Jackson Dean

Written By Brian Massengale

Overview

Ahead of its release (9/5/25) on Big Machine Records, “Make A Liar” by Jackson Dean had limited social momentum. Venture partnered with Midtown Motion, Big Machine Label Group and TKO Management to build awareness, grow his fanbase, and drive pre-saves, all before the song officially dropped.

The campaign centered on an agile short-form video strategy built around real-time testing and creative iteration, turning Instagram Trial Reels into a data engine that informed execution across TikTok and YouTube Shorts. Within seven weeks, Jackson gained 150K+ new followers across platforms and surpassed 2M streams across DSPs.

Our Approach

We designed a rollout strategy that deployed over a dozen content variants across Instagram Trial Reels from August 9th-18th to identify exactly what resonated before sharing content pieces to the Jackson’s main feed.

Key pillars included:

  • Test-and-learn: Instagram Trial Reels served as the primary testing ground, with performance data directly informing content strategy for TikTok and YouTube Shorts. We tested hooks, filming locations, captions, and different timestamps in the music.

  • Authenticity over production: Raw, unpolished clips consistently outperformed higher-production content. Leaning into this insight became the campaign's defining creative pivot, leading to high-performing content that drove fan growth.

  • Insights-driven publishing: Only the strongest-performing content graduated to Jackson's main grid, ensuring high engagement without oversaturation.

  • Facebook as a breakout channel: By syndicating Instagram Trial Reels to Facebook, the campaign tapped into an audience that responded especially strongly to casual, authentic moments.

Key Results

Within 10 days, the rollout brought in tens of thousands of new followers, with streams and pre-saves lifting significantly ahead of release.

Overall Growth (August 9 - October 1)

  • +150K total new followers across platforms in 7 weeks

  • TikTok: +35,086 followers (+28%)

  • Instagram: +18,309 followers (+12.7%)

  • Facebook: +103,314 followers (+104.7%)


Content Performance

  • 1.5M+ total Trial Reel views (August 9-17)

  • ~80K total likes across test clips

  • Top clip: 425K views and 19.6K likes (August 13)

  • Multiple clips exceeded 100K views individually with strong engagement

Pre-Release & Streaming

  • 1,500+ pre-saves and pre-adds via Linkfire

  • 5,618 Linkfire click-throughs at a 68.36% CTR

  • Nearly 50K total Linkfire visits (a record for Jackson's campaigns)

  • 2M+ streams across DSPs by October 2

  • 1.9M+ combined Spotify and Apple Music streams within the first month post-release

Conclusion

The "Make A Liar" campaign proved that a disciplined testing process of social media content can help build real streaming momentum. By using Instagram Trial Reels as a research tool rather than just a distribution channel, our team built a replicable, insights-first blueprint for short-form rollouts in the country space. The result was explosive fan growth, record-breaking Linkfire performance, and a debut that arrived with an audience already behind it.

Brian Massengale
Next

Margo Price