Interview: Bravado

Every Day is Different and Exciting

David Boyne Managing Director, Bravado UK, spoke to Becky Ash about the incredible portfolio of artists that Bravado represents, the challenges and highlights of the last year, and plans for the future....

“Universal Music, who owns Bravado, has been fantastic over the last eleven months. None of us ever thought we would still be in the same position nearly a year later, but business has been very robust! E-commerce and online retail have become a much stronger part of what we do, and given the circumstances of the last year, we’ve been able to reposition our model slightly. “Over the last five or six years we have strategically grown our retail business, for example working with asos, boohoo.com, and our own e-commerce platforms for the artists. The grocers, such as Tesco and Asda, have played a big part in licensed product, and the fact they have been consistently open has certainly worked in their favour. “Other areas of retail, such as our great relationship with Primark who are currently not open to the public, mean that we have many projects with them ready to move forward when they can open again. “Bravado is in a unique position, the biggest music merchandise company in the world. By working very closely with the music labels on new releases – for example on Taylor Swift’s latest release this week – we live in the best of both worlds and can release exclusive merchandise immediately. “In terms of the business as a whole, the ‘heritage’ side, which includes artists such as The Rolling Stones, Queen, and The Who, is always extremely and consistently, strong. There has definitely been a trend of people turning to classics in lockdown – perhaps an element of a nod to better days - and we also work with more contemporary retailers on these classic bands and artists, which allows access to a younger audience. Much of the merchandise is fashion-driven, which means we can tailor the programmes towards different diverse audiences. Bravado has its roots in fashion – in fact, selling a black t-shirt in a field 40 years ago! It has always been about both the artist and the consumer. “Now we work on both sides of the business – the heritage as mentioned, and contemporary artists, such as Billy Eilish, Arianna Grande, Taylor Swift among others. Today it won’t surprise you that one of our top trend-driven products is masks! Of course, there are no tours, concerts or live events at the moment so we have adapted to this by live-streaming events. A lot of music is accessed digitally today so there is still an intrinsic tangibility there for the fans, a sense of engagement. “However, nothing fundamentally compares to being at a live event, engaging with fellow fans – the model of live-streaming might continue in some respect, but nothing equates to what we see at concert pop-up stores with fans queuing together, sharing stories, buying the merch - seeing your artists with your own eyes, but in the short to medium term, we’ve been able to adjust successfully onto online platforms. “A huge part of our business is the retail activation and experiential marketing side – one of the most incredible projects we have even done was The Rolling Stones Store in Carnaby Street, which had a phenomenal reaction from fans and the global press. 2020 saw a Bob Marley 75th installation in Selfridges, and we have seen really interesting pop-up stores from Billy Eilish to Slipknot. When we deal with retailers we manage that process from start to finish – we also do some exciting licensing projects – for example working with The Royal Mint for an Elton John coin collection. We’ve worked with Happy Socks Happy Socks for Queen and The Stones, and Dr. Martens for The Sex Pistols. “So as you can imagine there are lots of future projects on the back burner for this year! And in terms of going forward – one of the very thrilling things about this business is that in February 2022, I might be talking about an artist that no-one had heard of in February 2021! “Every day is different – that is what makes my job and the business so exciting.”