Katie Rebekah Osborne: Capital FM Arena

April 2012

Katie Osborne, Digital Marketing Manager for the Capital FM Arena and National Ice Centre, talks about her experiences with social networking and visiting celebrities

I MOVED to Nottingham from Yorkshire when I was ten. I was scouted by a local model agency at 13 but myparents wouldn’t  let me sign with them until I finished school, so I started modelling at 16 when I was studying for my A Levels at Sixth Form. During this time, I had a part-time job at Kookai and the companyentered me for Miss Nottingham in 2000, which I won. I went on to Miss England, where I came second and represented Great Britain in Greece (Athens, Mykonos and Crete), Malta and Singapore. By the time I was 19, I had signed to an agency in Knightsbridge and did London Fashion Week which was incredible. I also did a further two A Levels and travelled to some amazing places around the world. Then I was offered a great contract to work in Japan, but at the same time I was offered a place at uni and decided to take the ‘career’ route instead… Uni was incredible- and I was even lucky enough to do work experience as a runner at the BBC and Sky TV. The day I found out I had got the job at the Arena was up there as one of the best feelings ever.

I was brought in to the Capital FM Arena and National Ice Centre two years ago to market and establish the brands online. At the same time they recruited a Web developer. When I started they had two websites, two Facebook friend pages, a Flickr page and a Twitter account. We now have four websites, four Twitteraccounts, four Facebook fanpages, two YouTube channels, two Flickr accounts and several Linked-In profiles and groups.

The first time I was shown around by my manager and saw the dressing rooms and star corridors backstage,it was a really exciting feeling. I remember seeing the racks of costumes for Strictly Come Dancing who were in at the time and all the flight cases and glitter backstage... and it occurred to me how we could pass on that excitement of being behind-the-scenes to our customers- offering outsiders the inside scoop!

Even now, I still get excited when I see a show being set up or even the artists who play here – show days are the best buzz ever - but for a different reason. I know that if we get exclusive video or pictures of wardrobe, make-up, or, better still, of the artist themselves, the social reaction and coverage we’ll get from it, along with the local (and sometimes National) media, will be amazing. When I got a snap of The Wanted, our Twitter and Facebook went crazy- especially when they tweeted us to say thanks!

But, it isn’t that easy getting this kind of content. Sometimes I can wait around for three hours at the end of a long show-day just to get one photo of an artist backstage! And backstage access isn’t guaranteed… I’m not always allowed backstage to take photos. I work closely with our brilliant Events team who introduce me to the promoters and tour managers of each show and then turn on the charm and take it from there! Nearly two years on from covering my first show backstage, we have built up a fantastic portfolio of backstage access for a variety of artists and shows, from Tinie Tempah to Justin Bieber and Strictly Come Dancing to Arctic Monkeys. And of course, the same promoters come back, so if I nail one shows backstage coverage, the likelihood of getting access again is high- particularly as our coverage can often result in last minute ticket sales!!

Sometimes you’ll get access to the dressing room, the stage, the tour bus and even the artist. That happened with JLS, who were all lovely guys- and even retweeted our coverage to our followers. That made me do a victory dance in the office! The guys I work with are used to me screaming every now and again when an artist interacts with us socially. It’s a standing joke in the office that I’m a nerd. I went on the tour bus for JLS, Britain’s Got talent and Iron Maiden – theirs was the best, with mirrored ceilings! I met Justin Bieber after he finished his soundcheck. And Willow and Jaden Smith who were supporting him. There was a rumour that Will Smith would attend the concert, which he did backstage with Jada - as you can imagine, I put that straight out on Twitter!! Vanilla Ice was amazing. I remember he let me update his Twitter on his phone. Tinie Tempah and Labrinth were pretty cool. Really nice guys. That show had a load of last minute ticket releases so I gave this show huge push socially on the day, tweeting out pics of his trainers, stage and basketball rings backstage – by show doors, we had just one standing ticket left over. The promoter was chuffed with the coverage and even gave me meet and greet passes for the gig. The security manager for The Saturdays took me round backstage to do some photos. I remember being in their dressing roomtaking pics of their outfits, when the door swung open and Marvin from JLS (dating the group’s Rochelle Wiseman) walked in! My immediate reaction was to tweet about it. Which I did a minute later after as soon as I left the room!! And later that night, Aston (Merrygold from JLS) turned up in his supercar backstage as well to watch the girls from the mixer. Again, we were given some meet and greet passes for the work on this show and I remember having my photo with Mollie from The Saturdays. She looked amazing, whereasafter working a crazy 12 hour day, I had definitely looked better!!

