You may have listened to or watched the music video for “Easy On Me” which is Adele’s most recent single kicking off the promo for her fourth album, 30. Or is it? Truthfully, advertising began much earlier in an ingenious way that may alter music forever.
First, it began a year ago. I so distinctly remember scrolling on TikTok in November of 2020, almost a full twelve months ago, and seeing video after video talking about a leak that Adele was working on new music. Unfortunately, I was unable to find any examples of one of these videos, but they incorrectly assumed that the music would be out a lot sooner than it was. Think December 2020-January 2021.
After that, Adele just made us sit and wait. No music came, yet we were all on the edges of our seats, ready to absorb her next release whenever it came out. Truthfully, around March I’d given up and allowed myself to get distracted by Taylor Swift’s drop after drop after drop. Taylor’s fans are, how do I put this, paranoid. They dissect every single movement or lack thereof down to the point of jumping to conclusions and making great assumptions.
This is important because some of this making connections-that-aren’t-there business lead to the suspense of Adele 30. Taylor, who originally had Red (Taylor’s Version) scheduled for November 19 was pushed up to come out a week earlier on November 12, 2021. Fans immediately assumed that she was making room for fellow icon Adele.
Now why is that? Why would a reschedule of Taylor’s album have anything to do with Adele? Perhaps because of the number 30.
Here, we get to the ingenious advertising that I was talking about. Suddenly the number 30 was being projected all over the world. This seemingly simple number appeared on The Louvre, Edinburgh Castle, The Empire State Building, and more. See, this could only mean Adele because she has a habit of naming her albums after her age. It also helps that the numbers were illuminated by Sony projectors. Which label is Adele signed to? Sony.
Finally, the last bit of information that confirmed Adele and Taylor fans alike is social media. Adele changed her social media profile pictures and banners, reflecting a new day and age on the horizon. It was solid at this point, we were all excited and ready for her to drop a single and went crazy when she actually did.
This is genius because Adele leaned into her fan base. She saw the way that Gen Z interacts with Taylor’s content and went full steam ahead. We enjoy putting the puzzle together and she gave us an entirely new one that we’ve never seen before.
Adele easily could’ve announced her album’s release date like normal and released a few singles until it came out. She could’ve pulled a Beyonce and just dropped the entire album without a word. Instead, she chose to feed us breadcrumbs, upping the mystery and intrigue. She built excitement for her next drop and it worked!
“Easy On Me” is now Adele’s most popular song on Spotify. Maybe it isn’t her most streamed song, but what’s important is she has pulled attention to herself. She has us wrapped around her little finger, waiting for her next single and the rest of the album.
Legendary.