Putting “NEVER BE KING” on the map
As its marketing and creative agency of record since inception, Innoruptiv has shepherded Never Be King through a new brand identity, an album release, fundraising materials, festival acceptances, and concerts.
At the core of Never Be King’s new strategy was a focus on meaningful audience relationships and a foundational shift in the brand positioning. Starting from the ground floor, the Innoruptiv team grew NBK’s social following by more than 10x (still counting!), helped to garner more than 10,000 album streams within the first 10 days of release, and successfully built a base of devoted, loyal fans – all more than a year before production.
BRAND IDENTITY
Create a brand new visual language for Never Be King – and make it iconic, premium, and flexible enough to sustain this new musical all the way through a Broadway opening.
Key considerations:
More dynamic color palette beyond red, black, and white
Move away from crown and blood iconography, visual system
Less 1600s, more 2000s
The show is not as dismal as the logo makes it seem – let’s elevate the joy and fun
Foundational visual system that can grow and scale without restriction
WEBSITE
In rethinking and revamping the Never Be King website, Innoruptiv took the opportunity to expand the notion of what a musical theatre website can and should entail.
See for yourself at NeverBeKing.com!
The E.P. Release: 10,000+ streams in 10 days
Prior to the campaigns leading up to the release of the Never Be King E.P., the show was virtually unheard of.
When the Never Be King team decided to release an E.P., the Innoruptiv team joined the strategy conversation early. We strategized the release of the album meticulously, creating multiple organic social campaigns across all platforms, carefully timing out cast reveals and Q&As, and more.
Ultimately, our most meaningful advisory was in the drop strategy. Innoruptiv encouraged the team to release a single before the full E.P. drop. In doing so, we were able to create immense buzz around the show and garner impressive traffic and streaming results.
In the first 10 days of release, the album garnered over 10,000 streams via 4,000 unique listeners. Songs from the show were added to over 375 playlists and reached listeners in over 40 countries. Finally, Never Be King’s social following grew by more than 10x across all platforms.
Together, we didn’t just release an album. We built fans.
