Suzy Walby, director of media at EMI Records, has spoken to Music Week about the evolution of their promotions strategy at the market-leading label.
As well as winning the Record Company category, EMI took home Promotions Team Of The Year at the Music Week Awards this month.
Lewis Capaldi’s Wish You The Best was the most played track at radio in 2023, while EMI was No.2 overall in the Radiomonitor rankings. The label was No.1 in 2023 based on music consumption measured by the Official Charts Company.
“It's so amazing,” said Walby of the awards win. “I've been in this role for about 18 months and there’s so much changing in this space. But the team at EMI are just so amazing.”
While radio has been crucial to campaigns for acts such as Take That, it was also notable that the band launched their own podcast to complement the media activity.
“I think it's still so powerful,” said Walby of radio play and support. “It's just how you look at it. It's not just about the play on the radio any more, it's everything around it.
It's the digital space, it's the connection with the presenter and it’s everything in between. It's a 360 view nowadays, rather than just the [radio] play.”
It's not just about the play on the radio any more, it's everything around it
Suzy Walby
Walby outlined the media approach for the market-leading label, particularly on breaking talent.
“On domestic artists in particular, it's just about consistency and keeping their profile up,” she told Music Week. “So with Caity Baser and Olivia Dean, it's not about doing things only around a single strategy. It's about keeping their profile up throughout the year and hopefully that just aids more discovery. So that's been the plan.”
“We still really value the traditional media outlets, but it's also about the digital [activations] that happen around it now so much, just to connect all the dots,” added Walby. “People watching live television is a bit different, but they still watch it – it just might be on their phone on YouTube or it might be on the iPlayer It's just about making sure everyone sees it in whatever form it is in.”
While the media landscape has been changing from linear to on-demand, Walby suggested that prized TV slots can still deliver for artists.
“Olivia Dean just did Graham Norton [on BBC One] and she had something like 40,000 hits on Wikipedia the next day, so it's about doing it the right time,” she said.
Click here to read our awards interview with EMI co-president Rebecca Allen.
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