We didn't buy the attention. We built the rooms where it happened.
Digital Strategy and Audience Development
Digital Campaign
Content Creation
Amaal Nuux
We didn't buy the attention. We built the rooms where it happened.
Digital strategy and audience development for Somali-Canadian R&B artist Amaal Nuux, in partnership with Warner Music Canada. We built the online ecosystem that carried her into the Milly rollout, engineering discovery inside the communities most likely to become real listeners.
Client
Warner Music Canada
Project Type
Digital Strategy and Audience Development
Technology
Amaal Nuux
Overview
We worked alongside her team and the label to build the digital groundwork ahead of the release, then kept it running through the rollout. The goal was never impressions. It was the feeling, for the right listener, that they had discovered her. The work came to us through Joel Naga, who our founder Michael Carroll had partnered with years earlier across a run of projects during Joel's time at Amazon Music Canada. When Joel moved into work with Warner Music Canada, he brought us in.
Amaal came to the Milly rollout with a Juno nomination already behind her and a story that traveled: born in Mogadishu, raised in Toronto, writing alternative R&B that sat between soul, modern R&B, and something harder to file. What she needed was not recognition from critics. She had that. She needed an audience that found her on its own terms.
Amaal Nuux
The Challenge
Alternative R&B is a discovery problem, not a reach problem. A label can buy impressions all day. What it cannot buy is the sense that a fan found the artist themselves, in a space they already trusted, from someone who sounded like a peer instead of a brand.
Her listener also does not sit in one box. Soul, alternative R&B, modern R&B, and a Somali-Canadian audience that overlaps all three without being reducible to any of them. Standard paid targeting flattens exactly the nuance that made her worth finding.
Amaal Nuux
The Solution
We started with research, not media buys. We built a psychographic and demographic profile of who Amaal's listener actually was, studying artists from her region and from similar diaspora scenes to understand where that audience already gathered and what moved them. Then we went hyperregional in two directions at once. Physically, we concentrated on Toronto and the larger Canadian metros around it, then extended into European cities with dense digital populations already tuned into soul and alternative R&B. Digitally, we targeted those same regional audiences where they actually live online, and layered in audiences drawn by her background and by the specific sound she sits in.
From that profile we identified taste-adjacent accounts and the conversations already happening around artists in her lane, and drove engagement directly into them. We seeded those conversations and grew them until they built a world around Amaal and invited her audience inside it. We ran all of it in lockstep with her team and Warner so the content strategy and the outreach calendar moved as one. Traffic built to her page over months ahead of the release, not in a launch-week spike.
Amaal Nuux
Amaal Nuux
Performance Results
Milly arrived November 6, 2021, seven tracks, and landed where the groundwork pointed it. Complex called it Amaal stepping into her truest form, praising the velvety vocals and addictive ambience of a project blending old-school R&B with Afrofuturism. HotNewHipHop led with her mesmerizing voice. Bleu ran her as Toronto's leading lady of R&B. The press did not cover her as a new artist being introduced. They covered her as one who had already arrived.
Chart Peak
Apple Music Canada R&B chart during the rollout
The project reached number one on Apple Music's Canadian R&B chart during the rollout. Amaal came in already Juno-nominated for her debut, so recognition was never the open question. The question was whether an audience would show up on its own terms. It did, and it came from the rooms we spent months building.
Amaal Nuux
Final thoughts
An organic discovery engine built to supplement traditional label marketing, ending in a number one R&B project.
Amaal Nuux
Credits
Michael Carroll
Joel Naga
Founder, Charlotte's Webb
Warner Music Canada
Previous Project
Next Project
We didn't buy the attention. We built the rooms where it happened.
Digital Strategy and Audience Development
Digital Campaign
Content Creation
Amaal Nuux
We didn't buy the attention. We built the rooms where it happened.
Digital strategy and audience development for Somali-Canadian R&B artist Amaal Nuux, in partnership with Warner Music Canada. We built the online ecosystem that carried her into the Milly rollout, engineering discovery inside the communities most likely to become real listeners.
Client
Warner Music Canada
Project Type
Digital Strategy and Audience Development
Technology
Amaal Nuux
Overview
We worked alongside her team and the label to build the digital groundwork ahead of the release, then kept it running through the rollout. The goal was never impressions. It was the feeling, for the right listener, that they had discovered her. The work came to us through Joel Naga, who our founder Michael Carroll had partnered with years earlier across a run of projects during Joel's time at Amazon Music Canada. When Joel moved into work with Warner Music Canada, he brought us in.
Amaal came to the Milly rollout with a Juno nomination already behind her and a story that traveled: born in Mogadishu, raised in Toronto, writing alternative R&B that sat between soul, modern R&B, and something harder to file. What she needed was not recognition from critics. She had that. She needed an audience that found her on its own terms.
Amaal Nuux
The Challenge
Alternative R&B is a discovery problem, not a reach problem. A label can buy impressions all day. What it cannot buy is the sense that a fan found the artist themselves, in a space they already trusted, from someone who sounded like a peer instead of a brand.
Her listener also does not sit in one box. Soul, alternative R&B, modern R&B, and a Somali-Canadian audience that overlaps all three without being reducible to any of them. Standard paid targeting flattens exactly the nuance that made her worth finding.
Amaal Nuux
The Solution
We started with research, not media buys. We built a psychographic and demographic profile of who Amaal's listener actually was, studying artists from her region and from similar diaspora scenes to understand where that audience already gathered and what moved them. Then we went hyperregional in two directions at once. Physically, we concentrated on Toronto and the larger Canadian metros around it, then extended into European cities with dense digital populations already tuned into soul and alternative R&B. Digitally, we targeted those same regional audiences where they actually live online, and layered in audiences drawn by her background and by the specific sound she sits in.