 

Hulk Hogan was wicked. He told me I reminded him of his daughter. I wasn’t quite sure how to take that one... Lady Gaga recorded part of her Born This Way album when she was here in 2010. She set up a studioin the star dressing room. Michael Buble played ice hockey with the Panthers when he was here. When Batman Live was here they brought the original Batmobile here as a treat for the cast, which I only found out about by keeping an eye on Twitter- so I retweeted the casts pictures out.

A lot of the time, for confidentially reasons, we can’t publicise a lot of what we see. One of our Events team passed a major rock singer coming out of his dressing room singing “I’m Every Woman” at the top of his voice, which was hilarious. The nicest artists I’ve met were probably Tinie Tempah and The Wanted. Stars of reality TV shows like Strictly and X Factor are always lovely too. Support acts are the best as they are always really up for coverage as we can help get them the right exposure.

I don’t really get starstruck – backstage coverage is just part of my job. And I like to think I do it well! I really do feel so lucky to have the job I have- it is amazing. But hard work! Yes, social marketing is fun and exciting, but it’s also a massively powerful platform which requires 24/7 monitoring and dedication- I’ve been known to update our social platforms from 7am, right up until to 11.30pm after a show. Or when I’m on holiday, Christmas Day, and even when I was off after having my wisdom teeth out because we had the One Direction on-sale, which was crazy online! As well as becoming another channel for customer service, I believe social networking also really adds to our customers show experience, before, during and after an event… And people expect it from us! I think perhaps, I’ve created a monster! My motto? Keep calm and carry on tweeting J

The Capital FM Arena Twitter account now has nearly 10,000 followers which is the second largest in the UK after the O2 Arena. Katie tweets from @KatieRebekah, @CapitalFMArena and @Nat_Ice_Centre. Links to all the Facebook, YouTube and Flickr accounts can be found at www.capitalfmarena.com and www.national-ice-centre.com

One Direction

March 2012

JELLY Babies, teddy bears and underwear. Since the dawn of time rock n roll in the mid-fifties, pop idols have had all manner of items thrown at them by fans, eager to please.

But in the case of boy band One Direction, it’s been a most unlikely orange vegetable.

“We get carrots thrown at us,” says Liam Payne.

“I think Louis (Tomlinson) made some remark once that he liked girls who liked carrots. So now they all bring carrots and throw them at us.

“He could have picked a softer fruit (fruit?) but he’s a bit stupid like that is our Louis.”

Or you could have suggested how much you like £20 notes?

“Yeah, we love Rolex watches.”

They have all been moved into a swanky new apartment block in London recently but the riches of pop fame have yet to roll in for the five lads, who met two years ago on the X Factor.

So the cash hasn’t started rolling in yet?

“No it hasn’t yet,” says Liam with a laugh.

“We’re still being paid in sweets.”

With the exception of JLS, One Direction are the biggest group to emerge from the X Factor.

They’d all auditioned as solo singers but judge Nicole Scherzinger suggested they team up to form a group.

As One Direction, Liam, Louis, Niall (Horan), Zayn (Malik) and Harry Styles went on to finish third behind Matt Cardle and Rebecca Ferguson.

All three finalists recently played shows at the Royal Concert Hall but only One Direction have booked a return to the city, at the Capital FM Arena next March.

“We can’t wait to come back with a bigger show,” says Liam.

“We’re going to put on a massive show this time, with all the bells and whistles. And I hope you guys enjoy it.”

The group played two shows at the Royal Concert Hall in January on the same day. Both sold out before Christmas.

“They were really good shows,” says the 18-year-old from Wolverhampton.

He adds: “My sister’s boyfriend goes to university in Nottingham and she goes up there quite a lot, so I know a little bit about Nottingham. I know it’s got a good party scene.”

