Playing Cupid for brands and bands

Making it more than a one night stand.

I write about music strategy via my semi-regular newsletter, Deep Cuts. Subscribe HERE

Great brand x music relationships are damn hard to pull off. But when they work, they have massive upside for all involved.

Just look at Post Malone whose brand relationships roster includes Bud Light, Lyft, Fender, Nerf Guns, Crocs, and HyperX.

Bud Light allowed him Super Bowl LIII integration, Fender gave him enormous earned media with gear-heads when gifted the World’s only Louis Vuitton Telecaster, and Lyft made their cars pics of his face.

Without his varied and early partnerships growth would have been much slower.

People hail "brand fit" as the secret to pulling off partnerships but after working both label and agency sides with brands as YouTube, Samsung, Bacardi, Diagio and Sonos, I see the most important part is playing Cupid - match making the brands and artists then nurturing the relationship so the two make each others lives better.

If you're a brand marketer wanting to work with artists or an artist manager wanting to court brand interest, here's my 5 top tips for music brand partnerships.

1. Know your bargaining chips - Advertisers need musicians to push their messages through when ads are largely ignored

Brands' biggest challenge is getting messages though. Adblockers remove display ads online, Netflix and other subscriptions nix ads entirely, and Facebook et al’s algorithms prioritize family/friend discussions that mute branded social content.

Musicians present an attractive means to deliver branded messages with their large and engrossed fan bases.

For musicians, brands have healthy media and content production budgets with wider reach to mainstream audiences, which helps them scale quicker.

If you’re working at brand/band cross section, getting deals done means knowing what each side of the table wants.

What brands want:

• Exposure: Create content (with their brand message) that people actively want to consume, rather than advertising that is ignored
• In the back of their mind: Talent doesn't overshadow brand message
• Partnership requirements: Authentic endorsement, access to artists’ audience
• Partnership added value: Entertainment perks for staff, i.e.: free tickets, private performances. New audience data.
• Creative execution: Coolness caché

What artists want:

• Exposure: Get music in front of a larger, mainstream audience
• In the back of their mind: Break the song
• Partnership requirements: Fair compensation
• Partnership added value: Free stuff to subsidize marketing budgets like wardrobe, production, content creation
• Creative execution: Bigger budget for creative content and media

2. Make sure all parties are motivated

Brand x artist partnerships come with huge teams, often drawing out idea generation and approval processes.To keep things rolling it’s imperative to respect all parties' interests.

10 essential parties in a brand x artist partnership for a record campaign

Further, making sure the right people are working with each other will make for rewarding work.

In an agency/brand/label/talent structure you need these sub-groups:

• Writes brief outlining brand and artist interest, goals, KPIs, and budget: Brand manager (client); Account Manager (agency); Brand Partnerships Director, Marketing Director (label); Artist Manager (management)
• Comes up with creative idea: Artist (management); Creative Director, Strategist (agency)
• Moves idea into execution delivering campaign on time and within budget: Producer (agency); Product Manager (label); Artist Manager (management)

3. Go after lifestyle, apparel & emerging brands for urban artists

If you’re a startup, emerging fashion, or lifestyle brand manager now’s the best time to work with artists.

When rap overtook rock as America’s most popular genre in 2016, it created unprecedented demand for brands collaborations. Unlike rock, hip-hop culture openly champions wealth, riches and commerce (think Gucci, Hennessy, Sprite, Nike, Ciroq) embracing brands without losing respect from fans.

As labels snap up emerging rappers who aspire for brand deals, labels race to court new brand territory putting brands with appetite for experimentation in prime position.

E.g.: Khalid x Hollister’s campaign includes 2 collections dropped in time for holiday season. Khalid’s backup dancers revealed the collection during 2018's Teen Choice Awards.

4. Snap a pic of the artist’s wardrobe

British DJ/Producer Zen Freeman’s home shoe collection shows the artist’s true aesthetic, which helps guide better brand alignment (via Flaunt)

It’s much easier to court a brand when artist has genuine interest. Seeing exactly what is in an artist’s cupboard/wardrobe shows partnerships teams exactly what the artist wears, eats, and drinks.

An Instagram shot showing artist and brand can be sent when courting brand managers is golden, too.

5. Push for creative ideas over pure transaction

I’m obsessed with this Microsoft x Childish Gambino collaboration. It would have been too easy for Microsoft to throw a bunch o' money at a Childish Gambino video and slap a “presented by Microsoft” frame in the intro but instead, the brand and artist came up with an idea much more ambitious, which had a far better end fan experience.

2017 album, ‘Awaken! My Love’ debuted during a 3-day concert in Joshua Tree. Microsoft captured it in VR making it available to anyone through custom headset in vinyl package, blending a vintage medium with new technology.

When you go beyond transaction and build a novel idea it gets brand, agency and artist creatives more invested in the partnership and also has a much better fan experience. Ultimately, fans are the barometer of success.