Alumna lands sought-after marketing role with Liverpool’s Sound City

Lois Warrington completed an MSc Digital Marketing at LJMU in 2018. She is now the Marketing Manager for Sound City, the three-day music festival and conference held in Liverpool each year. We find out how she got the role, what it’s like to work for one of region’s most popular music festivals and what advice she has for budding digital marketers.

You were offered an internship at Modern Sky Entertainment through the uni, can you tell us about that role?

“I was required to devise creative content ideas, record videos, interview and photograph artists and understand how using that content would benefit the artists’ campaign towards their album, EP release or tour. I didn’t realise how much I loved directing and creating videos until doing this role. It just made a lot of things real for me. I enjoyed making ideas come to life.”

How did you get your current role with Sound City?

“After working with Modern Sky for three months then beginning to start at Vessel Studios, I was invited to meet the renowned David Pichilingi as he’d heard about my work. I’d like to say I got the job because I was efficient in my delivery of ideas and pitched how I could make them relevant to the business. I think attitude and work ethic is very important and definitely something I keep consistent in my role.”

Can you tell us what your day-to-day responsibilities are?

“Mainly, I’m the voice of the socials for Sound City, Sound City+ and Modern Sky Records. The three voices are completely different to their audiences. I think it’s really important to make sure content is clear, fun to engage with and really stands out amongst our competitors. My masters degree really highlighted the importance of being aware of your competitors. Having that knowledge of everything that’s going on in the industry (both music and marketing) really places you at the forefront of the latest insights and helps you conduct the next step of your strategy.”

The digital marketing industry continues to grow. How can aspiring digital marketers stand out from the competition when going for jobs?

“This industry is all about doing and being really proactive with ideas. Aspiring digital marketers need to be creating – anything from blogs, stories, videos, pictures or music. Anything that says ‘I’m really passionate about doing something and I really want to show that I can do it too’.”

Crowds at Sound City. The festival takes place at Liverpool's Baltic Triangle, 3-5 May.

Do you have any insights into the next big thing in digital marketing? How can the skills you have now be applicable in the future?

“I think about this every day. The attention to detail with the creation of new technologies is both very exciting and scary at the same time. I think virtual reality will become a prominent feature in our online experiences and really add a different dimension to marketing (as it already is doing). However, I still think the basic components to marketing will always be effective. We are humans and we still respond to the simple tactics of marketing regardless to how we try and gloss them. This is pretty useful as that means the things I learned will always be relevant. Overall, we just need to make sure we know how new technologies work, with that I’m sure new strategies will arise too.”

You’ve taken part in a Schmooze event sponsored by LJMU. Why is it important to stay connected with like-minded organisations in Liverpool through events like this?

“Liverpool is full of smaller businesses, especially down in the Baltic Triangle. Here, we are looking out for the growth of each other, how we can make an effective community and fill the city with loads of success stories to be proud of. I’d advise people to go to them all and make themselves familiar with the faces behind the names of the companies.”

What is your go-to social media platform?

“I’ve been on them all but Instagram is where I’m most comfortable right now. Facebook is where I like to see what the family are doing and Twitter is where I like to write sarcastic remarks. Who knows what the next big social media platform will be like though!”

Interested in studying marketing at LJMU? Take a look at the courses on offer.

Sound City organisers work with LJMU to provide students with opportunities to gain hands-on experience leading up to and during the festival, find out how some of our students have been involved in the annual music festival.