Bianca Edwards has a niche for creating the best marketing campaigns for music artists. As the vice president of marketing for Roc Nation, Edwards uses her artistic vision to help musicians and others reach their goals.
Edwards spoke with rolling out about what advice we should give artists regarding marketing, what she’s learned through her journey, and the best advice she ever received.
What advice would you give to someone trying to improve their marketing?
I have a streamlined approach to doing it because I haven’t been doing it that long. My first opportunity to market was with Buju Banton, and I was on a plane to Kingston. Even before I stepped foot in Roc Nation’s headquarters in New York, I was on a plane to Kingston to meet with his team and the executives and I was just submerged into his life and culture. That’s how I learned how to do it and I haven’t been able to do it any other way since. When I got ready to roll out Ambré’s album 3000°, I was on a plane to New Orleans and I spent a lot of time in New Orleans throughout their project.
When I got ready to roll out The Lox’s last album, I asked all three guys to take me to Yonkers. I was like, “Listen, I can’t roll out the last album until I go to Yonkers.” They took me to Yonkers, they took me to lunch, and we sat on a block and they showed me where they were from, they showed me where other people were from, and it was fire. If I could give anybody advice about how to do marketing, I think it starts with the artist and their personal brand, understanding their brain, understanding what story they want to tell, but submerging yourself in it and understanding what’s authentic to them so that you can help them tell their story from a very authentic place.
What do you say to yourself in the mirror before entering unfamiliar places?
There’s this guy who gave me the best advice I ever received, and I’m trying not to mess up the words, but he said to me when I was freelancing, “Hey, Bianca. Desperation reeks.” I said, “Desperation reeks?” He said, “Desperation reeks. I want you to know you’re a star, and when you walk into a room, any idea that you have, a corporation would be lucky to have the opportunity to hear it and to see it through. He told me if you ever walk into a room and you’re desperate for an opportunity or desperate for someone’s attention, desperate for anything, it reeks, and it never ends well. I never forgot that and I always have a sense of calmness about me, because I know that I have something to offer. I’m confident that I always have something to offer, and whether or not someone sees it or not, that’s their business, or if they find value in it, that’s their business, but never be desperate.
