotional visualizer reels to promote his singles.
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Targeted audiences with two ads using the audience research.
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Put together posts, reels, and stories to help promote his Japan tour.
What we've achieved so far
Since starting promotion again on Instagram in January 2024, we’ve increased his streams by 100% in only two months compared to his streams in 2023.
We ran one video ad throughout February; We only spent $120 and the ad had:
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23,920 plays
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Reached 14,775 accounts
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421 link clicks or $0.29 CPC
Kit’s streams jumped to 166 streams in February alone giving us a 39.43% conversion rate (# of streams/# of clicks x 100) for our first video ad. But this is just the start; we’re excited to see how many new people discover his music by the end of 2024!
