How would you promote Invincible?

AlwaysThere

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I’m a big fan of hypotheticals, lol.

Let’s say you were given an unlimited marketing budget to promote Invincible, and MJ was completely willing to do whatever you suggested. How would you proceed? The only thing is, you can’t change or rearrange the album itself. You have to work with what currently exists.
 
For starters I'd keep Sony's plan to make You Rock My World the lead single of the album, I like Unbreakable but YRMW sounds more like a hit single potential than Unbreakable.

Secondly, I read Damien's tweet earlier today and he said something about releasing Threatened as a single for Halloween along with the intended MV for it and I honestly like that idea. Release Threatened as a single and advertize it as a Halloween song.

Thirdly, if he wasn't going to tour I'd tell him to make one-off performances (I remember reading some time ago that there was a song from Invincible that MJ was going to perform on November 2001 but I can't recall the song or the source for it) or one-off shows like the Apollo Theater concert, except that it's more focused on the new songs from Invincible. Perform songs like Heartbreaker and give it a whole new choreography.

And once MJ got to releasing Unbreakable as a single I'd tell him to put the song Invincible as a B-side, the songs sound incredibly alike so it's fitting lol.
 
Jeez, another Invincible thread, wow, okay.

I'd start with actually promoting it. And I'd let MJ promote it.
MJ was completely willing to do whatever you suggested.
I'd do whatever he suggested, I'd just be grateful to be along for the ride. Come on, be for real man. Lol

I'd find a venue or two for him to perform though, not touring, but performing.
I like Unbreakable but YRMW sounds more like a hit single potential than Unbreakable.
Nope. Unbreakable goes first. That crazy video deserved to live. It'd be a Number 1 Hit, So help me. Lots of single releases, hot artwork, crazy video, and a live performance to end all live performances.

You Rock My World can literally go second. Worst case scenario, it's just the Dangerous/HIStory single format.

The only thing I would not do is switch single releases around or cancel some. That became a habit during the 90s, Earth Song and TTA got canceled, Smile, Dangerous, and Give In To Me got no play in the US, swapped out for Who Is It. I'd do no such things. Every song gets play in their precise order.

So it's probably < Unbreakable < You Rock My World < Butterflies < Break of Dawn < Speechless < Heaven Can Wait < Whatever Happens < Threatened.
 
I would release the following songs as the singles in this order until the end of 2002

You Rock My World (with music video)
Unbreakable (with mv)
Butterflies
Break of Dawn
Whatever Happens
Threatened (with mv)
Heartbreaker (with mv)

I would also ask Michael to do the one night show for Invincible that he was meant to do for History in 1995. Since Michael wasn't interested in touring, I think a television special performing Invincible songs would have been good enough promotion.

Perhaps also a performance at the Grammys, AMAs or VMA in 2001-02 as well.
 
Let’s say you were given an unlimited marketing budget to promote Invincible, and MJ was completely willing to do whatever you suggested...

Unlimited budget? OK.

First I would release Invincible 22 (because that's this year and we waited long enough). It would contain the equivalent of at least 2 or 3 CDs of rare and unreleased tracks. All seriously mastered by some serious "audiophile" company (can be MoFi if they promise they stop delivering damaged records...), and this could involve some people from various MJ communities who area bit serious about sound quality (I thought of mentioning names here but I don't know everyone and I didn't that would necessarily be a good thing in the end.)
The whole thing would be in a humongous package, on 45 RPM 12 inch vinyl, CDs, SACDs, FLAC files on USB supports (or better)...
I'm not sure what goodies from that era could be included, but I'm thinking of a Martin Bashir voodoo doll... maybe some other cool things like... a piece of chalk (but with MJ's HIStory logo on it, because it would look cooler).
And also each album will come with some NFTs... wait no, not NFTs... well maybe NFTs, but mostly some Invincible Coins, a new cryptocurrency with some (very) smart algorithm and mechanisms to regulate it's value.

