Katherine Jenkins
Believe 2009 album campaign

Brief.
Katherine Jenkins is the face of the ever-expanding “classical-crossover” market in the UK. Since signing her first record deal back in 2003, she has enjoyed a stratospheric rise to become synonymous with the genre.

Signing a new deal in 2008 the key to the press strategy for Katherine’s first record with Warner was to think big to be big.

Out objectives were:

- Create a spike in the weeks proceeding and leading into album release
- To project a renewed focus on ‘Katherine as a World Class Superstar’
- To communicate how ‘big’ Believe is in all communications highlighting the importance of David Foster and the strong new sound and direction of the new repertoire
- To generate as much positive awareness around the product releases as possible
- To create a sustained and cohesive media strategy to the run up of album

Believe was Katherine’s seventh studio album, and first album with new record company Warner Bros. Produced by legendary producer David Foster, the key to the press campaign was to take brand Katherine Jenkins to a new level. However it would be growth without alienation. Her core market reside in the media realms of Good Housekeeping, Woman’s Weekly and middle England, media such as the Daily and Mail on Sunday.

As Katherine has released records ever year since 2003, the Believe campaign had to make Katherine standout, especially within the ever crowded marketplace of Q4 when the album was released.

Strategy.
Having started planning the campaign in January 2009, we had to look take a yearlong strategy. One that would create relevant spikes to work simultaneously with the marketing department’s efforts.

In addition to all of this, Katherine’s ‘celebrity’ status in the last three years has exploded. This presented further challenges, as we needed to ensure that we kept focus on the music.

From day one we needed to think big. Everything about the press tools had to be bigger than ever before.

Results.
Taking a long-term strategic approach, the campaign took both a mainstream and credible attack. Early positioning press saw a trip to Las Vegas with the Sunday Times Magazine where they were to witness Katherine’s first foray into the North American market. Covers followed with Mail On Sunday Live Magazine, The Times Sounds Supplement Cover, a fashion shoot with Cosmopolitan, News Of The World Fabulous Cover, as well as core demographic covers including Good Housekeeping and Classic FM Magazine.

This was Katherine’s biggest press campaign today. To date the album has been Katherine’s biggest yet and the UK press campaign has help pave the way internationally for the record.