Client focus: ie:music

Organisation: ie:music
Who: Matt Proud
Role: Head Of Digital (interim)

Matt Proud is Head Of Digital (interim) at music management company, ie:music where he oversees digital aspects of the business, predominantly for Robbie Williams.

Deeson Online built www.robbiewilliams.com

What is ie:music?

ie:music was established in 1992 by David Enthoven and Tim Clark.

We focus solely on the management of artists and our philosophy is that our artists’ interests are paramount.

ie:music embraces digital technology as an extraordinary facilitator of an artist through fan communications (so bringing the artist and their fans closer), encouraging transparency.

Our use of digital tech also makes other things more effective and efficient — from ticketing to downloading and streaming.

What is the purpose of RobbieWilliams.com?

The purpose of the site is to be the first port of call for all of Robbie’s fans; it’s the official destination which pulls all content from his vast social media empire together and blends this with exclusive content.

At the heart of RobbieWilliams.com is Robbie’s personal blog; a hugely popular section of the site and his own platform to communicate directly with his fans.

How long have you been working with Deeson Online?

We have been working with Deeson Online since 2009.

At the time we were looking to re-launch Robbie’s site in a much more social and agile way — so Drupal and all of its core benefits (scalability, open source, flexibility and customisation) were perfect. We didn’t have a technical team capable of building something so large and neither did we have the experience of working with Drupal.

We met with MD Tim Deeson a few times (he had been recommended to us) and things clicked pretty quickly.

It was attractive for us to outsource the project to such a capable team whilst retaining all creative control.

What do you like about the working relationship with Deeson Online?

I think between ie:music and Deeson Online we’ve formed a very progressive partnership over the past five years. We regularly share ideas and talk about the bigger digital picture, rather than just Robbie, or music, for instance.

What are your future plans for RobbieWilliams.com?

In the future, we want to take RobbieWilliams.com further in terms of community, social and gamification.

Robbie has an incredibly funny quick-witted and engaging personality and our challenge is always to replicate this ‘Robbieness’ as best as we can online.

Therefore, the next step once we have completed the Swings Both Ways world tour is to begin exploring how to make the website as fun to use as he is to watch live. A difficult task!

Describe Deeson Online in three words

Knowledgeable, reliable, personable.