Rhapsody in Black.

The story.

Slava Gryaznov is one of today's most distinctive piano transcribers, a virtuoso who treats canonical works as raw material to reimagine. For his new album pairing Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue with his own transcription of Porgy and Bess, renamed Rhapsody in Black, we built a paid media plan to drive awareness and conversion across the US and Europe.

Our approach.

A two-phase strategy synced with the album's release calendar. Phase one, in the weeks leading to the launch: sponsored YouTube videos already proven to perform, paired with A/B tests on Meta using capsule edits cut from the same source material. Pure audience-building, zero fluff.

Phase two, on release day: dark post A/B testing on Meta combined with a sponsored YouTube Short, all routing traffic toward the streaming and purchase links. The transition from awareness to conversion was designed to feel seamless on both platforms.

Outcome.

A coordinated six-week rollout, balanced between broad reach across US and EU classical-jazz crossover audiences and measurable conversion at launch. Built to give Slava's transcriber-first identity its biggest spotlight yet, and to plant a recurring paid media playbook for the artist's future releases.