Sky Blue Sky - Marketing and Promotion

Marketing and Promotion

On March 3, 2007, Wilco's official website hosted a Sky Blue Sky "listening party", which streamed the new album in its entirety. Two days later, the track "What Light" was made available for download on the band's website and was streamed on its MySpace page. On March 11, 2007, the official website streamed the album in its entirety again. "The Thanks I Get", a song recorded during the Sky Blue Sky sessions but not included on the album, was made available as a free download to purchasers of the album. During the European segment of the promotional tour, Wilco included a five-song extended play with purchase of the album. The EP contained the songs "The Thanks I Get", "One True Vine", "Let's Not Get Carried Away", and live versions of "Impossible Germany" and "Hate It Here". Wilco made the EP available online for free to previous purchasers of Sky Blue Sky.

Frustrated by the lack of radio airplay received by previous Wilco albums, the band decided to branch out into television advertising. Wilco had previously licensed songs for Telefónica Moviles, and Jeff Tweedy appeared in a series of advertisements for Apple Computer. In May 2007, Volkswagen began running a pair of commercials with "You Are My Face" and bonus track "The Thanks I Get" playing in the background. The band commented on their website that "we feel okay about VWs. Several of us even drive them." The band licensed six songs for the campaign, which was created by advertising agency Crispin Porter and Bogusky. The move was met with criticism from both fans and popular media.

A promotional tour followed the release of the album. The band performed "Sky Blue Sky" and "You Are My Face" on Later... with Jools Holland on May 25, 2007 and was interviewed on The Dermot O'Leary Show the next day. Beginning June 13, 2007, Wilco played fourteen shows in North America with Low as its opening act. Following this, the band made plans to tour Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Italy, and Spain before playing a few more North American shows, including a performance on The Tonight Show.