Melua launches US press assault.(News)

Dramatico is launching a fresh assault to break Katie Melua in the US by trying to emulate the success of a UK W-led campaign that took her to multi-platinum status.

Having scored the fifth biggest-selling album in the UK last year with Melua's Call Off the Search, Mike Batt's label has now taken out a series of full-page colour ads in the New York Times to coincide with monthly visits to the city by the artist for promotional gigs. Each ad is in the style of a letter addressed to "Everyone In America", updating readers on the artist's progress. A similar campaign has also started on the West Coast using ads in the LA Times.

"If we tried to launch Katie through TV in the US like we did in the UK it would cost millions of dollars a week, which we don't have" says Dramatico founder Batt, who has joined forces with Universal for US distribution of Melua's debut.

"We thought about what we could do to generate a similar element of attention-grabbing and realised that press ads like these are much under-used by major record companies so there is a certain surprise element involved in seeing a full-page colour advertisement," he adds. "We hope it will be as effective as a TV ad was in the UK campaign, but much cheaper.

"It sends out the message ...