Putting music at the heart of your brand
Kanye West once said, “My greatest pain in life is that I will never be able to see myself perform live.” As controversial as the man may be, he knows a thing or two about promotion. Moving from Nike to adidas in December 2013, Kanye has been given more creative freedom, a smart move as his Yeezy Boost fashion line notoriously sells out in minutes. Much of the success can be contributed to Kanye’s own hype and celebrity network. He’s integrated the brand into the fabric of everything he does, including his music. The New York Times wrote about Fashion Week “The show of the day is, without question, Kanye West’s. A lucky few thousand will pack Madison Square Garden to see his latest Yeezy collection and hear the premiere of Mr. West’s new album.”
To recognise the most creative collaborations within the music industry, Cannes Lions 2016 has introduced a new category – the Entertainment Lions for Music. “As the branded space integrates with entertainment, a Lion will be as important as a Grammy, Oscar or Emmy,” said Josh Rabinowitz, SVP and Director of Music at Grey Worldwide.
Brand collaboration is more than putting a face to a brand in exchange for some cash. Last month Gwen Stefani partnered with retailer Target to film the world’s first live music video during The Grammy Awards ad break. Pre-sales of the new album at Target surpassed her label’s expectations and the activation boosted Target’s social output, with the brand’s Facebook Live Campaign hitting over 3 billion media impressions. The coming together of brands, agencies and entertainment companies is about elevating content into the cultural mainstream, breaking new creative boundaries and achieving commercial success for all parties.
Read on for examples…
Pot Noodle’s new campaign #YOUCANMAKEIT launched with a spot about a young lad who dreams of success in the boxing ring. ‘Ring Lad’s’ big moment needed a big galvanising song that would resonate with the Pot Noodle audience. In keeping with their ‘you can make it’ messaging the brand gave rising stars Raylo the opportunity to create something massive. And they did. The song they produced was so good that it won them a record deal.
With further help from the brand they made a music video, with no noodle branding, which went on to achieve millions of views and showed the Pot Noodle audience that it is possible to ‘make it.’ Pot Noodle is the UK’s number one instant hot snack. It’s also one of Britain’s most iconic brands. But over the years, it had become associated with ‘slacker’ culture. While this had worked brilliantly for previous generations, it was out of touch with today’s 18-24s.
Rather than associate the quick and easy preparation with laziness, the brand flipped it to be about saving time. Perfect for the go-getting generation.
Agency: Lucky Generals, London
Clinique collaborated with pop singer Zara Larsson for their latest lipstick campaign. PlayWithPop.com lets the viewer move between four different versions of her song Lush Life. Each version celebrates a different make-up look and alternative remix of the song to match. Released to the music press first, the work is pitched as an interactive music video, and is the first of its kind to run on a smartphone.
Agency: W+K New York
To help launch NEO to an audience of music fans who don’t watch TV, adidas created 12 interactive short films that personify a different aspect of the #liveyourstyle philosophy. Clicking on the videos will bring up all the adidas NEO label clothing featured on the models, and offer the chance to purchase each item or like it on Facebook. To help build their fan base NEO partnered with Justin Bieber & Selena Gomez on two further interactive lookbooks.
Agency: North Kingdom , Stockholm
Libratone approached British drum & bass act SIGMA to write a new track inspired by the symbol of the Danish speaker brand – a nightingale. Their new 360° speaker, designed to be put in the centre of a room, formed the concept for the music video. Fans around the world were asked to pitch their ideas for things to do whilst listening to the track. Chosen ideas were filmed with a 360° camera, which was placed on top of the speaker. The end result is “Nightingale” - a world-first 360° interactive music video shot by fans. The track was commercially released and added to SIGMA’s debut album Life.
Agency: Antidote, London
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