Work / The Rolling Stones ‘Hackney Diamonds’ Album Launch
The Brief
In September 2023 The Rolling Stones announced the release of their highly anticipated new album Hackney Diamonds, the band’s first collection of original songs since 2005 featuring contributions from Sir Elton John, Lady Gaga, Sir Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, and former Stones bassist Bill Wyman. We were tasked with orchestrating a high profile yet intimate launch event at the historic Hackney Empire theatre to reveal the album announcement news and celebrate the release of its first single “Angry” with global media and VIPs. Crucially the milestone occasion was to be attended by The Rolling Stones themselves in conversation with American TV star Jimmy Fallon and livestreamed worldwide via YouTube.
What We Did
Ahead of the event date we worked closely with Universal Music, Fulwell 73 Productions, and the Hackney Empire to ensure we could facilitate the media relations and fan attendance expected for such a globally revered artist. This included overseeing technological requirements for filming, photography and copy, satellite truck parking, security, branding, refreshments, artist arrivals and entrance routes, media accreditation, red carpet, and photo call opportunities.
We curated a considered guest list of UK print, online, TV and radio media, sharing an exclusive and intriguing Save the Date invite to build momentum and excitement about what the event was set to entail. We also confirmed major UK TV crews including BBC News, ITV News, Sky News, Reuters, AP for participation in a post event media run with The Rolling Stones, secured the band’s in-house photographer Dave Hogan, and a compere, Matt Everitt of BBC 6 Music.
At the event we fully managed UK media accreditation, hosted a working media space, and guided photographers and TV crews from the initial photo opportunity (that featured the band arriving at the venue in a The Rolling Stones branded Hackney taxi!), through to the launch event itself, the post event onstage photo call, and the media run. During the media run it was also imperative we escorted the artists to ensure the interviews ran smoothly and within time constraints.
To further amplify the album’s arrival, we additionally coordinated interviews with each band member at a supporting press junket the next day, resulting in further in-depth features across print and online publications.
What we achieved
1,157,298,275
Reach
£18,699,55
PR Value
3,429 pieces across multiple countries
Coverage
No 1. on the Official Album Chart
The 7th album by The Rolling Stones to hold 10 or more weeks in the Top 10 in the UK, and the first since 1971 to achieve this)
The Rolling Stones very first UK Christmas Number 1 Album
Bernard Doherty and his excellent LD Communications team did a fantastic job managing the PR for the Hackney Diamonds launch at Hackney Empire. The event was seamless, vibrant, and really captured the spirit of the album. We couldn’t have asked for better results on all the media platforms both in the UK and Europe