People assume that putting out “Summertime Sadness” must’ve been simple.
It’s Lana Del Rey… how hard could it have been?

The truth is, it was one of the most fragile, high-stakes, strategy-driven campaigns of my life.

I’ve always believed that hits don’t happen by accident. Rick Rubin once said "You never know which song will make it — what it will be up against that day, what else is being released, what forces align or fall apart around it."  "You have to want the best ideas to win." 

 

Every day, brilliant songs come out that no one will ever hear.

Maybe because I’m in marketing, I blame bad strategy for those losses. Bad timing. Bad teams. Missed moments, lack of funds.. 
 

Before I hit “send,” I need to know I’ve done everything humanly possible. This one piece of content may very well be the only piece of content that provides a lifetime of stability for the creator.  I have to move forward knowing, this moment with this team has to go well. With a Miley Cyrus and Borgore- the 20 million fans are there.  Breaking one artist into being seen as cool while protecting the coolness of the other was the trick. 

​​​

When Red Light sent me the track I felt it immediately.
I said yes without hesitation.  The moment I asked, “When do I get access to Lana’s socials?” the entire call went silent… then erupted.

“Oh no, mate,” they laughed! “She doesn’t like this song. She isn’t going to support it.”
Lana Del Rey has never posted it on her social media. I had no access to her fans. I had no one online to play with, nowhere to build anticipation.

 

In this campaign, the trick was in finding the strategy. The only direct line to the superfans was on the backend via advertising. I've seen hits go half-heard because of the wrong team, a weak link. Sometimes I think the stars have to align in a way that is magic to get the powerhouse team and the content. Thankfully, we had that team on this. Many of us come from before a time when the internet was everything. We've seen the rise and fall of record stores, magazines, put people in venues by the thousands long before we could find a DJ in the airport (easily). we came from reading liner notes in albums to wondering if fans could ever love a digital file. I believe the internet are new tools. I don't think I should see them as the only tools. The old tools and strategies matters too. 

So there I was, holding a song I believed could be a global hit…with absolutely no support from the artist.  To make it worse, when I got access to Cedric’s accounts, every number turned to dust in my hands.
The fans were fake.
Not because of him, I believe — just old PR firms trying to manufacture momentum that didn’t exist. He's rarely online so he couldn't tell. Negotiating with an artist that his "fans" were fake took a bit of diplomacy. If I said nothing and dropped a track to 80K bots, my career would suffer and the song would go no where. Cedric Gervais had 5,000 fans on Soundcloud. None on Spotify, and all of his fans on socials were fake.
I had a problem almost no one in the industry wants to talk about:

A world-class song with zero real fans to launch it to.

But I’m competitive. Relentless. Always chasing the next win.
Steve at Red Light knew I wanted a Grammy more than I wanted sleep.

So I built everything from the ground up.

I used my testing pages, my E4M strategy, my obsession with analytics and culture and community-building. $2K in ads with a strategy I perfected. I could grab fans at .01c a click and had a conversion rate of 80-85% - real people — music lovers, not bots — who could actually receive the song and carry it forward.

While I worked, “Summertime Sadness” lived on my laptop like a secret.
I listened to it for months.  I sang it to myself. I protected it.

I spent  months studying press behavior: who would embed our player, who would steal our data, who was big enough to siphon audience without giving anything back. Every placement was a chess move. Every moment counted. We had to work fast and flawlessly, because once the song was public, control evaporated.

The momentum shifted in my favor. My research paid off. 
The numbers grew. Fans found it, loved it, shared it, lived with it.
And the boomerang I’d tossed into the world came back — carried by millions of voices in every language, every dance floor.

 

The rest is history:

​A Grammy. Multi-platinum across the world. One of the most important songs ever released. Billions of streams.
A cultural moment. A career-defining shift for Cedric. A global explosion for Lana’s catalog.

But for me, it wasn’t only about charts or accolades. It was about holding something beautiful when it was still fragile, still doubted, still unsupported…and fighting for the version of its future that only a few could see.

So yes — when people say, “How hard could it have been?” I smile.

Because my team and I know exactly how hard it was.
We know what it felt like to cradle something that felt alive.
Something that wanted to fly.
Something that needed someone to believe in it first.

I tossed it out like a boomerang…
and it came back carrying the whole world with it....

​20

​

Billboard magazine called Summertime Sadness "The biggest hit of Lana Del Rey's respective career" ​Rolling Stone called it "one of the 500 most important songs ever released." ​Summertime Sadness held top 5 most streamed songs on the platform for several years. ​​It became Lana Del Rey's first #1 hit on the charts. It became the highest charting single in her solo career. ​​Cedric's SoundCloud grew from 5K fans to over 6 million. ​​​He's on record saying prior to this release, he wasn't able to sell out clubs. Promoters would have to practically give tickets away. ​​It's 8.5x platinum in the USA It reached Platinum status in GermanyGold in Switzerland and Austria​Summertime Sadness ranks in the list of highest certified singles in Australia at 12.5x platinum- The same category as "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana and "Wonderwall" by Oasis ​The song entered the Billboard Global 200 in September of 2023 at #74 most streamed songs across the globe. (excluding USA streams) ​It was in the top five most streamed songs globally on Spotify for 3+ years ​Number one on Beatport & iTunesIt was listed as Billboard's top game changing tracks on 2013 & 2014​​​The Chainsmokers' hit song, "Selfie" references girl's in nightclubs taking selfies to Summertime Sadness.It became a cultural phenomenon. ​​​​It still holds the title of top 200 most streamed songs in the world. https://www.billboard.com/charts/billboard-global-200/?rank=122​It rests at #32 of the most streamed albums of all time on the UK charts. ​​​It has reached billions of fans. ​​​At the 56th annual Grammy Awards, Summertime Sadness became our first Grammy. ​​I know when I tell people that I put out Summertime Sadness, some of them think, "how hard could that have been? it's Lana Del Rey!"​​Myself and my team know, it was very scary to hold something so beautiful. Something that deserved wings. ​I had to make it happen. I tossed it out like a boomerang and it came back.. with the world singing and dancing..... A song like is magic that belongs to everyone. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​