Band: ‘Cab Driver’
Cab Driver (2026)
EP COVER ART
mashasadmeart (2026)
Name of EP- ‘Insincere’
- Genre: Alternative/Indie Rock
- Based in Leeds
Product: Self-Produced Debut EP Release of 4 songs
Campaign Idea: This is a marketing plan for the release of Cab Driver’s debut EP to launch themselves into the UK indie scene.
This campaign is outlining my own bands real life plan of releasing a debut EP. By the time of this assignment submission the band will have released our first two singles included in the EP. Putting this campaign into a real life scenario will allow for me to realistically breakdown the processes necessary for ensuring the release can reach it’s full potential.
Due to the band being new on the scene, analytics and projections pre and post release will not be compared to similar bands who are well established. However, the campaign will outline goals that could be achieved well in advance post release of the EP to provide a pathway to achieving capital, exposure and stability in the music industry.
AIDA Model (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action)
Cab Driver (2026)
We have been playing lot’s of gigs in the last two months to build up traction and retention before the EP release.
Attention
For the release of the first single in the EP, the band have started posting acoustic covers, live show recordings to attain attraction and reinforce recognition for the first single of the EP. The first single is called ‘Insincere’. Only promoting the first song on social media platforms using Instagram reels, TikTok clips, provides isolation to the song making fans and new comers from the acoustic covers only aware of the first single if they research into our band. This attracts attention to the song giving the band more data about the reception of when looking at analytics from our social media content. Alongside that form of content, the band have organised gigs to give current fans a place to immerse themselves into hearing the new single through a different scope/format.
Interest
Cab Driver (2026)
Photo from studio session
To attain constant audience interest, the band will create behind the scenes content including clips from making the songs in the studio, interviews, and background information to provide a scope of how the inspiration for the songs came about. This provides a way to portray the personalities of the band members making current/new audience members feel more connected to the band and the music. Similarly, new audience members that arrive post EP release will still be able to deep dive into the content about the making of the EP with it still evident on our social media.
Desire
Combining live performance content with the recorded versions of the songs opens up ideas to the audience as they can gauge how the songs sound in different formats. It is important that our content positively portrays our qualities in performing the songs live and also in producing music. That way audiences who attract even the smallest level of interest in our music, can easily identify that we take pride in both the performance and produced versions of the songs.
A way that we can make our music feel necessary to listeners is by taking inspiration from singer songwriter artists who are effective in making their music feel relatable to their audience through breakdown videos of their music on social media and in interviews. This is a realistic reference to take into our social media content and interviews as a band because our songs relate to similar topics about love and the subtopics that surround that word. This isn’t normalised as much in indie rock band culture. Doing this could be effective in giving audiences the connection to our music, increasing the likelihood that they will support the EP and future band endeavours.
Action
This stage will involve getting people to listen to our music. What comes with promoting our music on social media, is the opportunity to gain more streams on our songs constantly informing to our audience ‘Insincere’ is out now on all streaming platforms’ so the release stays relevant. Getting our audience to pre-save the EP and share the singles will help to increase visibility across streaming algorithms. Having four songs in the EP means that at least half of our live sets (averaging 30 minute set lengths) are songs from the EP. This will hopefully help us to attain more ticket sales. With more ticket sales, realistically we could make merchandise that could actually sell.
Mailchimp (n.d.)
Awati, R. (2024)
STP Model (Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning)
| Segmentation | Indie rock fans, students/young adults, local gig goers. |
| Targeting | 18-30 year old alternative/indie listeners. Fans of Wunderhorse, Stereophonics, and Pinegrove. |
| Positioning | Cab Driver are an indie/alt rock Leeds band who blend introspective lyricism with nostalgic melodies alongside a strong sense of collaboration and camaraderie underpinning what they do. |
This segmentation allows Cab Driver to focus on a niche but highly engaged audience within the UK indie scene. By targeting 18–30-year-old listeners, particularly students and gig-goers, the band aligns with the demographic most likely to engage with grassroots live music and emerging artists. The positioning emphasises authenticity and relatability, which are key values within indie music culture.
