How Twenty One Pilots Scored the Biggest Rock Debut of the Year With ‘Clancy’

Much of the conversation in the music business this year has been about superfans — where to find them, how to connect with them and the ways to better cater to them during single and album rollouts. Suffice it to say that the team behind Twenty One Pilots and their latest album, Clancy, took that conversation to heart.

This week, Clancy debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and flew in at No. 1 on both the Top Album Sales and Top Rock Albums charts with 143,000 equivalent album units, landing the biggest rock debut of the year so far in the process, with a campaign that leaned heavily into super-serving the group’s biggest fans. That took the form of exclusive listening parties at independent record stores around the country, a multi-pronged sales strategy that offered more than a dozen different ways of purchasing the album and thinking holistically about each tier of fandom and what they want the most.

The result: Nearly 60% of the album’s first week numbers came from direct-to-consumer (D2C) sales, according to Elektra vp of D2C, streaming and marketing strategy Thom Skarzynski, who worked on the album rollout. And the success of Clancy helps earn Skarzynski the title of Billboard’s Executive of the Week.

Here, Skarzynski discusses the fan-led strategies that went into the album release, as well as the career-long buildup that got the band to this point. “We went into the campaign with a refreshed mindset,” Skarzynski says. “It was all about bringing things back to the surface and carrying the story to life for not only the deeply-rooted superfans but also the more casual listeners who may have lost the plot along the way.”

This week, Twenty One Pilots’ Clancy debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and No. 1 on both Top Album Sales and Top Rock Albums. What key decision did you make to help make that happen?

My role at Elektra is multifaceted — depending on the project, I might be involved in marketing, D2C or streaming strategy. In the case of Twenty One Pilots, I was fortunate enough to run point on all three, co-running the overall marketing on this album campaign with Katie Robinson [senior vp of marketing at Elektra], so I truly was able to engulf myself into the whole picture and curate what we needed to happen and when. 

That said, the area that I’m most proud of in impacting our debut was what we were able to do via D2C on the band’s store. We took extra care to custom tailor each of our offerings, accounting for every level of fan, what would excite them, and how it would deepen their connection with the band. In the end, D2C accounted for nearly 60% of our first-week activity. Their overwhelming response shows the power of a fan base when they’re being listened to and treated right. 

With 143,000 equivalent album units, Clancy nearly doubled the first-week mark from the band’s last album, 2021’s Scaled and Icy. What did you do different this time around to achieve that?

We went into the campaign with a refreshed mindset. It was all about bringing things back to the surface and carrying the story to life for not only the deeply-rooted superfans but also the more casual listeners who may have lost the plot along the way. I must credit the band themselves, management [Chris Woltman and Ashley Pimenta at Element 1] and their creative team [Mark Eshleman and Brandon Rike], as they were true architects in the early teaser campaigns we executed for the core fanbase — sending 1,500 red envelope letters out to fans across the globe, swapping all studio artwork of previous albums to have “red tape” over it. Cryptic moments like that activated their hardcore fans, and from there we just expanded. This album campaign was about bringing every level of fan together and nailing the conclusion to a story the band has been telling for nearly a decade.

The album’s huge sales week was also bolstered by its physical availability — 11 vinyl variants, plus several CD editions and deluxe box sets. What was your approach to the physical sales aspect, and how were you able to pull that off?

Very early on, we connected with the band’s creative director Brandon Rike, and went through ideas and suggestions for this launch — including my absolute favorite, the Clancy Journal — as well as box-set options and how many different vinyl variants we would need to ensure everybody from the fan base had something they loved enough to own. We chose carefully, knowing where each level of fan would be shopping and what they would engage with, and let that be our guide. 

We also held listening events at over 175 independent record stores across the country the Saturday prior to album release, which brought out an estimated 20,000 fans. That indie variable was super cool and we were so happy to bring the physical community together to experience the album as one. I am a firm believer that fans want to own an item from an artist they love that they can proudly display or cherish, and that’s what we aimed to offer. Every decision we made was around “thinking like a fan.” Any mindset different from that was unacceptable as we rolled this out.

The album was the final chapter of a conceptual series. How were you able to play into that to help generate excitement among the fan base?

For me, the pressure was on to deliver on behalf of the band and their team, and simply connect the dots wherever possible. This storyline that they’ve built for nine years now is so much bigger than me and I not only accepted that fact but was humbled to be trusted to handle parts of the campaign that played into it. Ultimately, what generates the most excitement are three things: excellent music; a message and lyrics that resonate with people; and bringing fans along on the journey with you.

Clancy also represents the biggest debut for a rock album this year so far. With rock such a sales-heavy format and the industry at large so dependent on streaming, how do you leverage streaming with that sales strategy to deliver such a big debut?

The variety and cadence of the single releases leading up to the album kept the fan base engaged and built up anticipation for the full album. We also had great support from our streaming partners with multiple playlist covers, and excellent positioning in both their new music and flagship playlists across rock, alternative and pop. When it comes to sales itself, we looked at everything mathematically, and strategically pinpointed where we could find wins and where we felt we may have had some challenges. We knew how much we had total control of — D2C, physical retail, indie retail and digital albums — and making each of them the best experience possible maximized our results. We just knew the fan base so well and were able to be strategic with how, when and where we interacted with them.

How are you guys planning to continue to promote the album moving forward?

We are just getting started. “The Craving (single version)” is impacting at Top 40, Alternative and Hot AC radio right now and already getting incredible support. This is also a band that never stops: They have their massive Clancy World Tour which hits arenas and even some stadiums across North America starting in August before going overseas to Australia, New Zealand, Latin America and Europe. In my very first conversation with management back in October, they walked me through a plan that ran through 2026 and beyond. Twelve years in, this is still just the beginning for them.