01.02.2007

PREFERABLY GOOD PUBLICITY

WHAT DOES BEING THE MEDIA MANAGER FOR A MAJOR LABEL ENTAIL? PULSE.PH'S VERY OWN JOELLE JACINTO TELLS YOU ALL ABOUT IT

by Joelle Jacinto



ANTISOCIAL, ASTIG


I never thought of myself as a people person. I can be really antisocial when I want to be—my brother’s fiancee can tell you about how I snubbed the bejeezus out of her when we first met (long story). I can, however, be very friendly when the need arises, so it’s not such a big surprise that I was offered the position of media manager at the record label formerly known as Sony Music (now Sony-BMG) in 2001. I was actually working then as the content manager for the website, www.sonymusic.ph, where I wrote features about the priority artists and made microsites for them. Marketing manager Roslyn Reyes, an old friend of mine (no, not the reason why she offered me the job) came up to me one day and said, “Joelle, I have to ask you something, and if you say no, I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

Basically, I had to disseminate info and facilitate/oversee coverage of Sony’s artists. The best part about my new position was how astig it sounded: “Media Manager.” W00t! I was only actually in charge of the Print component of Media because we had AdProm people for TV and for Radio, and we had a webmaster. Still, those three people got all their stuff from me, so I called a lot of the shots. Of course, I had to get my stuff from the product managers; during the good times, we had five—one each for the foreign artists from Epic Records and Columbia records, two more for the OPM artists under said labels and one that handled the compilations and soundtracks. So, that’s the entire Marketing Department, plus Roslyn, plus my messenger and the messenger of the Radio AdProm manager. Yep, I got my own messenger. I’ll say it again, I was astig.

DAMAGE CONTROL


That said, being media manager was hard work. The hardest part was being nice to the press. Yeah, remember how I opened this article by telling you how antisocial I am? I absolutely hate calling people up and there I was, calling people up all the time, being super nice. Though I did make some friends from the press, whom I still talk to today and greet like old friends, so it wasn’t all that bad. Also, I wasn’t plastic nice, and I believe some people appreciated that. There was a time when a journalist from a major broadsheet was asking me for CDs. This guy was notorious for putting down artists and I leveled with him, saying, “Look, I’m not going to give you free CDs of our artists if you’re going to bash them to make yourself look cool.” During my time with the label, he never said an evil word against anyone I was promoting, though I consciously made sure to give him CDs he would like.

I know, there’s a saying that goes, “Any publicity is good publicity.” But not where our company was concerned. We cared if the local industry was accusing Mariah Carey of calling one of our local singers names, and we were willing to sue. We threw out an entire photo shoot worth of publicity shots because the angles and lighting made one of our biggest bands look gay. If ever there was any gossip-related bit on any of our artists, we didn’t put it in our marketing report, which we submitted weekly to the Asian Regional Office based in Hong Kong. They only wanted to hear the good publicity, and it was what we preferred, too. I suppose some noontime show hosts can get so much bad press and still sell albums like hotcakes these days, but back then, we wanted only good things to be said about our artists.

At some point, it was so automatic that all Roslyn had to say to me was, “Joe, damage control,” to send me on overdrive. Like that time Oasis refused to fly here for a show due to rumors of bomb threats. Or when a local journalist upset Tata Young during an interview. Roslyn and I took her out clubbing with her dancers afterward, and I snuck into the girls’ room to call said journalist, and ask him what it was that he said to her that was so distressing (turns out that he told her that she had no soul), and could he please email me the draft before publication, and so on—I basically did everything short of harassing him into writing a favorable article on her.

MAGAZINE BLUES


Another thing I had to live with: I absolutely hate reading magazines and there I was, reading magazines and newspapers on a daily basis. And those newspapers really stacked up. If I didn’t monitor for a week, there would be piles and piles of them in my office. One summer, I tried to get our OJTs to do the monitoring and they missed a whole bunch of stuff I had been expecting. So, every time I’m snip-snipping away without overtime pay, I tell myself, “If you want something done right…”

My worst experience with a magazine was with this fledgling in-store magazine for a popular music outlet. They wanted mini-“reviews” of our latest releases and they told us, “If you want them featured in our magazine, you have to write it yourselves and send them to us.” They didn’t have the budget for freelance writers, and I didn’t have budget for freelance writers either, so I had to write all these mini-“reviews” myself, on top of all the things I had to do. But we needed the publicity, and hey, it was free.

