Communications agency W has created of a full-service music department with talent and brand partnership specialist Vision Artists, whose recent successes include Charli XCX & Max Factor and Plan B, pictured, & Carling.

WVA will combine Vision Artists industry insight and commercial understanding of the rhythm of artist value with W’s ability to maximise brand engagement via audience interests.

Client value will be driven through a one-stop shop capable of providing everything from music platform sponsorship audits through to social media activation. 

The department will be led by W’s Kim Machray and VA’s Ronnie Traynor, and was born out of both the appetite from clients and talent, and the two companies’ shared ambition for a more holistic approach to music and brand partnerships. Machray and Traynor previously collaborated on the Bacardi campaign featuring Groove Armada, regarded as a textbook ‘brand-and-band’ partnership. 

“Instead of brands creating ideas and then trying to get artists to fit into them, they should be working together to find ways in which they can help each other. Talent must be integrated at the inception of a campaign idea, rather than the last people to be called on as part of the execution,” Traynor said.

WVA will initially look to develop the two agencies’ existing relationships with clients already in the music space, including W Hotels, Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum and Nando’s, as well as developing additional business from beyond the roster.

Communications agency W has created of a full-service music department with talent and brand partnership specialist Vision Artists, whose recent successes include Charli XCX & Max Factor and Plan B, pictured, & Carling.

WVA will combine Vision Artists industry insight and commercial understanding of the rhythm of artist value with W’s ability to maximise brand engagement via audience interests.

Client value will be driven through a one-stop shop capable of providing everything from music platform sponsorship audits through to social media activation. 

The department will be led by W’s Kim Machray and VA’s Ronnie Traynor, and was born out of both the appetite from clients and talent, and the two companies’ shared ambition for a more holistic approach to music and brand partnerships. Machray and Traynor previously collaborated on the Bacardi campaign featuring Groove Armada, regarded as a textbook ‘brand-and-band’ partnership. 

“Instead of brands creating ideas and then trying to get artists to fit into them, they should be working together to find ways in which they can help each other. Talent must be integrated at the inception of a campaign idea, rather than the last people to be called on as part of the execution,” Traynor said.

WVA will initially look to develop the two agencies’ existing relationships with clients already in the music space, including W Hotels, Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum and Nando’s, as well as developing additional business from beyond the roster.