Simon Webbe goes from Blue to double platinum in four months.(Campaign focus)

When Blue's members announced their intention to pursue solo careers, Lee Ryan and Duncan James were the band's tabloid darlings.

As such, the marketing team at their colleague Simon Webbe's EMI division Angel Music Group set the relatively modest target of reaching gold status for his debut solo outing Sanctuary. The reality has been success far beyond the record company's expectations, with the album a week ago surpassing double platinum status with its shipment now beyond 650,000 copies. " At the beginning we weren't really sure of what our expectations for Simon were," says Angel Music Group marketing manager David Quirk. "It was like signing an unsigned artist in that respect. He was much more in the background in Blue, but I think in the end his anonymity has worked in our favour."

The campaign for the album got off to a relatively slow start, selling a somewhat modest ...