# Craig Armstrong — Nocturnes — Case Study - **Client:** Craig Armstrong / IE Music / BMG - **Year:** 2021 - **Industry:** Music - **Disciplines:** Digital Marketing, Social Media, Video Production, Creative Direction, Content Strategy - **Results & Impact:** Thirteen-month digital campaign across six singles, the album launch and BMG's first-ever Spatial Audio / Dolby Atmos release, coordinating six stakeholder organisations across three countries. ASCAP New Music Friday Spotify Playlist placement, Apple Music Piano Chill feature, BBC Culture feature and Dolby UK partnership. - **Canonical URL:** https://www.tellyourfriends.world/projects/craig-armstrong-nocturnes - **Brief:** Full-cycle digital campaign for Craig Armstrong's most intimate album, coordinating across BMG Berlin, IE Music London, Universal Publishing, Apple Music, and Dolby to deliver six singles, an album launch, and a Spatial Audio deluxe edition over thirteen months. --- ## Overview Craig Armstrong is an Oscar and Grammy-winning composer whose scores include *Romeo + Juliet*, *Moulin Rouge!*, and *The Great Gatsby*. In 2021, he released *Nocturnes: Music for 2 Pianos* on Modern Recordings, BMG's flagship contemporary classical imprint. Tell Your Friends was appointed by IE Music London to lead the comprehensive thirteen-month digital rollout — coordinating across BMG Berlin, Universal Music, Apple Music, and Dolby UK to deliver six singles, an album campaign, and BMG's first-ever Spatial Audio / Dolby Atmos release. ## The Challenge Classical and film-score campaigns require cross-border coordination across multiple institutions. The release programme spanned: - **6 Single Releases & Album Rollout**: Aligning release dates, DSP delivery milestones, and marketing assets across Glasgow, London, and Berlin. - **Dolby Atmos & Spatial Audio Launch**: Coordinating technical audio delivery and Apple Music / Dolby UK marketing positioning. - **Audio/Visual Post-Production**: Managing colour grading, high-res video mastering, and lyric animations directly with Craig Armstrong and Jack Armstrong. ## Strategy & System Design - **Stakeholder Alignment**: Acted as the central digital hub coordinating BMG, IE Music, Universal Publishing, and mastering houses across three countries. - **Editorial Video Production**: Produced high-resolution social cuts, Spotify Canvas loops, and YouTube Premiere event broadcasts for all six singles. - **Award & Playlist Positioning**: Coordinated DSP classical playlisting updates and Grammy submission positioning alongside BMG product leads. ## Results & Impact - **BMG's First Dolby Atmos Release**: Spearheaded the digital rollout of BMG's inaugural contemporary classical Spatial Audio release. - **Zero-Friction Delivery**: 13 months of coordinated multi-territory releases across six stakeholder organisations without a single missed milestone. - **Global DSP Features**: Secured premier classical playlisting including ASCAP New Music Friday, Apple Music Piano Chill, and BBC Culture features. ### Stakeholder Coordination Every release day, we sent a formal briefing to the full team — BMG Berlin, IE Music London, Universal Distribution, the artist, and management — with all links, assets, and platform statuses. When BMG needed social media reports for Apple, we provided screenshots and analytics. When Christian Kellersmann needed proof of social activity for the German sales team, we delivered same-day. When Dolby UK needed aligned partner messaging, we coordinated. This is the invisible work that makes a campaign feel effortless from the outside. ## Creative Solution The creative challenge was restraint. Craig Armstrong's music is quiet, precise, emotionally vast. The visual language had to honour that — no hyperbole, no trend-chasing. Every teaser, every social post, every Canvas animation was designed to let the music breathe while still cutting through algorithmically-driven feeds. We created a social content strategy document (*CA-SOCIAL-CONTENT.pdf*) that mapped the full campaign arc — from pre-release teasers through album launch to deluxe Spatial Audio push — ensuring consistency across a thirteen-month window. Emma Ford took it to Craig directly: *"I'll get a list to take to Craig of what we'd like to achieve. Looks good!"* The Spatial Audio component added a new dimension. When BMG confirmed it was their first-ever Dolby Atmos release, the stakes were clear: Apple was watching, Dolby was involved, and the promotional assets needed to reflect a premium technology launch, not just another reissue. We adapted Craig's social channels to carry dedicated Apple Spatial Audio assets alongside the musical content — positioning the release as both an artistic statement and a technological milestone. ## Results & Impact - **Six singles** released across all platforms (Nocturnes 4, 3, 12, 11, 1, 15), each with full social, video, and email support. - **Album launch** on 3 September 2021 — coordinated across BMG, Universal, IE Music, and the artist. - **Deluxe edition** with Dolby Atmos / Apple Spatial Audio — BMG's first-ever Spatial Audio release. - **ASCAP New Music Friday Spotify Playlist** — Nocturne 3 featured. - **Apple Music Piano Chill Playlist** — Craig featured, with dedicated promotional assets from Apple. - **BBC Culture feature** — amplified across Craig's social channels on release week. - **Dolby UK partnership** — Miriam Wright (Senior Marketing Manager, Europe) and Jane Gillard directly involved in promotional alignment. - **Thirteen-month engagement** — six stakeholder organisations across three countries. The campaign demonstrated what happens when a small, embedded team operates as the connective tissue in a complex, multi-stakeholder release. We weren't the label, the management, or the distributor — we were the people who made sure everything landed. Eight months after the album, Lucy Pullin introduced Jeff to a new contact: > *"Looping in the always brilliant Jeff."*