This is the biggest week of the year in music. As the Grammys take over Los Angeles, there are a series of major shmoozes leading up to the big show on Sunday. If there are people you need to see, a lot of ground can be covered in one week. It’s great to see so many friends, colleagues, and talented artists getting their due credit. My heart is with (and my money is on) Malice & Pusha for Rap Album of the Year!
Leading up to the Grammys are The Clio Music Awards. These will honor the best-in-class music marketing campaigns of 2025, which is the most relevant event for our craft here at Nue. This year, Nue’s president and marketing visionary Alex Kirshbaum sat in as a juror and reviewed hundreds of submissions. This process featured high-integrity discourse at an in-person judging day. It’s quite thorough, which is one of many reasons it’s an honor to serve on the committee.
Now, with the majority of the winners already announced, the show’s primary function is for the biggest winners to pick up their hardware in person and be celebrated. However, the Grand Winners have yet to be announced. They save that for awards night.
After reviewing the winners and speaking with Alex and Michael Kaufman, the executive producer of the awards, I noticed some important themes in this year’s music marketing landscape. Here’s your TLDR:
Timeliness Matters: 2025 was the year of Kendrick and his monster hit, “Not Like Us,” produced by DJ Mustard. It owned the cultural conversation. Heinz seized the opportunity with DJ Mustard and showed why cultural responsiveness beats scale. They timed it perfectly with Kendrick cleaning up at the Grammys and playing the Super Bowl and literally owned the celebrity partnership of the year.
Sound Elevates Story: The concept is not new. We all know an outstanding song placement is a game changer in all forms of content. But there is a full-on art and science to making this happen. In a category that has been here since the beginning of time, it’s always interesting to see who moves the needle. Here were a few examples from 2025:
Global Presence: It’s time for artists and entrepreneurs to think like global citizens. The opportunities and innovation are coming from all over the map these days, and it’s reflected in this year’s awards.
Music Videos Are Back: Thanks to YouTube, which is presenting the “Innovation In Music Videos” category, there is definitely a renaissance of sorts when it comes to music videos. But don’t get it twisted: The music videos I grew up on—from MTV and BET—are not coming back. 2025 was all about storytelling via multiple cuts and takes of the same song. That’s what works best for keeping your song at the top of the algos. Yamé is the French artist signed to DBS Records & Naïve Records in Paris, with distribution through Believe, who got this right with his long-form album video for Gold.
Music in Sport, the New Category This Year: We know that music and sports is a potent combination. The Clios are savvy enough to understand this, so they built a new category to honor the submissions focused on that intersection. This is a huge growth area for the music industry, especially beyond the big leagues and networks. Sports and music together are a force multiplier, and there is perhaps no clearer way to enhance fan experiences while bringing in more revenue, not just for emerging sports leagues but for the big dogs, too.
The bottom line is: Bold, never-seen-before activations are what get people out of bed in the morning; music is a lightning rod for marketing and innovation and 2025 was another good year for music and brands. The Clios allows you to see an overview of what was above the line in marketing. Salute to the winners this year.
If you want to go deeper and be in the room on awards night, tickets are still available. We have a discount code to help out. Use BEATSANDBYTES and that will save you $50 off each ticket.
