GrandArmy designs the identity for the world’s largest music publisher

A music publisher signs songwriters, looks after the copyright in their songs and licenses them into recordings, film and advertising. Universal Music Publishing Group, part of Universal Music Group, is the largest of its kind in the world, working from 48 offices around the world. To establish a public voice of its own for the first time, UMPG turned to New York-based creative agency GrandArmy. The remit spanned identity, language, campaigns, motion work and website, which all flowed from a strategic positioning labelled as ‘A World Ahead.’ “Publishing has always been fundamental to the music business, but much of what publishers do happens behind the scenes,” UMPG’s Head of Marketing Alix Kram tells us. “UMPG wanted to publicly define what the company stands for in a way that reflects the culture that already exists across the company and puts the song and the songwriter at the centre.” GrandArmy began by holding discovery sessions with members of UMPG’s leadership team across different functions and international offices. “As we combed through the interview notes and transcripts, a unifying point of view became clear: UMPG was the global home for songwriters and a cut above the rest. ‘A World Ahead’ emerged from this exercise and was quickly nominated as the brand’s tagline.”