L’Impératrice in the time of a pandemic, told by Music Ally
Everything was planned. L’Impératrice was set to release their second album, Tako Tsubo, in the summer of 2020. The band had planned a big tour in Europe, Mexico, and the United States, with a stopover at the prestigious Coachella festival. When Covid-19 hit, the band had just started playing in France. Most of the dates would be postponed to December 2020… at the earliest.
As Morgane Lagneau-Guetta, production manager at microqlima, points out, “it didn’t make sense to keep the album release date without any possibility of touring.” The initial strategy and timing had to be totally reimagined.
The label and IDOL decided to maintain the release of the first single, “Fou” in April 2020, during France’s first lockdown. But the rest of the strategy was completely redesigned with these questions in mind: How can a band stay relevant while waiting to go on tour and release their album? How do you keep the public waiting while still cultivating excitement and limiting frustration? It’s all about creativity.
The team decided to release many more singles (and videos) than planned in a long lead up to release of the album.
At the same time, with the tour postponed, the band’s presence in Paris during this latent period was used to their advantage. The team set up a number of live sessions (including some livestreams on Facebook) and gradually revealed the album. This allowed the group to shoot the videos of the following singles more quickly than expected, and above all to imagine new ways of making an impact with each new track’s release.
The label didn’t stop there, finding other means to enrich L’impératrice’s digital presence, notably with a virtual tour and a specific mix produced by Dolby Atmos. The Music Ally article details the different stages of this very special year via interviews with the microqlima and IDOL teams.
Read the full article on Music Ally
Update [08.11.2021]
At the UK Music Video Awards 2021, L’Impératrice won the best animation in a video award for “Hematome“.
Animators: Roxane Lumeret, Jocelyn Charles, Chloé Farr
Directors: Roxane Lumeret & Jocelyn Charles
Prod co: Studio Remembers
Read the case study about L’imperatrice’s North America campaign
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Listen to Tako Tsubo