There’s a pause...

“Is it true that the boy to girl ratio in Nottingham is really different?”

That old chestnut is still doing the rounds then? Three girls for every boy...

“That’s mental!” he says.

But you have a girlfriend (he is dating a dancer from the X Factor) so what does it matter to you?

“Erm, I was just intrigued. For the boys, obviously. I just wanted to clear up an old legend, that’s what it was.”

Since emerging from the X Factor in 2010, One Direction have topped the charts with their debut single What Makes You Beautiful and album Up All Night, had two best-selling books and sold out a UK tour in a matter of minutes.

Last month they picked up a Brit Award for Best Single.

“It was amazing,” he says.

“To be in that room with so many established people and brilliant artists, we were so excited. I mean Example was the first one that we met and I think he such a great artist. The tunes he brings out...

“Rihanna was there and Bruno Mars. Then to walk away with a Brit... we are such lucky boys. The fans had been grafting away hard on the internet and it paid off.”

The single award was voted for by the public.

“We’re so thankful that our fans are the sort to pick up the phone and go on the computer and spend hours and hours voting.

“I actually heard that there was a girl in Sweden who voted for us 134 times. And to do that she had to make 134 e-mail accounts.”

So what about the aftershow party?

“To be honest our aftershow party was a bit pants. I was sat there with my girlfriend thinking, I’m not enjoying this. You quickly come to realise that aftershow parties are all about loads of talking and meeting people.

“Although I did meet Chris Martin. He was a nice fella.”

Did he offer any advice?

“He just said enjoy it. Everyone says the same thing really.”

The day after the Brits they were up for rehearsals at 10am, then flew to the US for a brief promotional tour.

There is YouTube footage of their arrival at the airport in Chicago, faced with a wall of hysterical girls.

It happens all the time, says Liam.

“We have to  be really careful what we say about our plans otherwise we have trouble at the airport.

“The other day in France we had a crowd surge and I lost a shoe.”

Rival boy band The Wanted, featuring Newark-born Jay McGuiness, have also been in the US promoting their single Glad You Came, which topped the iTunes chart. It’s the first time a UK boy band has enjoyed such success since Take That in the mid-nineties.

Says Liam: “They’ve been out there a while now with lots of radio play. Fair play.

“We’ve had a really good start over there. It’s a massive confidence boost to go out there knowing that we’ve sold some records. And you can feel the fans on Twitter.”

They’re back in the UK now so what happens next?

“We’re looking to do a bit more travelling and stuff. Coming back and forth to the UK as and when we can. It’s so difficult to stretch ourselves pout across all these different places.

“We really want to see all the fans but we’re struggling at the minute. It’s hard to be in ten place at once.”

One assumes there’ll be another album before next year’s tour?

“Yeah, for sure,” he says, before thinking about the Nottingham show.

“I don’t know what we’ll be performing but it’ll be a lot of fun. I know that much. I was watching the Justin Bieber DVD Never Say Never recently and it looked like so much fun. I can’t wait to get out there.”

He has since restyled his hair but for a while, like Harry Styles, he’d been accused of copying the Bieber fringe.

“The last holiday I had was the Christmas before last. That was to Florida with my parents and my girlfriend. We went to one of the theme parks and I got recognised before I’d even got on the first ride. It was an English person who picked me out.

“Then the Americans thought I was Justin Bieber. No I’m not Justin Bieber!” he adds, with a chuckle.

“They were funny times.”

So what is life like on the road for One Direction?

“We play computer games and have a laugh with the boys. It’s a bit like being on a school trip.

“It’s like a really bad version of The Inbetweeners actually. That’s kind of how our lives are at the moment.”

Tickets for One Direction’s show at the Capital FM Arena on March 20, 2013 are sold out. Hospitality tickets are still available from £88. Call 08444 124624.

To register for notifications of returns or extra tickets visit www.capitalfmarena.com.

Justin Bieber

March 2011

BEATLEMANIA and Rollermania I get but Bieber Fever? If ever there was a pop star to make you feel it’s time to retune the radio to an oldies station it’s the cherub-faced Canadian Justin Bieber.

Everyone knows the name but unless you’ve a school uniform in your wardrobe, it’s doubtful you’d be able to name one of his songs.

