Gaga's Rise from Weirdo to Hero

Author:: Say Daily Editors
Publish date:: Jun 2, 2011

h1I'm on the right track, baby I was born this way.

Lady Gaga

Few could argue with the veracity of Lady Gaga’s self-affirming lyrics from her pop-tacular hit single “Born This Way.” Gaga and her crack team are clearly on the right track (baby), evidenced by the stratospheric success of her highly anticipated second album, also titled “Born This Way.” In its first week, Gaga’s new album sold 1,108,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, outselling the next 42 albums on Billboard’s chart combined and making Gaga the first artist in 7 years to have a record go platinum in a week.

The incredible success of “Born This Way” is a testimony to Gaga’s well-crafted personal brand, her passionate fanbase of "little monsters" and the hard work of her business team, which devised and executed one of the most extensive marketing campaigns ever seen in the music industry.

While about two-thirds of the digital downloads are a result of a 99-cent deal offered by Amazon, team-Gaga’s strategy was less about making money on music sales and more about using the album as a marketing tool for promoting tours, endorsements and merchandise sales.

As Gaga up-levels the music marketing game to something akin to what we currently see in the film industry, we thought it would be fun to recap exactly what it took Lady G and team to sell a platinum record in today’s digital world. Let us know if we missed anything...