Executives at The Orchard have told Music Week that Raye is a "creative force to be reckoned with" as her new single Genesis starts to make an impact.
The Sony-owned business won the Artist Marketing category at the Music Week Awards and Dan Griffiths and Annette Collins reflected proudly on a campaign that saw Raye win a record-breaking six BRIT Awards and enjoy success at The Ivors.
The company also triumphed in the Sales Team category last year.
Griffiths, VP, digital marketing for the UK & Europe, said that The Orchard’s win for Raye’s hit album My 21st Century Blues represented “a massive victory for her and her family”.
We’ve given her creative freedom and control, which is what she wanted
Annette Collins, The Orchard
“Raye is not a new artist and she didn't come to us as a new artist, but we’ve hopefully helped her achieve the things she wanted to,” he said. “She trusted us with her debut album, which we know is a massive thing for her to have done, so we’re pleased that, on behalf of The Orchard and her label Human Re Sources, we can help deliver her vision.”
Collins, senior director, international marketing, referenced Human Re Sources founder J Erving in her appraisal of the team’s approach to a campaign that yielded a No.1 single in 070 Shake collaboration Escapism and a No.2 peak for its parent album.
“We’ve given her creative freedom and control, which is what she wanted,” said Collins. “J Erving who runs Human Re Sources has said he just got out of her way and let her do what she wanted to do, that’s essentially what we’ve all done, to help her deliver her vision.”
“It’s not our job to be the voice of the artist, it’s to echo the messages they want to deliver to the world,” Griffiths added.
Raye’s first new music since the album’s release is set to chart at the end of this week and Griffiths confirmed The Orchard has big ambitions for the much anticipated new material.
“Raye is a global artist now, so that’s the ambition,” he said.
“We’ve learned that she is a creative force to be reckoned with and we’re here to amplify that and make her the global superstar she deserves to be,” echoed Collins.
Reflecting on what made their campaign for My 21st Century Blues (which has 120,321 sales to date, according to the Official Charts Company) so impactful, Griffiths highlighted their desire to spotlight each track.
“Raye has had many incredible moments in this campaign,” he said. “Her manager Paul Keen expressed from the beginning that each track on the album would have its own individual moment, and that has stood true throughout.”
Raye is a global artist now, so that’s the ambition
Dan Griffiths, The Orchard
Griffiths added: “We had a big smash hit with Escapism, but there have definitely been moments where different parts of the album have spoken. It’s a very diverse album and it’s important to show off all of its qualities, not just those of one song.”
Even so, he admitted that Raye’s rocketing success since teaming up with Human Re Sources and The Orchard had exceeded expectations.
“We knew that Raye had an incredible talent, whether that’s performing or songwriting,” Griffiths said. “I remember the first time I saw her perform at The Tabernacle and it’s one of those few moments in your life when you think, ‘This person actually has star quality.’ That doesn’t happen very often, it’s a rare feeling to have. If we said that back then we thought we’d be where we are now I think we’d be pretending.”
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