PANEL: Everything About UK Publicity – Spot Festival 2025

MXD at SPOT Festival 2025 Presents: “THE SOUND OF UK PUBLICITY”

Date & Time: Friday, May 2nd, 2025 – from 14:30 to 16:00
Location: FO-byen, Frederiksgade 78, Aarhus C (see map: https://bit.ly/43PzvFe )
Room: FO-ROOM: 2.02

The UK has always been a priority market for the Danish music industry, yet navigating publicity and media in this large market is rather complex, expensive and demands quite some knowledge and experience. In this extensive panel we at MXD want to help our industry with having a deep look into the ways of how publicity works in the UK.
Join us and meet two key professionals in the field, who work/ed with artists like Beyonce, Chappell Roan, Caroline Polachek and Jamila Woods, and who will guide us into all the basics from this market. From how to find the right publicist and getting an offer, a glimpse on how the UK media landscape operates in 2025, and what the best way is to build a proper campaign, timeline and budget.
We will finish with case studies presented by both publicists for context and inspiration, and a small Q&A session were you can get answers to your questions about PR in the UK.

PARTICIPANTS:

Tom Mehrtens – Satellite414 (they/he)
Tom Mehrtens has spent the last 14 years in the music industry, growing from an intern to currently sitting as the Head of Music & Entertainment at leading PR agency SATELLITE414. As a company SATELLITE414 represents the likes of Adele, Beyonce, Lana Del Rey, Dave, Korn, PinkPantheress and more. Tom’s current roster of musicians includes Chappell Roan, Rina Sawayama, Caroline Polachek, Beyonce, Ellie Goulding, Yaeji, Chloe Qisha and more and outside of music they also work with a variety of leaders in their fields such as Munroe Bergdorf, Attitude Awards, Homo Sapiens podcast and Queer Britain (the UK’s first and only LGBTQ+ museum). They are also a mentor for the Creative Opps Mentorship Programme and a judge for the Youth Music Awards.

Michelle Kambasha – KP Communications (she/her)
A communications and public relations executive of 12 years, Michelle Kambasha runs her own company kp. Communications. Clients include: Qazi&Qazi, Claud, aja monet Kara Jackson, Jamila Woods, Madison McFerrin, Simpson, Silas Short, composers Joy Guidry and Sultana Isham and the organisation The Black Curriculum. Additionally, she is the marketing and communications consultant for the Music Education Council – an organisation that exists to diversify music education to include more people from the global majority and disabled people. Previously, she worked for leading independent record label Secretly Group (Dead Oceans, Jagjaguwar and Secretly Canadian) and entertainment agency Satellite 414.
Michelle also works in journalism, education, and public speaking. She writes frequently for major publications, with by-lines including the Guardian, The Telegraph, The I, The Independent and WePresent. At BIMM University, she teaches the module Diversity in the Creative Industries and frequently hosts, chairs and talks on panels both national and international. She is a mentorship co-ordinator at the youth focussed creative organisation Creative Opps. Michelle also sits as a trustee at the Leicester Print Workshop and Working Class Creatives Database.

Moderated by: Carolina Echeverri – MXD (she/her)
Carolina was the head of Marketing and PR at ANTI/Epitaph Records in Amsterdam, working with artists like Tom Waits, Converge and Mavis Staples. In Copenhagen she did International Development at Volcano Management, later co-founding Skyway Management, representing artists like Broken Twin and WhoMadeWho, and for a few years moonlighted as an Entrepreneurship teacher for the artist line at RMC. Carolina currently serves on the board of Another Life Community, and since 2016 is a Senior Advisor for Music Export Denmark (MXD), where she oversees strategic projects and global initiatives in the music industry, also in collaboration with NOMEX (Coalition of Nordic Export Offices), the Ministry of Culture and The Danish Agency for Culture and Palaces.

Please note the whole panel will be in English, and its only open for Spot + Delegates.

For more information about MXD at Spot Festival please mail Carolina@mxd.dk

See you in Aarhus!
MXD