The Goal: Develop an artist-led partnership series that drives brand awareness through custom video content and editorial storytelling to authentically engage fans via an immersive look at the artist's signature sound.
The Execution: As part of a larger content series spotlighting musical artists and their gear, I created and led a partnership with Russian Circles, a Chicago-based instrumental post-metal band known for their cinematic soundscapes. Leveraging personal relationships with the band and their management, I developed and produced the MOTA: Tone Tour campaign, which provided fans with an exclusive behind-the-scenes editorial and video content capturing guitarist Mike Sullivan and Brian Cook's touring rig and tonal approach.
This integrated campaign included a hero video highlighting both the technical aspect of building their sound and a full live playthrough, an editorial article deep-diving into their gear, and social-first video cutdowns built social audiences. Through focused storytelling and technical authenticity, the program drove high engagement from both gearheads and Russian Circles fans alike.
The success of this partnership reinforced the power of pairing niche musical subcultures with thoughtful, artist-driven content and served as a model for subsequent episodes in the Tone Tour series I developed for CME's brand platform.
