The Orchard's Hannah Celnikier and Dan Griffiths have deconstructed their award-winning marketing campaign for Raye's My 21st Century Blues album.
The Sony-owned artist and label services business claimed the honours in the Artist Marketing Campaign category at this year's Music Week Awards for its work on the singer's debut studio LP.
Released independently via Human Re Sources, the gold-selling record has current sales of 133,621 according to the Official Charts Company.
Speaking to Music Week, The Orchard's senior artist marketing manager Celnikier commented on the strategy going in and pondered what helped the push stand out from the pack.
"The driving idea behind the marketing campaign for Raye was to amplify her identity as an independent artist, especially in the context of her debut album," she said. "The campaign stood out due to its focus on authenticity and connection, coupled with a cohesive visual brand consistently presented across artwork, music videos, live performances, and merchandise. This solidified Raye's image as an independent force."
My 21st Century Blues, which peaked at No.2 on the UK album chart, marked Raye's return under a new distribution partnership with LA-based Human Re Sources, which is part of The Orchard.
Raye is an inspiring collaborator, and it's her vision and creativity that drove the direction of our effort
Hannah Celnikier
Celnikier explained that the firms were able to get in tune with Raye's personality through "extensive research and in-depth interviews with her," which "helped shape a narrative that highlights her unique sound and creative freedom".
"Our ethos revolves around truly listening to the artist, ensuring their campaigns are guided by what the artist wants," added Celnikier. "Raye is an inspiring collaborator, and it's her vision and creativity that drove the direction of our efforts."
She continued: "The key lesson from the campaign is probably the importance of reacting quickly and having contingency plans ready, as things can change in an instant. You never know what opportunities will arise, so you need to be prepared to amplify them when they do."
Expanding on that theme, The Orchard's VP, digital marketing UK & Europe, Dan Griffiths highlighted a viral moment achieved with Raye's 2022 breakout hit Escapism (1,709,599, OCC), which became her first No.1 single, for helping elevate her trajectory "to new heights globally".
"Her highly engaged fanbase initiated the spark by creating a sped up version of the track and from there we put fuel on the fire working with numerous global creators and planning a highly reactive digital advertising campaign that spanned many major markets," said Griffiths.
"In our efforts to spread the flames and momentum, which ended up lasting over four months - and resulted in a No. 1 record - we worked with other partners such as Meta to mirror our efforts across other platforms and spread the narrative further."
When you have a songwriter as good as Raye, lightning can strike more than once
Dan Griffiths
Raye memorably broke BRIT Awards records back in March with six wins at the ceremony, winning Artist Of The Year, Mastercard Album Of The Year, Best New Artist, Song Of The Year (for Escapism) and R&B Act, as well as the pre-announced Songwriter Of The Year award.
My 21st Century Blues also yielded further hit singles including Flip A Switch (278,836 sales) and Worth It (241,689 sales).
"There have been several other tracks from the record that have seen success on the platform," noted Griffiths. "Raye's manager, Paul Keen, wanted every track on the record to have its own moment given the album's diversity and TikTok certainly helped elevate that. It's proof that when you have a songwriter as good as Raye, lightning can strike more than once."
Read the full interview with The Orchard in the September edition of Music Week – subscribers can read it online here.