As for promotion, I would make sure most songs from the album and some from the bonus get "short films" involving cats, very cute cats. And some songs would get TikTok videos with Branca dancing on them... because he can use his new TikTok starpower...

Then, since I have unlimited budget, I would simply start purchasing as many albums as possible myself. So more albums will produced, and so I will be able to buy even more. Life would become as the game "Cookie Clicker" (don't try it, it's a pure time waster... but if you like if, the same exists with paperclips or something like that) but with Invincible CDs instead of cookies...

The album will attract so much attention from its sales numbers that everybody will want to have it (because it's well-know that if an album sells more it's better... likely.... maybe... potentially... someone should check... well it may be true for MJ's albums?) .


The issue is that doing so with my infinite budget, I will have generated soooo many dollars that it won't be worth anything anymore. The US government will try to stop the album but it will be too late. The Invincible Coin will slowly replace the USD, and the EUR, and the CHF and any currency you may think of. Theoretically, there should also be too many Invincible Coins... but the trick is that people will be able to burn their Invincible Coins to get more copies of Invincible. It will be considered super cool to have many copies of the album, it will be considered as a sign of wealth and success... to show off to your friends, to find mate(s)... They will be used in therapies... people will bath in Invincible CDs to cleanse their souls!

And right, that's how you promote an album...

Oh wait, I got something wrong, when you said Michael agreed, you mean that this is supposed to happen in 2001? Not in 2023?
 
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Thirdly, if he wasn't going to tour I'd tell him to make one-off performances (I remember reading some time ago that there was a song from Invincible that MJ was going to perform on November 2001 but I can't recall the song or the source for it) or one-off shows like the Apollo Theater concert, except that it's more focused on the new songs from Invincible. Perform songs like Heartbreaker and give it a whole new chchoreography.
So does anyone else think its weird that mj wanted to do so much new music 79-83 "number 1 I don't wanna do the old stuff because its old, number 2 the choreography is old" only to give us the same tour 3more times. I think dangerous had maybe 2 or 3 songs performed from the album. It's hard to say on Invincible. I don't think I even wanted to see mj on tour in 2001. I just feel nothing was right around that time with him
 
Unlimited budget? OK.

First I would release Invincible 22 (because that's this year and we waited long enough). It would contain the equivalent of at least 2 or 3 CDs of rare and unreleased tracks. All seriously mastered by some serious "audiophile" company (can be MoFi if they promise they stop delivering damaged records...), and this could involve some people from various MJ communities who area bit serious about sound quality (I thought of mentioning names here but I don't know everyone and I didn't that would necessarily be a good thing in the end.)
The whole thing would be in a humongous package, on 45 RPM 12 inch vinyl, CDs, SACDs, FLAC files on USB supports (or better)...
I'm not sure what goodies from that era could be included, but I'm thinking of a Martin Bashir voodoo doll... maybe some other cool things like... a piece of chalk (but with MJ's HIStory logo on it, because it would look cooler).
And also each album will come with some NFTs... wait no, not NFTs... well maybe NFTs, but mostly some Invincible Coins, a new cryptocurrency with some (very) smart algorithm and mechanisms to regulate it's value.

As for promotion, I would make sure most songs from the album and some from the bonus get "short films" involving cats, very cute cats. And some songs would get TikTok videos with Branca dancing on them... because he can use his new TikTok starpower...

Then, since I have unlimited budget, I would simply start purchasing as many albums as possible myself. So more albums will produced, and so I will be able to buy even more. Life would become as the game "Cookie Clicker" (don't try it, it's a pure time waster... but if you like if, the same exists with paperclips or something like that) but with Invincible CDs instead of cookies...

The album will attract so much attention from its sales numbers that everybody will want to have it (because it's well-know that if an album sells more it's better... likely.... maybe... potentially... someone should check... well it may be true for MJ's albums?) .


