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IMPALA presents Outstanding Contribution Award to #loverecordstores initiative
By Chris Cooke | Published on Tuesday 8 December 2020
The pan-European organisation for the independent music community, IMPALA, has presented its annual Outstanding Contribution Award to the people behind the #loverecordstores initiative. The campaign was launched earlier this year to support record shops that were facing significant challenges as the COVID-19 pandemic shut down high streets in countries across the world.
The initiative began on social media, and also included the staging of a Love Record Stores Day in June and a year-end Independent Albums Of The Year programme. It was conceived by [PIAS] UK MD Jason Rackham, who worked with Jeff Barrett of Heavenly Recordings, Rupert Morrison of Drift Record Shop, Tony Crean of Fleet River Music, Andy Saunders of Velocity Communications, and [PIAS]’s Art Director Annelise Keestra to make it all happen.
IMPALA says that the campaign was “hugely successful and ground-breaking, driven via digital marketing and social media”, and that the Love Record Stores Day in June “generated over £1 million of revenue, with several record stores reporting a month’s worth of profit in just 30 minutes”.
Announcing that the initiative is the recipient of IMPALA’s Outstanding Contribution Award this year, the organisation’s Executive Chair Helen Smith says: “Record stores play a vital role in our ecosystem and this campaign provided essential support and visibility, in what has been an unimaginably tough yet inspiring year. Jason’s energy made it happen and this award honours that, and the contribution of the whole team. Independent music companies and specialist record stores are essential partners in communicating with music fans”.
Confirming that he and the #loverecordstores team are honoured to receive the IMPALA award, Rackham himself adds: “The campaign was born out of the COVID-19 pandemic and has grown into an incredibly positive movement that the independent sector has driven – the labels, the distributors, the artists and, of course, the record stores themselves. These stores are beacons of hope in turbulent times – we must cherish and protect them”.
