How Travis Scott and the Cactus Jack team launched the first #1 album of the decade
In 2018, Travis Scott released Astroworld and the associated earth-shattering merch campaign. We were all left wondering - how could Travis possibly follow that up?
His response, summed up in a single picture:
![](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0548/9980/2169/files/cyber_travis_600x600.png?v=1655740976)
Drop 1: Black Friday
The Cactus Jack team launched jackboys.travisscott.com over Black Friday weekend with 24 merch offerings. All merch came with a digital download of the upcoming JACKBOYS “Pack”, powered by Single. Each piece featured a minimal black design with both the “JACKBOYS” and Cactus Jack logos:
![](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0548/9980/2169/files/1.1_600x600.png?v=1655741022)
![](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0548/9980/2169/files/1.2_600x600.png?v=1655741054)
Some “Drop 1” highlights:
![](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0548/9980/2169/files/1.4_600x600.png?v=1655741088)
![](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0548/9980/2169/files/1.5_600x600.png?v=1655741130)
After Black Friday weekend, the shop was replaced by a “Coming Soon” graphic and an “Enter Email” field. Weeks went by…
![](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0548/9980/2169/files/1.3_600x600.png?v=1655741161)
Album Art Announcement
The JACKBOYS “Pack” was officially announced via Travis Scott’s twitter on December 24th:
![](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0548/9980/2169/files/2.1_600x600.png?v=1655741202)
Physical pre-orders then went on sale, revealing the album art:
![](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0548/9980/2169/files/2.2_600x600.png?v=1655741237)
Album Release / Drop 2
On midnight of the 26th, the album went live on streaming services and a second set of merch was released:
![](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0548/9980/2169/files/3.1_600x600.png?v=1655741295)
Most notably, an auction for the 1988 BMW E30 M3 rally car was announced. The team gathered email addresses with another “enter email” field:
![](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0548/9980/2169/files/3.2_600x600.png?v=1655741357)
![](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0548/9980/2169/files/6.1_600x600.png?v=1655741444)
Visual Components
Along with the album came an 8 minute mini-movie featuring each artist from the “pack”. It briefly follows the narrative of a carjacking and street racing crew.
Drop 3
On December 28th, the team dropped an entirely new set of merch, much of it prominently displaying a cartoon version of the Cactus Jack car:
![](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0548/9980/2169/files/4.1_3806ffa3-4de3-44bd-94ee-257666fe99ca_600x600.png?v=1655743805)
![](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0548/9980/2169/files/4.2_3488fb3a-c8ec-45f4-902f-3a8e2ac4637c_600x600.png?v=1655743772)
![](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0548/9980/2169/files/4.3_aa79ada5-58cd-435c-a135-a61337213c5c_600x600.png?v=1655743737)
But just like every drop, this one sold out as quickly as it arrived:
![](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0548/9980/2169/files/sold_out_1694fef3-94b3-49e7-8def-529ab06c4e7d_600x600.png?v=1655743695)
Drop 4
Another collection of merch launched on December 30th, featuring the cartoon images featured in Travis’ tweet a few days earlier:
![](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0548/9980/2169/files/6.2_691b46f1-a7a8-4652-9af6-a3dc83e602da_600x600.png?v=1655743641)
![](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0548/9980/2169/files/6.6_4ec4d70d-f83e-49eb-8aff-5423f27166aa_600x600.png?v=1655743599)
This drop also featured some more on-theme car racing memorabilia:
![](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0548/9980/2169/files/6.4_4e1fb6c9-6772-42ac-bc2d-e2e0569e762e_600x600.png?v=1655743560)
![](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0548/9980/2169/files/image-asset_dd25223f-7bf7-431d-ad09-dbcd1f02a539_600x600.png?v=1655743529)
![](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0548/9980/2169/files/6.5_3cb8e8c2-a35c-4a6e-a78a-054f69a18964_600x600.png?v=1655743504)
One more video announcement:
![](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0548/9980/2169/files/Tweet_1_81f1bc65-cb34-47c5-b697-6fc70e1eba05_600x600.png?v=1655743456)
![](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0548/9980/2169/files/tweet_2_972d9889-9b99-4ab3-8590-52e78be5ece8_600x600.png?v=1655743437)
Drop 5
As we entered the finals day of JACKBOYS’ debut week, momentum continued to build and the 5th set of merch dropped:
![](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0548/9980/2169/files/8.1_1713efbd-1527-408e-b47a-cac58fe32520_600x600.png?v=1655743355)
![](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0548/9980/2169/files/image-asset_1_4dd2f9ed-2cea-4e64-a9be-7a6e9e849f42_600x600.png?v=1655743318)
![](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0548/9980/2169/files/8.3_b72cab06-b2f3-4a9e-94ce-95b0f45b57da_600x600.png?v=1655743287)
![](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0548/9980/2169/files/8.2_c3e344cb-f19d-493a-aff6-f2542b2da296_600x600.png?v=1655743270)
![](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0548/9980/2169/files/image-asset_2_2e308eb7-c7c7-4298-9a25-a6d200f159c4_600x600.png?v=1655743248)
IRL Marketing
At this point, Travis shows us some snapshots of real world JACKBOYS advertisements:
![](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0548/9980/2169/files/7.5_11a1a179-1973-4b5f-b6df-8f9484e404c0_600x600.png?v=1655743203)
![](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0548/9980/2169/files/image-asset_3_636dcd82-939f-42f9-8c83-1336b3fe3580_600x600.png?v=1655743168)
![](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0548/9980/2169/files/7.2_ab5c6192-b4cf-45f8-8e35-6da8bfdb0945_600x600.png?v=1655743118)
![](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0548/9980/2169/files/7.3_600x600.png?v=1655742343)
![](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0548/9980/2169/files/7.4_600x600.png?v=1655742379)
Final Drop
On January 2nd, JACKBOYS’ week 1 came to a close. But not before a final push by the Cactus Jack team.
![](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0548/9980/2169/files/9.1_600x600.png?v=1655742418)
Not only were there a handful of new products launched - Hot Wheels Cactus Jack car, Forgiato custom wheels, etc - but they also brought back every single product that had been on sale throughout the week.
To demonstrate urgency as JACKBOYS week 1 was ending, the team put a countdown on the top of the shop:
![](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0548/9980/2169/files/9.2_600x600.png?v=1655742458)
![](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0548/9980/2169/files/9.5_600x600.png?v=1655742491)
![](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0548/9980/2169/files/9.3_600x600.png?v=1655742525)
![](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0548/9980/2169/files/9.4_600x600.png?v=1655742595)
![](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0548/9980/2169/files/image-asset_4_600x600.png?v=1655742628)
Results
The Cactus Jack team’s hard work paid off - and the album went #1 on the Billboard 200:
![](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0548/9980/2169/files/9.7_600x600.png?v=1655742673)
![](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0548/9980/2169/files/9.9_600x600.png?v=1655742704)