“Begin your own journey and find yourself in our stunning retreat. Mindshower digital detox puts you back in control. RECONNECT. RECHARGE. REJUVENATE.” No, one of the daleks from Doctor Who hasn’t suddenly got on the wellness bandwagon. This was the introductory tweet from a mysterious new digital detox retreat called Mindshower. Which, as it turns out, is really the latest creative marketing campaign for British band The 1975.
It launched last Wednesday with a countdown, as well as an AI burbling positive affirmations, but – and this is a sign of just how sharp and keen this band’s superfans are – a social comment from ‘Snowflake Smasher 86’ (a character on The 1975’s last album) was quickly spotted as the clue that this was leading up to something new from the group.
The Mindshower trailer was then published on The 1975’s YouTube channel, leading up to a YouTube Premiere for the trippy new computer-animated video for their track ‘The Birthday Party’.
The campaign from label Polydor – the partner of independent firm Dirty Hit, to which the band are signed – isn’t a surprise. “With any artist the most important thing is to create conversation around them. That’s how you build audience and build fanbases. That notion of the easter eggs, it just creates these little pockets of conversation,” Dirty Hit’s Jamie Oborne told us at our Sandbox Summit conference last year.
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