Radiohead's approach to promotion flies in the face of conventional wisdom. But in challenging and confounding their audience they're creating innovative marketing stratagem.

By erasing their online presence, establishing two new mysteriously named companies and reverting to the relatively analogue method of circulating flyers (to music writers and fans) that cryptically hinted at the release of “Burn The Witch”, the first single taken from their new album A Moon Shaped Pool, Radiohead have provided a new page for the promotion playbook.

Radiohead are no strangers to producing nonconforming marketing tactics. 16 years ago the band released Kid A - an album that went on to become a commercial and cultural triumph - but outside of embedding ‘blips’ (short animated videos set to Kid A’s songs) into webpages, the methodology behind the promotion of Kid A was non-existent.

The band elected to release no singles or videos, advance copies of Kid A were not made available and journalists were forced to conduct all interviews with the band via e-mail. In addition, rare listening sessions were stringently regulated. Industry insiders at the time labelled these actions as “commercial suicide”.

This considered act of disappearing completely led to forum-led fan debate centred to decoding their intentions, and garnered more press coverage for Kid A than conventional methods would have. The release of A Moon Shaped Poolhas echoed this approach, and seen the effects amplified by virtue of being perpetrated in this social media age.

Releasing an album without fanfare in 2016 is commonplace. This reveals two things: firstly, Radiohead were almost two decades ahead of their time, and secondly, confounding fans who’ve grown accustomed to these tactics is now more difficult. However, the marketing schema behind A Moon Shaped Pool has succeeded in pushing the envelope once more.

The ability to challenge and surprise modern-day audiences with the erasure of online content in these times of hyperconnectivity is a viable means of marketing that brands from applicable industries could look to exploit.