Polydor marketing directors Stephen Hallowes and Lucy Dann have spoken about how campaigns have adapted to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“At the moment, what’s most important is getting the tone right,” said Hallowes. “Our marketing more than
ever needs to be in support of telling those stories, over and above driving a pure sales or consumption message. We’re seeing so much creativity from our artists and teams, finding new and innovative ways to connect with their fans.”
Emerging act Yungblud was forced to postpone a run of dates at the O2 Forum in London. He responded by launching The Yungblud Show livestream series via YouTube.
The second episode on April 16 featured performances by Yungblud, a new single announcement and remote guests Travis Barker, Kelly Osbourne, Ashnikko, 24kGoldn and Machine Gun Kelly. It was watched live by 50,000 fans and trended on Twitter in the UK, Poland and Australia.
“Yungblud was so quick off the mark, which resulted in widespread coverage including Channel 4 News,” said Hallowes.
BRITs Rising Star winner Celeste performed on the One World: Together At Home livestream and on video link for BBC One’s The Graham Norton Show, as well as featuring on the Stay Home Live Lounge cover of Foo Fighters’ Times Like These, which aired on BBC One’s Big Night In (April 23).
“This is all brilliant artist development activity and we can see her socials and consumption continuing to grow off the back of all of this,” said Hallowes.
Dann acknowledged that the release schedule may become more challenging later this year with many albums pushed back into autumn and winter.
“We have to find new ways and means of getting our music to the right people,” she told Music Week. “No doubt the schedule for Q3 and Q4 may end up being a rather competitive landscape, but that makes it all the more motivating for us to be the ones to aim to come out on top.”
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