How Nickelback launched a fan club using affordable, easy to use tools

Learn how Nickleback successfully relaunched their fan club using two affordable and simple-to-use tools – a Shopify online store and Single’s Membership product.

via Single

It’s quite rare when a rock band remains at the forefront of pop culture for decades, but Nickelback has done exactly that.

As Chad Kroeger recently said in an interview, “Our new t-shirts say Nickelback – Fan or Liar.” Nickelback embraces the controversy and truly understands their fan base.

So when it came time to relaunch their fan club (and tickets to their 2023 upcoming tour), the Nickelback team knew they could keep things “in-house.”

Rather than relying on a 3rd party platform, the Nickelback fan club was launched in collaboration with our friends at Mainfactor, who used the band’s D2C Shopify store and Single’s Membership product to create a “home base” for top fans.

First… what’s a Membership: 

Using the Single platform, anyone can create a Membership. 

Memberships are sold through Shopify just like any other product, but instead of the customer buying an individual album, t-shirt, coffee mug etc., they’re buying access to something. 

Think of them kind of like a Netflix subscription… you pay Netflix a monthly fee to get access to their video library. In this case, fans purchase a Membership from you and pay a set amount of money monthly, annually (you choose the interval). 

Then, as a member, they get access to whatever you choose – things like video content, exclusive merchandise, or ticket pre-sales… which brings us back to Nickelback.

Nickelback’s Membership Program 

For Nickelback, the team chose to brand their Membership as the Nickelback Club. For $33, fans would become a member and get perks like:

• Access to pre-sale tickets for their upcoming tour 
• Early entrance to shows
• Exclusive merchandise 
• Access to “The forum: A members only discussion board”
• A customized ‘member card’ 

How Nickelback launched the club

The Nickelback team knew they wanted to launch a club for their most dedicated fans and they also knew they were about to announce their 2023 tour. 

Combining the two together created the perfect opportunity to kick off their membership program. They announced the club via social media and email, emphasizing the special opportunity to be first in line for ticket pre-sales, and were able to launch smoothly and successfully.

Fans benefit from an extra level of access to their favorite band, and the band now has a great opportunity to provide more value to their loyal listeners. This brings us to our next point… 

Building the artist-fan relationship 

By launching the fan club with Single and Shopify, Nickelback now directly owns their relationship to fans – and can point them straight to their website for all fan interactions.

Whenever someone joins the club, they’re given the chance to opt in to emails from the band. Now, whenever the band announces future tours, album releases, etc – they can directly reach out to their own fan base. 

Better yet, because Nickelback has a centralized platform (Single + Shopify) for monitoring what merchandise their fans buy, who joins the Fan Club, who buys tickets, and so on, they can better tailor their future plans to make those fans even happier. 

Win win, right? 

If you’re considering introducing a Membership program yourself, here’s a few things to think about: 

• What perks could I offer members? A monthly livestream? Exclusive merch? 
• What is a fair price my fans would be willing to pay? 
• How long will a membership last? 
• What moment could I tie a launch to? Tour announcement? New single or video I could give members first access to?