Celebrating Women’s History Month With VAMP
VAMP is the UK’s leading Entertainment PR and Digital Talent Agency highlighting the Black British experience through Black content creators. Established in 2017, the London-based business has helped numerous brands and film / TV studios authentically diversify their content and widening their consumer base.
Now celebrating their 5th year in business, co-founding trio Ruby Jade-Aryiku (Head of Publicity), Christina Okorocha (Head of Entertainment), and Rumbi Mupindu (Head of Talent) can easily be described as pioneers of the industry.
The company was formed after its three founders saw a massive gap in the market for an authentic Black female voice in the TV, film, and influencer industries and they began managing content creator Mariam Musa.
“Managing Mariam, we found that a lot of the Black content creators we knew and loved weren’t visible to these brands”.
VaMP
The thought process from that point was simple continue VAMP.
“There’s a gap in the market, we need to go in and represent them”.
When speaking to prospective clients there was a clear appeal. VAMP was the audience the brands wanted to reach. They spoke their language, were able to tap into how they thought, and most importantly knew exactly how to engage with them in an organic and authentic way.
Whilst the purpose of VAMP has remained firmly rooted in supporting Black British content creators the goals of the company and its founders have continued to evolve.
“we’ve got a team, we’ve moved into an office, we have different monetary goals that we’ve set for ourselves. As a business your goals should change all the time.”
What began as representing Black creatives predominantly within the realms of film and TV has expanded into the other areas of entertainment. This extends to over 70 music campaigns including Tion Wayne’s ‘Body’ from pre-release to number one, songs for Megan Thee Stallion, and work with all of the major labels on a variety of singles, albums, and events.
The Challenges
Being an innovator in any space often means navigating unfamiliar terrains with minimal guidance. This expectedly creates its own set of challenges. For the founders of VAMP outside of battling boardroom bias a key challenge has been identifying and addressing their knowledge gaps.
“None of us, bar Ruby, can confidently say that our friends and family have grown successful businesses. We didn’t know how to grow a team or foster talent, but we wanted to make sure as a company that we were valuing those who worked with us. Hopefully, that’s something we’re doing successfully. Even with money, everyone always says finance and money management should be taught in schools. Applying what you learn to your business and being sustainable is its own thing”
Outside of being incredibly skilled and passionate about what they do a key ingredient to VAMP’s success over the past five years, has been teamwork.
“Skills are learned from each other. It helps that there are three of us, where one person lacks the others can support.”
VAMP
While the reel from the last five years boasts a long list of commendable achievements there is one in particular that stands out to the company’s founders.
“Our biggest winning point is developing a strong team who believe in the same purpose. We’re all such different people who like different things but we all like each other which is nice.”
Looking to the future the ladies are hopeful for the growth and further development of their new podcast network ‘Unheard’, home to the Pressed podcast.
“We’re just beginning. We’re so grateful for the support of the Black British community who want to bring us into rooms and spaces with really senior people which is amazing. We haven’t really put our toes too deep into the white media industry yet and see where that takes us”
Other services offered include:
- Specialist PR and Consultancy
- Talent Management
- Podcast Production
- Event Management
- Influencer Strategy
- Market Research
- Influencer Casting