The issue is that doing so with my infinite budget, I will have generated soooo many dollars that it won't be worth anything anymore. The US government will try to stop the album but it will be too late. The Invincible Coin will slowly replace the USD, and the EUR, and the CHF and any currency you may think of. Theoretically, there should also be too many Invincible Coins... but the trick is that people will be able to burn their Invincible Coins to get more copies of Invincible. It will be considered super cool to have many copies of the album, it will be considered as a sign of wealth and success... to show off to your friends, to find mate(s)... They will be used in therapies... people will bath in Invincible CDs to cleanse their souls!

And right, that's how you promote an album...

Oh wait, I got something wrong, when you said Michael agreed, you mean that this is supposed to happen in 2001? Not in 2023?
The funniest part about this whole post is I thought it was demented as soon as you said consulting MJ fans for sound quality. lol
 
My first single releas would be “speechless”. It has hit appeal and doesn’t really sound like anything he did before with the a cappella start and ending. My second single would be “heartbreaker” again because it doesn’t sound like any of his songs of the past, it has a cool complicated sound.
The third single would be “whatever happens” I’m not a big fan of it but again it sounds different than anything he did before and I understand the appeal of the song.
For 4th I‘d opt for break of dawn and 5th and final release would be you rock my world. A fifth single usually knows limited success so a safe choice with hit appeal sounds right.

Naturally all singles would get a videoclip. Michael touring in 2001 no thank you but a one night only style unplugged set recorded for tv would be fitting choice because of the many slower songs on the record. Other than that just get exposure, do interviews, late night show appearances, award show appearances.

It was not a big spectacular album in terms of music and themes so a big expensive campaign wasn’t suitable imo. Michael had to appear grown up and do regular normal stuff for promotion and less bombast.
I’m not against the bombast, far from but this album wasn ‘t suited for it, it didn’t really have epic ground breaking genre bending songs like HIStory/BOTDF or Dangerous had.
 
I can see whatever happens with this Spanish tone to it, in a dessert or party. Bonfire on beach or something. It would've been different for sure
 
So does anyone else think its weird that mj wanted to do so much new music 79-83 "number 1 I don't wanna do the old stuff because its old, number 2 the choreography is old" only to give us the same tour 3more times. I think dangerous had maybe 2 or 3 songs performed from the album. It's hard to say on Invincible. I don't think I even wanted to see mj on tour in 2001. I just feel nothing was right around that time with him
No. That's the difference between 24 and almost 44.
 
No. That's the difference between 24 and almost 44.
Dangerous was only 10years after triumph....I understand history... barely. He could've did new songs like he did with bad. I find it weird he never performed another part of me & dirty diana ever again after the bad tour. Who is it, give into me, rtt, in the closet & wywtom.... well maybe not wywtom because the background singers would've butchered that. Lol i never liked any of his background singers except Kevin & siedah. I'm all off topic😅
 
Dangerous was only 10years after triumph....I understand history... barely. He could've did new songs like he did with bad. I find it weird he never performed another part of me & dirty diana ever again after the bad tour. Who is it, give into me, rtt, in the closet & wywtom.... well maybe not wywtom because the background singers would've butchered that. Lol i never liked any of his background singers except Kevin & siedah. I'm all off topic😅
Dangerous tour was great performances and good singing, but it was pretty lazy. And right when he was about to start shaking it up, the allegations came. And took away his luster.

HIStory is its own discussion post. But he did perform a lot of material from the album. 8 songs in fact, And Blood on the Dance Floor. And still managed to fit on lots of Dangerous material as well. But his heart wasn't in it at all, and by 2001 he was absolutely fed up with it. Maybe what changed was the futility of it all. He still felt lonely and exhausted on top of that too.
 
Unlimited budget? OK.

