Academy 2025 Cohort
Lennon Shale
DEGREE
Birmingham City University | MA Future Media
“A musician at heart, I want a stable job that can reliably get me into the elusive music industry, whilst also being able to prop up my music career through a skill-set that is so, so important to a musician, but rarely obtained.”
About Lennon
Tell us about your academic journey and what led you to Academy?
I was always music first, and I dedicated myself to becoming as skilled of a musician as I could, but, music doesn’t exactly have the greatest stable job opportunities. Having studied music from year 7 until the end of my Bachelor’s degree, I was a bit lost after graduating, so I started exploring new possibilities. I went through bootcamps, mini-courses, and even an apprenticeship, before landing on the world of marketing. It gave me enough of a mixture of creativity and stability that I took up a Master’s degree in it, which eventually led me to Tribera Academy.
What sparked your interest in the creative marketing industry?
I was rather stuck after graduating from my Bachelor’s, and the idea of moving away from what I was so comfortable with in music was a bit daunting. Ultimately, I found that marketing gave me an opportunity to remain in a creative field, whilst also keeping the door open to moving back into the music industry later in life (and work on my own side projects with a very useful skill set most musicians don’t have but need), all the while providing a stable living. Not many career paths can boast all of that.
What made you choose to build your career in Birmingham's creative scene?
I’m a Brummie, through and through. Born here, raised here, stayed for university here. It’s the natural progression to stay here for my career too. Maybe one day I’ll move away to a quieter place, but for now, I’m content in good old Brumtown.
What's been your most valuable experience during the programme so far?
Absolutely the creative and social weeks. I’ve learned a lot through university, a lot in my own time, and just generally being a creative leaning person has helped, but being able to get proper experience around the entire creative process in the workplace has been a massive aid.
Where do you see yourself in 2-3 years?
Realistically, I’d like to think that in three years I’ll be working a stable full-time job in marketing, whether that’s to be in creative so soon after graduating, or not, remains to be seen. Regardless, it’d be nice to think I’ll be set up with a stable job, my own place, a car, etc etc within the next 3 years. After that I can properly focus on where I want to be long term, which is securely working within the music industry as a marketer, whilst also using my marketing skills for my own music projects on the side.
Which areas of marketing are you most passionate about?
Creative, absolutely. I’ve enjoyed producing content in the studio, that’s both videography or photography. I’ve also enjoyed the ideation stages, and I’ve enjoyed creating content for social ads or posts. So I’m happy to do any kind of work in the creative team. I have enjoyed PR though, I’ve always had a knack for writing throughout school, college, and university, so I could also see myself finding some success there.
Share something interesting or unexpected about yourself.
I have my grade 8 in vocals, alongside playing guitar for over a decade. I suppose the most surprising thing though would be that I have Tourette’s Syndrome, which you’d think would make it difficult to perform, but playing or singing is one of the few moments in my life where my tics behave!
Real client brief
academy experience
The brief was centered around the student housing brand: Yugo. They are a global brand with thousands of accommodation buildings across several different countries.
The brief specifically wanted us to create a campaign that communicated Yugo’s role in supporting students’ sustainable values, without coming across as preachy or corporate. Championing sustainability, the campaign was to aid students in meeting their eco-friendly values and cement Yugo as not just the company that owns their accommodation, but as an ally in the effort.
We performed this task from start to finish - understanding the brief, communicating with the client, ideating creative solutions and then making them, social, digital, PR, all of it.
Favourite experience
academy highlights
Even though moving through the departments over the 6-weeks was a fast paced and condensed experience, it still gave us invaluable insight, throwing us in the deep end of each walk of marketing. Personally, I much more enjoyed the creative weeks, and so week-2 (creative) and week-3 (social) were my favourites and the most valuable to me, with week-4 (PR) as an outside option that I found surprisingly fulfilling. It also allowed me to identify those that I’m not too interested in, such as client services on week-1, or digital on week-5, I’m just not keen on the consistent interaction or heavy number/analytical work (I need some quiet days, and I hate maths!).
Academy Experience
KEY SKILLS MASTERED
I’ve developed the skills I already had further, and began developing some new ones too. Getting the chance to further my creative skills even more has made me even more confident in my ambitions for my marketing career. Being able to now say I’ve done location shoots, as well as had another two rounds of the creative process, has bolstered my confidence. I’ve also had my first try at PR, which suits me well as I’ve always taken pride in written work, and I can certainly say that my writing skills transfer over to PR perfectly.
Where do you see yourself next?
ready for...
Creative - ideation, production planning, shooting, design.
Social - trend identification, social content, social analytics, social planning.
PR - research, trend identification, copywriting, dealing with journalist