FEATURES

Setting The Tone with Vincent Quillacq

Vincent Quillacq.
Photo cover by: Welcome To The Jungle
Published Jun 30, 2022
5 min read

For this fourth episode of the Setting The Tone series, we sit down with Vincent Quillacq, Global Head of Video & Audience Development for our Artist Services department. Vincent joined Believe in 2015, during an internship marking the end of his Master's degree in International Business and Marketing at ESCE.

Starting as Video Channel Manager, Vincent was then promoted to Head of Video France, Africa & MENA with the mission to develop the video business in these territories thanks to a team of six Video Channel Managers. At the end of 2018, he joined the central team as Global Head of Video, before taking up his current position in April 2021, six years after his arrival as an intern.

 

What is your role as Global Head of Video and Audience Development?

I set up the video and audience development strategy for the Artist Services department and make sure that it is properly executed. To achieve this goal, I work with a team of over 40 Digital Marketing Managers (DMs) in 15 countries. The DMs are responsible for defining the digital marketing strategy campaign for our artists, ensuring its successful execution and making the necessary adjustments to guarantee the best results.

My role is to liaise between the local and the central level in order to respond to each country's issues. I have to make sure that we prioritize the right projects, that we develop the right tools to allow DMs to best serve our artists. As the market is evolving rapidly, it is also necessary to anticipate and reflect on the evolution of DM's role in the coming years.

What is audience development and why is it important for an independent artist or label?

Audience development is about helping our artists to increase their fanbase on their different social networks (Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube...) in order to give maximum visibility to their projects.

As an independent artist, optimization, maintaining your network and promotion can be very time consuming and require a particular expertise. This makes it very difficult sometimes to focus solely on the artistic side of things. That's why our teams of Video Channel Managers and Digital Marketing Managers are there to support them on a daily basis with the goal of growing their audience and monetization.

You lead an international team of digital marketing managers, does this role change from one country to another?

There are indeed local specificities because culture, artists, key platforms, market maturity or consumption habits are not the same everywhere. My role is to give direction to local teams, but there is no single path to the same goal. For example, in India or Southeast Asia, YouTube sometimes represents more than 70% of artists' revenues, so it is necessary to have a different approach and a deeper expertise on this platform.

I always have a specific action plan for each country, and to define and adjust this plan, I have to exchange with the experts for each market: the local teams. Knowing how to adapt and be flexible is essential in our business, and I am lucky to work with a great team.

What do you consider to be your greatest success during these 7 years with Believe?

My greatest achievement is surely to have actively participated in the growth of Believe's video department over the years. We went from a dozen Channel Managers in 2015 to more than 60 in 2022!

I am also very proud to have worked on projects of artists I admire like Stromae, MC Solaar, Oxmo Puccino, Petit Biscuit, Naâman; or with partners like La Blogothèque, Play Two, Scorpio Music or Radio Nova.

Has the video market evolved since you started at Believe?

Yes, the video market has evolved and keeps evolving. YouTube is still the main player when it comes to video but in the last few years, we have seen other players emerge. With the new short video format that sometimes brings huge visibility to our artists, TikTok is probably the best example. But we also have partnerships with Facebook, Amazon Music or Apple Music to deliver our video clips, or even with Spotify to deliver Canvas (8 second visual loops appearing when a title is played).

I am convinced that video will become more and more important in the coming years and that it will become the key element, both for platforms and artists. Platforms have understood that video allows a stronger engagement from fans, and I wouldn't be surprised to see initially audio-only streaming platforms expand to video in the future.

What challenges make you want to come to work in the morning?

Thinking about how to best help artists in such a changing environment and anticipating their needs in the coming years remains the most motivating challenge for me. It's pretty amazing to think that you can make a difference at your level and, as an artist myself outside of Believe, I can't help but be motivated by that.

Join us on Welcome To The Jungle's Believe space to learn more about our business and our environment. You'll find a wide range of information about our team, the tech tools we work with on a daily basis and, of course, a list of all the current job openings.