2021 Outlook with Fienna Lai, Brand Partnerships

2020 wasn’t the year we were expecting and with a dark start to 2021, we have sat and had a chat with our department heads here at Liberty Music PR about what the future for their department looks like and top tips for musicians for the coming year.

Fienna is part of our up our brand partnerships team.

What does a typical day look like in your department?

Week to week, a typical day can change a lot depending on the amount of conversations that are active with brands. Everyday outreach is key, reaching out and introducing Liberty Music PR to brands, this then leads to getting on calls with these brands, from Marketing Executives, to CEO’s learning how we can collaborate together to benefit both the brand and our artists. We then create bespoke proposals tailored to what the brand wants, and how our artists and activations can achieve their goals. The best part is obviously when we have collaborations confirmed, managing and liaising with both the artists and brands, and watching the outcome!

What do you see as the future for brands working with musicians?

The future of brand collaborations will definitely be a hybrid of digital and physical activations moving out of lockdown. With that being said, for musicians specifically, brands are wanting to show support for emerging artists, so there’s more chance for the up and coming talent to secure these brand partnerships, especially within the digital space.

How would you describe the service we offer?

The brand department is still such a young department, and is ever changing to suit the direction retailers are going within the current climate, but it’s such an exciting avenue to be able to partner our independent artists with these big name brands such as River Island, Eastpak, Tesla etc, and starting of that relationship for them.

What’s a piece of advice everyone needs to know about brand partnerships?

If you’re an artist looking to work with your favourite brands, I would say have your professional brand in place, have a strong voice on your socials and interact with your audience as much as possible. Brands are drawn to artists/creatives that have a distinctive image and message that is easy to see from a glance, it’s not all about the numbers/following anymore (but of course it helps). Also, be mindful of saying yes to every brand that comes your way, try and only work with the ones that make sense for your professional brand and will be organic and authentic for you and your audience.

How key do you think brand partnerships can be for an up and coming artist?

For emerging artists, brand partnerships are great, whether they are just gifting opportunities to bigger support from brands, building those relationships are key especially early on in their careers, as those brands are going to be the ones still there supporting them when they establish themselves within the industry.

If you would like any further information on our brand partnerships service, click here

Written by Natasha Hurford