Allen, A. (2020)
S.M.A.R.T GOAL
SPECIFIC
Our goal will be to increase our instagram following by optimising daily social media content that is targeted to an indie rock fanbase and promotes our niche/band aesthetic.
MEASURABLE
Cab Driver (2026)
We are aiming to boost our instagram following from the current 400 followers to 1800-2000 followers.
ACHIEVABLE
The band must understand that to achieve this amount of growth we must post content regularly. To make this achievable, each member of the band gets assigned to a specific type of content idea which can be batch made for the next two-three weeks of posting to allow for us to post everyday during the EP promotion. The same instagram content can also be used on TikTok where our followers can easily access our instagram through the link in our TikTok bio. The TikTok algorithm also provides more likelihood of gaining traction on posts which is why taking advantage of this will help to achieve our goal.
REALISTIC
This goal will provide us with a more established looking instagram profile once exceeding the 1000 followers mark. More importantly, we are setting this goal so that the Instagram algorithm understands that our band is potentially gaining faster growth than other bands in our genre through our EP release. Setting up a social media related goal gives us the platform to build traction/hype around our songs rather than just hitting and hoping upon the release date.
TIME-BOUND
Cab Driver (2026)
This measurement will start from the first promotional video of the single release (included in EP) to 3 months after the whole EP has been released. Our first post promoting the single will be mid April.
Boogaard, K. (2023).
MARKET ANALYSIS
Industry Context
Cab Driver (2026)
For a indie rock band like us, it’s important for us to analyse where we want to align in the music industry.
As an independent band we have free reign to post what we want on social media which allows for us to portray our intended identity/aesthetic.
Current indie rock bands use short-form content, live clips, and popular indie song covers to grow their audience. Since covers often gain more traction than original songs, using them alongside our own music can drive new listeners to our social media pages.
Leeds ‘indie rock’ scene
The Leeds music scene strongly supports indie rock, with local bands like Yard Act and The North rising quickly in their success. Cab Driver has already gained attention from local promoters, including supporting The Pale White at The Wardrobe through Futuresound Group. Building a strong presence in Leeds is an important first step before expanding to other grassroots music scenes in Manchester or London.
Competitor Analysis
Upcoming indie bands like The North, Overpass, and Westside Cowboy use short-form and live performance content to promote their aesthetic, with fanbases that align with Cab Driver’s sound. Using their names as hashtags on our posts can help introduce our music to their audiences.
Cab Driver (2026)
The bands listed above all utilise a retro style aesthetic to their content using retro camera style visuals which effectively captures the feeling of their music. Cab Driver have also been utilising this style in their content as it best fits the style of the music.
The North, Overpass, and Westside Cowboy have secured support slots for major artists and played UK festivals, which is key to breaking into the indie scene. Their growth provides a useful benchmark for our own progress. Although, many bands do later remove older “unprofessional” content, making their path to success harder to study.
Three members of Cab Driver were fortunate enough to meet two members of ‘Westside Cowboy’ after their gig in York in which they provided us with helpful advice to gain more traction in our local scene.
CAMPAIGN PLAN
PHASE 1- Pre-Release before first two singles ‘Insincere’ and ‘Your Highness’ releases (April-June 2026)
- ‘Insincere’ will release on the 29th May
- ‘Your Highness’ will release on the 26th June
Is this 4 week period, we intend on teasing the first single included on the EP with content such as:
- Clips of us self-producing the song in the studio
- Picture collages with our music as the audio
- Making a ‘Movie Clips’ and ‘Indie Music Scene’ TikTok account. The movie clips account will involve making movie edits of famous films with our music stitched as the audio for a handful of the videos. The indie music scene account will involve making videos such as ‘5 underground indie rock bands you should listen to’ which will include our band alongside other upcoming bands. Both these accounts will help to gain traction.
- Live performance clips of ‘Insincere’ from our gigs.
- Acoustic style videos of ‘Insincere’
- Song Covers to gain quicker traction on our accounts.
- Promotional content to get people to pre-save the two songs
Additionally we will send our song to bloggers and radio stations in the hope that it gets played/blogged. The songs will be submitted to Spotify Playlists to increase the likelihood in gaining more streams.
