No matter what industry you’re in, it’s always great to have a successful product launch. Timing is crucial, expectations are high, and there’s never a guarantee history will repeat itself with an equally successful effort.

This may be doubly true for the recording industry; think of all those one-hit-wonders out there. So when Curb Records was introducing I’m Alright, Jo Dee Messina’s second album, its primary goal was to get noticed by program directors – the folks who ultimately decide what’s played on their airwaves – at country music stations nationwide.

Most weeks, program directors receive numerous mailings hyping songs by new and veteran artists alike, explains counselor Stephen Linn, who handled the promotion. It’s up to the record companies to make their artists stand out, and they often include a promotional product with each new single as an attention-grabber. Unfortunately, more often than not, there’s a certain lack of variety in what’s sent out; the number of hats, T-shirts, calendars, mugs and other basics tend to quickly pile up on  program directors’ desks. 

“[Curb] really wanted to do something different, says Linn. “There are an awful lot of artists out there sending promotional items and they compete with one another. They go out the same week, the same month, sometimes even the same day.”

He eventually came up with a paper-doll likeness of Messina – along with several changeable outfits – to promote the release. He attributes the product selection to a solution-based approach. “This doll is a wonderful example of that, because if we said, ‘What do you need?’ the answer would have been ‘Something to send along with the CD,’” he explains. “But since the question was, ‘What would you like to accomplish?’ the answer was, ‘We want to do something different that will sit there on a desk or on a top of a speaker in a DJ booth beyond the life of the single.’”

The promotion was carried out over three mailings during a six-week period. The doll and a few outfits went to approximately 600 radio stations nationwide. The second mailing, containing another outfit, was sent two weeks later to maintain momentum. After two more weeks, the
last outfit was sent, along with the CD.

It worked. The first single from the album made the charts before it was officially released. But Linn is quick to point out that it was Messina’s talent, not the promotion alone that made the song popular. “Its unfair to say [the doll] is why the single was added to airplay, but it certainly achieved it’s goal of getting it noticed and having a life beyond the introduction of the album and that single,” he says.