Hotel Ugly
Building on Hotel Ugly’s viral breakthrough with a press campaign for Action Figures Fighting and Fish Maan, securing 63 pieces of coverage and an estimated 468,000 lifetime coverage views.
63
Pieces of press and social coverage
468K
Estimated lifetime views of coverage
17.3M
Combined audience of publications featuring coverage
92
Maximum domain authority across coverage sites
Turning viral momentum into an established press presence
Hotel Ugly had already found an audience through TikTok and Spotify. The next step was to build visibility across music publications, reaching listeners beyond social media while giving existing fans another way to connect with the music.
The campaign also aimed to secure press quotes for an electronic press kit, supporting future conversations with booking agents and festivals.
Two new singles gave us a way to build on that breakthrough, tell a wider artist story and create a press presence that could support the next chapter.
A Houston breakthrough, with a new story to tell
Action Figures Fighting & Fish Maan
Release periodFebruary–March 2023
Hotel Ugly found early success with the 2020 debut single Shut Up My Moms Calling. The track became a viral hit, gathering hundreds of millions of streams across platforms and entering the Billboard Hot 100.
The campaign centred on two singles from Ugly Duck. Released on 2 February 2023, Action Figures Fighting brought a summery, Latin-tinged indie-pop sound. The chilled, synth-driven Fish Maan followed on 3 March 2023.
With limited press coverage around the earlier breakthrough, these releases offered a fresh opportunity to introduce Hotel Ugly to music editors and their readers.
From indie tastemakers to international music press, bringing Hotel Ugly to new audiences
Action Figures Fighting earned attention from EARMILK, Music News and Notion, with further support from Unrecorded, Indie Shuffle and Backseat Mafia. The campaign also secured a Billboard piece on the original viral hit, Shut Up My Moms Calling.
Coverage continued with Fish Maan, including the French-language publication Another Whisky, Music Crowns, Clash and 1883 Magazine. Together, the two releases opened up a wider range of editorial opportunities.
EARMILK
Indie-pop coverage introducing Action Figures Fighting to music discovery audiences.
Read articleThe reach and impact of Hotel Ugly's press campaign in numbers
63
Pieces of coverage
468K
Estimated coverage views
17.3M
Combined publication audience
1.07K
Social engagements
92
Maximum domain authority
2
Singles promotedFigures reflect the original campaign report. Views are estimated lifetime coverage views, audience is the combined publication-wide audience. Social engagements include likes, comments and shares. Maximum domain authority is the highest Moz score across coverage sites on a 0–100 scale.
Giving an online breakthrough a wider editorial presence
Hotel Ugly's initial success had come through Spotify and TikTok. Press created another route for discovery, bringing the artist's story to readers of established music publications and supporting visibility in search.
The coverage also created material to draw on beyond the release window: third-party recognition for the artist's press kit and a broader story to share with booking agents and festivals.
The campaign built on an audience that already existed, using two new releases to extend Hotel Ugly's reach across music media.
The audiences behind the coverage
The report included Similarweb snapshots for two supporting publications, giving context to the scale of their readership.
These are worldwide visits to each publication's entire website for August–October 2023, as shown in the report's Similarweb snapshots. They are separate from views of Hotel Ugly's coverage and do not measure traffic generated by the campaign.
The campaign report’s Similarweb snapshot shows 200,812 worldwide website visits to Backseat Mafia during August–October 2023. The publication supported Action Figures Fighting, introducing the release to its music discovery audience.
Explore the music behind the breakthrough
Shut Up My Moms Calling introduced Hotel Ugly to a global audience. The campaign built on that foundation with new music from Ugly Duck, including Fish Maan.
Listen to Fish MaanCampaign Summary
Two releases, 63 pieces of coverage and a stronger press presence for Hotel Ugly.
Coverage from EARMILK, Notion, Clash and other music publications gave Action Figures Fighting and Fish Maan a platform beyond social discovery, alongside a Billboard piece on the earlier hit, Shut Up My Moms Calling. The campaign report estimated 468,000 lifetime views across the coverage.
Hotel Ugly's viral success provided the starting point. Targeted press helped build a fuller artist story, reach new audiences and create useful editorial recognition for the next stage.
Similar case studies
Make Out Monday
Make Out Monday returned after a period without releasing music with the goal of reconnecting with their audience and rebuilding the momentum achieved through their earlier, more consistent release schedule.
Aistis
How targeted Spotify playlisting and strategic press helped Lithuanian-Canadian artist Aistis expand the audience around "Plateau Botticelli" while building credibility for the wider Clay album cycle.