PHASE 2- EP Release (10th July)
The EP has been released on all streaming platforms. The two remaining songs on the EP (‘Part of the Plan’ and ‘For a While’) have now been released.
Further networking with blogs, radio stations and journalists will be done to help expand our audience across the UK.
PHASE 3- Post-Release of EP
- To celebrate the release we will put on our own show at Hyde Park Book Club with two support acts. Additionally we will promote our other upcoming shows if we have any so current/new fans are informed about where they can hear the music live before our DIY show.
- For future gigs we will provide merchandise like t-shirts so fans can show their loyalty to the band if they want to.
The social media content ideas outlined in PHASE 1 will still be in place but will indicate that the EP is out and available for streaming.
Summary of Campaign Plan
To summarise, this campaign relies heavily on social media content and the attention of the Leeds music scene as these two segments will provide us with the highest level of retention.
Gantt chart outlining campaign activity timeline
FINANCIAL PLAN (COSTS AND INCOME)
Cab Driver understand that the income when starting out is small and not enough to comfortably survive. However, we accept that this is our first release of our music and at our current stage in our career, there are costs such as touring costs which aren’t relevant during the EP release window.
Costs:
| Item | Cost |
| Recording | Free with the use of Leeds Conservatoire Studios. 3 Members of the band are studying Music Production which equals to a combined total of 24 hours of studio available per week. |
| Mixing/Mastering | Free- The whole EP is self produced, mixed and mastered by the band. |
| Poster Printing | Free- All members receive a printer balance with Leeds Conservatoire. |
| EP Release gig at Hyde Park Book Club | £140 + VAT (Sound Engineer Included) Hyde Park Book Club (n.d.). |
| Merchandise- x40 S, M, L, XL T shirts (10 of each size) | £171 |
| Total Cost for above | £311 before VAT |
Co, Z.G. (2026)
Merch Ideas
T Shirt Cost
Co, Z.G. (2026)
Income:
| Gig Ticket Sales- £5 Ticket Price | 150 Capacity at Hyde Park Book Club. We will aim to get at least 50 people to come. That is £250 for income. |
| T Shirt Sales (if we sell them all) £10 Price | £400 |
| Streaming | Unknown (this isn’t our main aim for getting income) |
| Total Income | £650 before VAT from Hyde Park Book Club |
Hyde Park Book Club (n.d.)
Total Income (£650) – Total Costs (£311) = £339 profit for the promotion and product release
Bibliography
Allen, A. (2020). Finding the right customers with the STP model. [online] Oxford College of Marketing Blog. Available at: https://blog.oxfordcollegeofmarketing.com/2020/06/24/finding-the-right-customers-with-stp-model/.
Awati, R. (2024). What Is AIDA Marketing model? – Definition from WhatIs.com. [online] TechTarget. Available at: https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/AIDA-marketing-model.
Boogaard, K. (2023). How to write SMART goals. [online] Atlassian. Available at: https://www.atlassian.com/blog/productivity/how-to-write-smart-goals.
Cab Driver (2026). Instagram. [online] Available at: https://www.instagram.com/cabdriver_band_/ [Accessed 11 May 2026].
Co, Z.G. (2026). Gildan Adult Softstyle Ringspun T-Shirt – GD01. [online] Jrsindustrial.co.uk. Available at: https://jrsindustrial.co.uk/products/64000 [Accessed 11 May 2026].
Dziak, M. (2023). AIDA model | EBSCO. [online] EBSCO Information Services, Inc. | www.ebsco.com. Available at: https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/marketing/aida-model.
Hyde Park Book Club (n.d.). Available at: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/55b75d7ce4b03ad201aaf970/t/66df16217ccb5e7bf46f005f/1725896239215/HPBC+Venu+pack+summer+2024.pdf.
Mailchimp (n.d.). How to Use the AIDA Model for Your Business. [online] Mailchimp. Available at: https://mailchimp.com/resources/aida-model/.
mashasadmeart (2026). Masha SadMe (@mashasadmeart) • Instagram photos and videos. [online] Available at: https://www.instagram.com/mashasadmeart/ [Accessed 11 May 2026].
