Andre Carroll, director of brand partnerships at Sony Music 4th Floor Creative, has dedicated the company's Music Week Awards win to his colleague Precious Omoregie, who was unable to attend last week's show.
Backstage after accepting the award for Music & Brand Partnership for Koffee's festive partnership with H&M, Carroll was quick to praise Omoregie's work on the project, which came after Koffee won a Grammy.
The Jamaican star, who is yet to release her debut album, is rising fast, and Carroll told us that winning the Music Week Award represents a milestone in her journey. Find out why in our winners' Q&A below.
How did the project come about in the first instance?
“We’ve got a long history of working with the H&M team and the Ology team in particular, which is one of their agencies. They came to us about trying to find talent for the Christmas campaign. Koffee is an incredibly culturally important artist for us who’s done incredible things. It launched just before Christmas last year. We knew that Koffee had had a great year with the release of Toast and her EP, so it was perfect timing for her to be involved. The ad creative lent itself to a global voice and she definitely has that. And working with the Columbia team, who’ve done an incredible job on Koffee in the UK, was great, for us to find a moment to profile her in the way that she deserves.
Was there a tangible boost for Koffee?
“Definitely. What it does for us is position her as a global artist. Winning the Grammy was incredible and was a flagship moment in the campaign, which has been led here by Joel Quartey. To be able to follow that with the alignment with H&M, which is a huge global brand, was really important to us and helped with perception of her as an artist. Koffee is one of the most important artists on our label and being able to work alongside her is a big part of what we do.”
Finally, would you like to send a message to Precious?
“She was the forefront voice of the campaign. She is loved by everyone on both label and management sides, which made it really easy for her to be able to navigate things. She led the charge and she understands the cultural relevance of Koffee in a way that most people would never get. So for her to have that understanding and backdrop meant that she could do her job 10 times better. She does that with any artist she works with, she’s incredible. She’s my partner in crime, so to be able to accept this on her behalf after I won a couple of years ago and she accepted on my behalf is almost poetic. [Laughs]. Whenever one of us is not here, we’ll win, that’s the plan.”
PHOTO: Paul Harries
FOLLOW 