From that profile we identified taste-adjacent accounts and the conversations already happening around artists in her lane, and drove engagement directly into them. We seeded those conversations and grew them until they built a world around Amaal and invited her audience inside it. We ran all of it in lockstep with her team and Warner so the content strategy and the outreach calendar moved as one. Traffic built to her page over months ahead of the release, not in a launch-week spike.
Amaal Nuux
Amaal Nuux
Performance Results
Milly arrived November 6, 2021, seven tracks, and landed where the groundwork pointed it. Complex called it Amaal stepping into her truest form, praising the velvety vocals and addictive ambience of a project blending old-school R&B with Afrofuturism. HotNewHipHop led with her mesmerizing voice. Bleu ran her as Toronto's leading lady of R&B. The press did not cover her as a new artist being introduced. They covered her as one who had already arrived.
Chart Peak
Apple Music Canada R&B chart during the rollout
The project reached number one on Apple Music's Canadian R&B chart during the rollout. Amaal came in already Juno-nominated for her debut, so recognition was never the open question. The question was whether an audience would show up on its own terms. It did, and it came from the rooms we spent months building.
Amaal Nuux
Final thoughts
An organic discovery engine built to supplement traditional label marketing, ending in a number one R&B project.
Amaal Nuux
Michael Carroll
Joel Naga
Founder, Charlotte's Webb
Warner Music Canada
Previous Project
Next Project
We didn't buy the attention. We built the rooms where it happened.
Digital Strategy and Audience Development
Digital Campaign
Content Creation
Amaal Nuux
We didn't buy the attention. We built the rooms where it happened.
Digital strategy and audience development for Somali-Canadian R&B artist Amaal Nuux, in partnership with Warner Music Canada. We built the online ecosystem that carried her into the Milly rollout, engineering discovery inside the communities most likely to become real listeners.
Client
Warner Music Canada
Project Type
Digital Strategy and Audience Development
Technology
Amaal Nuux
Overview
We worked alongside her team and the label to build the digital groundwork ahead of the release, then kept it running through the rollout. The goal was never impressions. It was the feeling, for the right listener, that they had discovered her. The work came to us through Joel Naga, who our founder Michael Carroll had partnered with years earlier across a run of projects during Joel's time at Amazon Music Canada. When Joel moved into work with Warner Music Canada, he brought us in.
Amaal came to the Milly rollout with a Juno nomination already behind her and a story that traveled: born in Mogadishu, raised in Toronto, writing alternative R&B that sat between soul, modern R&B, and something harder to file. What she needed was not recognition from critics. She had that. She needed an audience that found her on its own terms.
Amaal Nuux
The Challenge
Alternative R&B is a discovery problem, not a reach problem. A label can buy impressions all day. What it cannot buy is the sense that a fan found the artist themselves, in a space they already trusted, from someone who sounded like a peer instead of a brand.
Her listener also does not sit in one box. Soul, alternative R&B, modern R&B, and a Somali-Canadian audience that overlaps all three without being reducible to any of them. Standard paid targeting flattens exactly the nuance that made her worth finding.
Amaal Nuux
The Solution
We started with research, not media buys. We built a psychographic and demographic profile of who Amaal's listener actually was, studying artists from her region and from similar diaspora scenes to understand where that audience already gathered and what moved them. Then we went hyperregional in two directions at once. Physically, we concentrated on Toronto and the larger Canadian metros around it, then extended into European cities with dense digital populations already tuned into soul and alternative R&B. Digitally, we targeted those same regional audiences where they actually live online, and layered in audiences drawn by her background and by the specific sound she sits in.
From that profile we identified taste-adjacent accounts and the conversations already happening around artists in her lane, and drove engagement directly into them. We seeded those conversations and grew them until they built a world around Amaal and invited her audience inside it. We ran all of it in lockstep with her team and Warner so the content strategy and the outreach calendar moved as one. Traffic built to her page over months ahead of the release, not in a launch-week spike.
Amaal Nuux
Amaal Nuux
Performance Results
Milly arrived November 6, 2021, seven tracks, and landed where the groundwork pointed it. Complex called it Amaal stepping into her truest form, praising the velvety vocals and addictive ambience of a project blending old-school R&B with Afrofuturism. HotNewHipHop led with her mesmerizing voice. Bleu ran her as Toronto's leading lady of R&B. The press did not cover her as a new artist being introduced. They covered her as one who had already arrived.
Chart Peak
Apple Music Canada R&B chart during the rollout
The project reached number one on Apple Music's Canadian R&B chart during the rollout. Amaal came in already Juno-nominated for her debut, so recognition was never the open question. The question was whether an audience would show up on its own terms. It did, and it came from the rooms we spent months building.
Amaal Nuux
Final thoughts
An organic discovery engine built to supplement traditional label marketing, ending in a number one R&B project.
Amaal Nuux
Michael Carroll
Joel Naga
Founder, Charlotte's Webb
Warner Music Canada
Previous Project
Next Project
We build worlds. Yours is next.
Bring us your world. Pitch us a long shot. Or just say hello. We read everything.
A few of the worlds we have built.
We build worlds. Yours is next.
Bring us your world. Pitch us a long shot. Or just say hello. We read everything.
A few of the worlds we have built.
We build worlds. Yours is next.
Bring us your world. Pitch us a long shot. Or just say hello. We read everything.
A few of the worlds we have built.