Strategist, Artist Insights in London

Music is Universal. It's the passionate and dedicated team at Universal Music who help make us the world's leading music company. From A&R to finance, legal to digital, sales to marketing, Universal Music is the place to grow and develop your career within a truly commercial and innovative business that leads in everything it does.

Everyone is welcome to apply for our roles, and we are determined to ensure that no applicant or employee receives less favourable treatment because of gender, race, disability, sexual orientation, religion, belief, age, marital status, background, pregnancy, or caring responsibilities. We also recognise the importance of diversity of thought within our teams and are fully committed to embracing the talents of people with autism, dyslexia, ADHD, and other forms of neurocognitive variation. We will always seek to make appropriate adjustments to recruitment, workplaces, and work processes to be fully inclusive to people with different needs and working styles.

UMG's Global Insight team manages the most powerful and effective data sets and research capabilities in the music industry. As well as utilising sales, commercial/partner data, and social media analytics, the Global Insight team manages extensive consumer data from around the world, delivering unique detail into evolving attitudes and behaviours of today's music consumers. Global Insight is a 15+ staff team, with presence in London, New York and Los Angeles. This role is based in London reporting directly to Senior Manager, Artist Insights & Strategy (based in London).

The Artist Insights & Strategy team leads strategic insights and research for Universal Music Group's esteemed record labels and business units. Our department supports marketing, commercial, and A&R label teams for a range of international artist brands; from emerging acts to global superstars to catalog acts. Beyond research that informs artist campaigns & marketing, our team is also focussed on thought leadership pieces, identifying broader trends in the media and marketing landscape that can help our artists innovate and stay ahead of the curve.

A key focus of this role will be to support a selection of labels under UMG spanning multiple genres (pop, hip hop/rnb, country, latin, k-pop etc.). A passion and broad knowledge of artists & music across the board is key.

Key Responsibilities

• On a day-to-day basis, you will be researching and tracking the audience of our artists, dissecting artist brands to uncover their unique DNA, and exploring audience perceptions and engagement across key markets to derive actionable insights.
• Involvement in projects from start to finish, offering analytical and consultative support. There will be a heavy focus on data analysis and artist brand exploration.
• Be an enthusiastic and pro-active team player.
• Be fanatical about music and pop culture, with an ability to speak confidently about artists & music.
• Think beyond the data, and layer insights with creative and strategic thinking in order to build exciting and meaningful narratives.
• Present to teams across the business, directly influencing release campaigns, marketing strategies, and the media planning process.

Skills and Experience Required

• Core research expertise is required:
• Social analytics (proven experience with social listening tools; tracking brand sentiment and unearthing actionable insights from this data).
• Creator culture (deep understanding of the short form video landscape, and experience analysing trends and subcultures across TikTok, Reels, and Shorts).
• Qualitative research (focus group/interview set-up, recruitment spec development, discussion guide writing, moderation etc).
• Comfortable with large data sets with an ability to bring data to life in an intelligent and compelling way (storytelling is key).
• Conducting analysis using multiple data sources and bringing these together to form a cohesive narrative (e.g. streaming data, commercial/sales data, social media analytics, cultural trends, desk research).
• Quantitative research (survey set-up + design, scripting, cross tab analysis, data visualization).
• Additionally:
• Strong proven track record in a client facing insights & strategy focussed role. Music background highly valued.
• Brand positioning experience – ability to apply this to our artists to uncover their DNA, identify key differentiators/weaknesses, and to determine where they sit in the market.
• The ability to create clear, structured, and visually compelling Keynote presentations.
• Strong communication and presentation skills. This role will require the candidate to deliver reports to labels/artist managers in a compelling way, and to answer ad-hoc questions in a considered manner.
• The candidate will be able to take a holistic approach when responding to client questions, utilizing the team's macro learnings and industry knowledge.
• Confident, highly numerate, pro-active, creative individual able to work in a team environment.
• The ability to multi-task in a fast-paced environment. Be able to prioritize, work to tight deadlines and have a strong sense of initiative.
• Naturally curious and inquisitive about consumer behaviour.
• Strong attention to detail, organisation skills, project management.
• Proficiency in MS Pack Office (Excel expertise is essential) and social analytics (e.g. Meltwater).
• Nice to Have:
• SQL knowledge.
• Basic/advanced knowledge of the Adobe suite including Photoshop (or equivalent) is a plus.
• Ability to speak a second language.

Bonus Tracks: Your Benefits

• Group Personal Pension Scheme (between 3% and 9%).
• Private Medical Insurance.
• 25 paid days of annual leave.
• Interest Free Season Ticket Loan.
• Holiday Purchase scheme.
• Dental and Travel Insurance options.
• Cycle to Work Scheme.
• Salary Sacrifice Cars.
• Subsidised Gym Membership.
• Employee Discounts (Reward Gateway).

Just So You Know…

The company presents this job description as a guide to the major areas and duties for which the jobholder is accountable. However, the business operates in an environment that demands change and the jobholder's specific responsibilities and activities will vary and develop. Therefore, the job description should be seen as indicative and not as a permanent, definitive, and exhaustive statement.