We know he’s cut his hair. We know he’s dating some other pop star we’ve never heard of. We know his fans are called Beliebers.

And now we know he’s an out-of-date waxwork at Madame Tussauds.

This week the 17-year-old was at the London museum to unveil it.

Squaring up to the model, he told the assembled journos and snappers: “Look how much taller I am. I’m at least six feet taller than him.”

Well, when you’re worth millions you don’t need a basic grasp of dimensions.

His point being that when he was first measured for the waxwork eight months ago, he’s grown. And the famous ‘Bieber Bob’ is gone. Not only did that did lose him thousands of followers on Twitter, it annoyed Ms Tussaud no end.

Rather tactfully, the principal sculptor at Tussauds said that, he knew it was dated but “we have just kept it as a moment in time.”

Bieber wasn’t quite done with the japes. Remember the Lennon and McCartney banter at press conferences in the early 60s? Brace yourselves...

He pretended to box with the model and joked: “What, punk? What?”

Brilliant. Say something about being bigger than Jesus.

Maybe not. Instead he got his mum on stage with him, said something about facial hair (the waxwork’s not hers) then made an inane remark about it being “awesome.”

Still, Bieber isn’t for us. He’s for the kids. One fan, who was lucky enough to see the unveiling through a competition (probably, it’s how these things work) said: “It's been the best night of my life seeing him.”

We were just the same about The Beatles/Bay City Rollers/ Donny Osmond/Duran Duran/Take That (delete as appropriate).

So who the hell is Justin Bieber?

Well, a YouTube find it seems.

At the age of just 13 he posted videos of himself singing the songs of Usher, Ne-Yo and Stevie Wonder and racked up more than 10 million views purely from word of mouth.

Organic. At least he’s not another manufactured pop monkey.

R&B star Usher caught on to the buzz and signed him to Island/DefJam.

His debut single, One GTime, was released last year and it’s been bedlam ever since.

The single and six other songs from his debut album, My World, featured in the US chart, the Billboard Hot 100, in the same week.

Since then he’s released two updated versions of the album, My World 2.0 and My Worlds – The Collection.

He has eight million followers on Twitter (only Lady Gaga has more), 15 million fans on Facebook and over one billion views on YouTube. Last month his big screen documentary, Never Say Never, dominated cinema screens across the country - in 3D.

And Biebermania is heading to Nottingham next week when his My World Tour comes to the Capital FM Arena.

As well as hundreds of teenage girls racing around the city on Thursday afternoon trying to find the hotel he’ll be staying in, you might see a Hollywood actor pounding the streets, because Will Smith’s daughter Willow is supporting Bieber.

There’s also a new British girl group called SoundGirl who’ll be opening the show but, bless ‘em, no-one is likely to pay them much attention.

There is a chance the A-list party will be hanging around in the city for a few hours at least because thew Nottingham date marks the end of the UK tour. So if you’re passing a chippie late on Thursday and hear an American voice shouting for “a dozen cod and chips” (Bieber has said he is fan of the British national Dish), then run. Run and don’t look back. Chances are there’ll be a stampede of screaming teens heading your way.

Last week in Liverpool, hundreds of fans gathered outside his hotel and police warned the singer he could be charged with “inciting a riot” if he stepped outside.

Via the medium of Twitter we were able to know what Bieber thought about the whole situation, which -- as he was staying in the Hard Days Night hotel -- some, inevitably, drew a parallel to Beatlemania.

“I can't even say hi to my fans outside cuz of the police,” he Tweeted.

“Some bull. Trying to work it out so I can say whatup to my fans,”

Don’t Canadians talk funny?

He threw his best puppy dog face at the boys in blue and they allowed him to out on his balcony to wave.

But that didn’t satisfy everyone: “One woman was led away by an officer who was seen giving her a stern caution,” reported The Mail.

Fans who are heading to the arena on Thursday to see him will likely a) scream throughout and b) hope they’ll be the one picked out of the crowd to sing One Less Lonely Girl.

Yeah, you daydream, belieber.

The show was sold out but additional tickets went on sale earlier this week, priced £29.50 to £35. For availability call 08444 124 624