Black M was personnaly attacked. We did not want to answer at a personal level. He did not want to answer at a political level. Our proposal was a third way: to answer at an artistic level. Since he had things to say but did not want traditional interviews where he would have been at risk of becoming the symbol he did not want to be, he challenged our own professional habits. We did not overcome the crisis with a traditional PR campaign but we recommended the singer do what he was best at and known for before the whole controversy: write and sing. A song would be the proper answer. His song with his words. And our support in the backoffice, monitoring the situation, building tailor-made position statements, Q&A inspired by his words and mediatraining him on-demand.

During 6 months (from the crisis to the launch of the album), we did provide the artist and his team with real-time recommendations and a close monitoring of social media. During phase 1 and 2, we had to contain the pressure the artist was exposed to by monitoring the attacks and recommend off media actions (writting of a song, engagement with fans). During phase 3, we developed a position statement, a Q&A and mediatrained the artist. Our role was to respect who he was and the way he is used to talk while helping him to answer properly without reigniting the controversy. We managed to have him go both for traditional artistic media (dedicated radio, TV shows, magazines...) and for more mainstream media that do not usually interview popular rapper... and with which the artist himself was less used to deal.

Tier 1:

The social media campaign mobilized his fan base, “Je suis chez moi” was twitted more than 20 000 times (TT on Twitter).

PR Plan generated over 100 articles allowing Black M to reach positively a wide public. The profile of Black M by a leading daily newspaper in France, Libération, was the highest point.

Black M was invited on some of France’s top TV shows. The season’s premiere of a famous French talk show featured a grand opening with Black M performing his single with the cast. And a few weeks later, Black M closed the most popular French music show, performing his single with other popular artists and personalities.

100% of the coverage on the single was positive and relayed the single’s messages. This closed the polemic and paved the way for the launch of the album.

Tier 2:

Months after the polemic, the artist is still invited on top mainstream shows to discuss his single, demonstrating the shift in the public's perception of Black M.

And his song became an anthem for tolerance.

This album was launched in a very favorable context for the artist. In the 50 000 tweets about the album, less than 1% mentioned Verdun.

Tier 3:

“Je suis chez moi” has been viewed over 50 million times on YouTube and is a hit single.

In the end, the album was a success (100 000 copies) and reached the second place of the French charts in the first week of its release.