Among the first slate of albums in Epic’s 2013 pipeline following Antonio “L.A.” Reid’s exit as an “X Factor” judge to focus on his day job as label chief, “Ciara” is a major priority for the company. (Another top release, Avril Lavigne’s still-untitled project, is due in September.)
Epic executive VP of marketing and artist development Scott Seviour promises a “‘Star Wars’ of a marketing rollout” for “Ciara” (July 9). Things get rolling on the TV front June 25 with the singer’s appearance on “Access Hollywood Live,” followed by other spots including a BET Awards performance (June 30), “Chelsea Lately” (July 2), “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” (July 2), “Good Morning America” (July 9), “Live With Kelly & Michael” (July 10), “Wendy Williams” (July 11) and “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon (July 12).
In addition to debuting the “I’m Out” video live during the BET Awards red carpet preshow, Ciara will — in a first for the cable channel — perform a song on each of five nights during release week on countdown show “106 & Park.” “Body Party,” co-written with Future, has sold 220,000 downloads, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and its video has accumulated more than 12 million views since its April 22 premiere. Also in the mix: magazine covers and features including Fader and Vogue.
An iTunes exclusive full-album pre-stream promotion begins July 2. A Ciara “I’m Out” online dance contest will invite fans to upload clips of themselves doing the dance from the new video. Complementing the digital push are promotions on Instagram and Twitter, where Ciara respectively has more than 1.2 million and 4 million followers.
An unintentional leak of individual tracks from “Ciara” was uploaded through MyPlayDirect on Ciara’s official store site, available to sample and download for $1.29 each. According to Seviour, a systems error at Epic direct-to-consumer company Generator occurred when the label was putting the album up for presale. The error was caught within minutes.
“During the limited time available, a few die-hard Ciara fans did purchase tracks from the album,” Seviour says. “No one person bought the entire album, just individual tracks. It was an unfortunate situation, but all tracks have been removed.”