Creative Corner with Isabella Speight

Isabella Speight is a 26-year-old Senior Digital Strategist at YMU and has been in the Music department for the past 4 years.

At YMU, Isabella works across the digital and content strategy for Gary Barlow, Take That, Kurupt FM, MNEK, Owen Cutts, Dan Caplen to name a few. This can involve being aware of digital trends and tailoring to the artist’s strategy, oversight of digital content, achieving campaign-specific objectives and KPIs.

Isabella will always be sporting black, has her nose in a book 365 days of the year, has The Holiday on repeat and is absolutely obsessed with ABBA and Smooth Radio.

Our recent chat with Isabella discusses her favourite campaigns and talks about the overlaps between visual creativity and music.

I'M LOVING

I’ve been following Rina Sawayama’s journey for a while.

Seeing a fellow Asian just absolutely soar fills me with joy and I’m always excited to listen or see what she does next. I find her extremely inspirational and love how she speaks with her chest; she’s a wonder!

FAVOURITE VIDEO

One of my absolute favourites music videos has to be Guns N’ Roses November Rain.

I remember my mum watching one of their DVDs when I was little and hearing the track on repeat. I remember being captivated by the narrative and wanting to get my hands on that wedding dress. Give it a watch and you’ll know what I mean

BEST ARTWORK

I’ve always loved the Dire Straits album artwork for Dire Straits.

Something about it that seems super contemporary considering it was released in 1978. I feel like you could see that font and this palette anywhere nowadays. Timeless and classic.

RECENT CAMPAIGN

Over the festive period, we had Gary Barlow’s first Christmas album release; The Dream of Christmas.

Considering we didn’t have a typical Christmas in 2020, it was the perfect opportunity to get into the spirit in 2021 and give the fans a proper experience. We launched a fun activation with Alexa, worked with Twitter to create bespoke Christmas gifts for the top GB fans, released a spectacular music video with Sheridan Smith and also got to see some of the tracks performed on stage as we were lucky to have Gary’s tour in the UK go ahead.

CREATIVE VIDEO

For me, the most creative and original music video of the past year is MOOD 4 EVA starring Beyoncé, JAY-Z, Childish Gambino, Oumou Sangaré.

The overall palette of the grade, the styling and the creative direction was insane. So much talent in one video; from the cast to those behind-the-scenes – it packed a powerful punch.