There was a point when the biggest music goal for most brands would be coming up with a jingle, but a panel of music executives recently convened by the organizers of the Cannes Lions suggests marketing executives should start singing a different tune.
In a video roundtable aimed at demonstrating the value of its Music Lion award, participants not only discussed how music could influence strategies around product placement, but how musicians themselves are starting to act more like major advertisers.
“When Jay-Z speaks to Samsung, it’s a brand speaking to a brand,” said Fred Bolza, vice-president of strategy at Sony Music Entertainment. “Brands need each other’s equity, not each other’s product. Or there’s Adidas and Kanye. That to me is an amazing partnership because you design the shoes, and then you wear them in your videos, and there’s no f—king complication.”
According to Pete Beeney, global agency lead at Spotify, CMOs may overlook the opportunities that aligning with musicians could bring them. He pointed out that on average, consumers are spending more than 148 minutes on devices supporting its streaming service each day.
“Their entire lives are being soundtracked – on mobile devices, at home,” he said. “Music is more prevalent than it’s ever been, so it really needs to have that much more emphasis put on it by clients. The responsibility is on their shoulders to some extent to take it seriously.”
That said, it’s not always easy for marketers and their agencies to find a seamless way to collaborate, said Steve Ackerman, managing partner with strategy and production firm Somethin’ Else.
“We’ve definitely had stuff we’ve done with car brands where they say, ‘Well, can we have the car behind the band?’” he said. “Well, why? Why would that car be there when it doesn’t make sense to the audience?”
Julz Baldwin, deputy head of music at Most Radicalist Black Sheep Music, said a shift is slowly taking place where conversations between marketers and the music industry are becoming much more sophisticated.
“Five, 10 years ago it was, ‘Let’s make a campaign and let’s put music on it. Let’s do a little cross-promotional stuff on the back of it – can we release a single, can we get it to No. 1?’ Those kinds of things,” she said. “Now it’s more focused on, ‘Let’s make music the centre of the campaign, let’s do branded content.”
Bolza agreed, adding that it’s important the music industry works harder to educate marketing executives and ad agencies to make the most of what their field can bring to a campaign.
“If they want to make culture – which everyone in Ad Land seems to say they want to do – we should really be talking (to brands) in a great way.”