I guess it was terribly hard then because the industry was at a low point and we were on the brink of losing it all to piracy and whatnot and the company was cost-cutting to death. Several of my marketing teammates were working the latest late hours because there was always so much to do and not enough people to do it. Besides my print duties, I was also babysitting bands and artists during photo and video shoots; pictorials fell under me because I would use the publicity photos the most, while video shoots could require press to be there, which I also had to attend to. Sometimes, we needed extras in the videos and I kinda fell into that more than once, since I was there or as a favor to the product manager. But that’s material for another article, I believe.

MANDY MOORE, AMONG OTHER VISITORS


It was really bad especially when a foreign artist came to town: our product managers didn’t get any sleep at all, and we did other things besides what was listed in our job descriptions. For instance, when Mandy Moore came here, I was in charge of her band—the “GRO,” as our big boss Wally Chamsay would laughingly put it. One morning, I told the guys I couldn’t go with them to soundcheck because I had a morning of press interviews and they said, “Why can’t the publicist do that?” Um, yeah, that would be me.



Those promo tours were fun, though. Tiring, but fun, especially when you have all access passes and you have time to park yourself beside the free flowing buffet. I especially loved the promo tours where I didn’t have to do anything except show up and be on call—like for the Incubus concert where all I did was hang out in the coffee shop of the band’s hotel because the promoters were buying us lunch and just rub elbows with the press during the promoter-organized press con. Okay, I’m only partly kidding there, my favorite promo tours would be those that gave me that sense of fulfillment for a job well done—even if I hadn’t seen the published article yet, from the immediate response of the interviewer alone, I was already patting my tired ass in congratulations. For Alice Peacock, it was saying goodbye to interviewer after interviewer and feeling good about the genuine smiles on their faces from speaking to her. It was inspiring, really.

I don’t have pictures of myself with these foreign artists because at the time, I didn’t think I wanted any. It became too much of a job, I guess. I got Mandy Moore on the cover of all the major magazines in the country and I don’t have any proof that I was ever in the same room with her. Though I bet you anything her band still remembers me.

It was the Mandy Moore promo tour, though, that convinced me that media management wasn’t for me. I had started dancing again (I was a ballerina previously, and only looked for a “normal” job after getting injured) and I realized, that as a publicist, I wasn’t writing anymore. When the media frenzy that I helped hype up got out of control, I lost my cool at one of the three major press cons and asked myself, “What are you doing, you poor antisocial thing?”

Sure, I miss a lot of the perks. I mean, instant access to the VIP sections at big events and free CDs every month. I go into a record store these days and gawk at the prices. 500 bucks for a CD?? He he, I know, I was just spoiled after those three years under Sony. Now, I’m on the other side of the fence, I’m the pesky journalist asking the publicist for CDs to feature. I’ve been realizing that I’m nicer to an artist when their publicist is nice to me. I may not want to go back there again, but I can appreciate where they’re coming from. After all, publicity is hard work.



Many a musical artist owes their public profile to Joelle, who, aside from working for Sony, was also Pinoycentral's music writer, and producer of various band websites. She is now PULSE.PH's Main Writer Person, and we are very lucky to have her.

Share this article!

POST A COMMENT:

You must be logged-in to post a comment.



Artist Song Title Type    
Mandy Moore IN MY POCKET Caller Ringtunes  
Akon TIRED1 Caller Ringtunes  
FERGIE FERGALICIOUS Caller Ringtunes  
John Legend P.D.A. (We Just Don\'t Care) Polytones  
Mariah Carey Dreamlover Polytones  
Mariah Carey Bringin\' on the Heartbreak Truetones  
Mariah Carey Get Your Number Truetones  
Mariah Carey Irresistible Truetones  

Click here for more gigs!

What's the best Nine Inch Nails single?


  • Happiness in Slavery
  • Wish
  • Closer


see results