First I would release Invincible 22 (because that's this year and we waited long enough). It would contain the equivalent of at least 2 or 3 CDs of rare and unreleased tracks. All seriously mastered by some serious "audiophile" company (can be MoFi if they promise they stop delivering damaged records...), and this could involve some people from various MJ communities who area bit serious about sound quality (I thought of mentioning names here but I don't know everyone and I didn't that would necessarily be a good thing in the end.)
The whole thing would be in a humongous package, on 45 RPM 12 inch vinyl, CDs, SACDs, FLAC files on USB supports (or better)...
I'm not sure what goodies from that era could be included, but I'm thinking of a Martin Bashir voodoo doll... maybe some other cool things like... a piece of chalk (but with MJ's HIStory logo on it, because it would look cooler).
And also each album will come with some NFTs... wait no, not NFTs... well maybe NFTs, but mostly some Invincible Coins, a new cryptocurrency with some (very) smart algorithm and mechanisms to regulate it's value.

As for promotion, I would make sure most songs from the album and some from the bonus get "short films" involving cats, very cute cats. And some songs would get TikTok videos with Branca dancing on them... because he can use his new TikTok starpower...

Then, since I have unlimited budget, I would simply start purchasing as many albums as possible myself. So more albums will produced, and so I will be able to buy even more. Life would become as the game "Cookie Clicker" (don't try it, it's a pure time waster... but if you like if, the same exists with paperclips or something like that) but with Invincible CDs instead of cookies...

The album will attract so much attention from its sales numbers that everybody will want to have it (because it's well-know that if an album sells more it's better... likely.... maybe... potentially... someone should check... well it may be true for MJ's albums?) .


The issue is that doing so with my infinite budget, I will have generated soooo many dollars that it won't be worth anything anymore. The US government will try to stop the album but it will be too late. The Invincible Coin will slowly replace the USD, and the EUR, and the CHF and any currency you may think of. Theoretically, there should also be too many Invincible Coins... but the trick is that people will be able to burn their Invincible Coins to get more copies of Invincible. It will be considered super cool to have many copies of the album, it will be considered as a sign of wealth and success... to show off to your friends, to find mate(s)... They will be used in therapies... people will bath in Invincible CDs to cleanse their souls!

And right, that's how you promote an album...
I love this entire scenario, lol. Well, OK, I'm not up for the voodoo doll, not sure about the cats, totally up for the chalk, tho'. And everything else! :D

Oh wait, I got something wrong, when you said Michael agreed, you mean that this is supposed to happen in 2001? Not in 2023?
:ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO:
 
First of all, 'Unbreakable' is not a good idea for having been released as a single, especially as a lead single.

The main problem with 'Unbreakable' is its rehashed lyrics, especially after the release of the 'HIStory' album (second disc) which had a ton of similar thematically songs with that one.

Sony Music did the right thing by releasing 'You Rock My World' instead of it.

Besides, 'You Rock My World' was a more representative song of Michael Jackson because it sounded like his earlier works with Quincy Jones, and also the song flows very smoothly when it is heard on the radio.

Second of all, keep in mind that the 9/11 terrorist attacks affected greatly at that time the music industry, particularly tours which many of them had to be cancelled.

So, even if Michael Jackson wanted to embark on a world tour at that time, it would have been not only unwise but also impossible (due to terrorism fears).
(I remember reading some time ago that there was a song from Invincible that MJ was going to perform on November 2001 but I can't recall the song or the source for it)
According to press reports, it was 'Whatever Happens' which was meant for an awards show performance in November (2001).
 
Wow. I would have loved to see Whatever Happens performed live. - If sung live, it could have been a personal favorite.
Unfortunately it never happend...
 
According to press reports, it was 'Whatever Happens' which was meant for an awards show performance in November (2001).
Yes that one! If MJ did performances like that for new songs on Invincible it would've done wonders to promote the album. Too bad that around the 2000's MJ was cancelling projects like crazy.
 
The funniest part about this whole post is I thought it was demented as soon as you said consulting MJ fans for sound quality. lol

There are actually some relevant people for this topic.

(Obviously not any of those who put some sound on YouTube with marking like "Enhanced", "HD", "4K sound", etc...)
 
Wow. I would have loved to see Whatever Happens performed live. - If sung live, it could have been a personal favorite.
Unfortunately it never happend...
It most likely would have been lip-synced.
 
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