The Pop2Life Playbook on Branded Music Events and Promotions | Pop2Life
Date published: 05/02/2016
Nothing is quite as personal as music. A familiar song has the power to elicit an emotional reaction and transport its listener to another place and time. Music is almost an emotion in itself - an incomprehensible force capable of defying our differences and drawing people together.
For brands, music holds power. The power to unite their fans together and create a sense of community. The power to evoke a nostalgia. The power to establish trust. And the power to build consumer loyalty.
But, only when it's implemented authentically.
At Pop2Life, authenticity means planning and executing Branded Music Events and Promotions, our term for the collaborative partnership between a brand and an artist that helps both parties achieve mutually beneficial performance objectives. It’s not just a brand paying an artist a one-time performance fee. Sure, writing a check is an easy way to way to dip your toe into the experiential marketing pool, but it ultimately costs more money and brings less value to your brand.
Branded Music Events and Promotions provide crucial media attention, consumer attention, and, ultimately, brand sales. Successful businesses tap into consumers’ emotions by creating captivating events and experiences that transform their brand’s value proposition.
Why?
Because Millennials and Post-Millennials aren’t responding to brands through traditional advertising like Baby Boomers and Gen X have
Because the music business has been rocked (pun intended) over the last decade and brand partnerships/corporate sponsorships are now embraced as vital relationships
Because negative connotations surrounding brand/artist partnerships are going away, now being seen as smart business moves in which both parties benefit, not “selling out”
Because consumers value experiences and appreciate when brands entertain them
The Genesis of Branded Music Events and Promotions
Pop2Life Founder & CEO, Eric Murphy, discovered the power of brand and artist collaborations in the 90s, when he was Vice President of Promotion and Marketing at RCA Records. Twenty years ago, labels were spending millions of dollars getting their artists played on the radio, but once their song played, nothing else was done to promote them.
“I thought, how do we get our artists front and center on these radio stations and ensure that they stand out?” said Murphy. “Let’s go to the radio stations and give them sweepstakes to promote to their listeners - concerts, meet and greets, private shows, anything exclusive and valuable. We’ll get millions of dollars in free media as they play and talk about our artists’ music plus an amazing experience for the winners.”
Thus, began the Branded Music Event and Promotion model, centered around a one-night-only, money- can’t-buy experience highlighting an artist and promoted on the radio. Murphy presented these valuable experiences to the radio stations to promote to their listeners without requiring them to do any additional work (or pay any additional costs).
One of the first experiences was Christina Aguilera’s What a Girl Wants Weekend in 2000. To promote Aguilera’s single, “What a Girl Wants,” RCA partnered with pop stations across the country to promote the sweepstakes, which included a Beverly Hills shopping spree with Aguilera, followed by a private performance for winners and their guests.
“I said, I’ll bet we get tons of media and significant spikes in sales.” said Murphy. “And it happened just like that. Every time we did one of these promotions, record sales in the included markets were consistently 20-30 percent higher than everywhere else.”
After Murphy left RCA to found Pop2Life in 2003, he brought the Branded Music Event and Promotion model with him. Having executed more than 50 Branded Music Events and Promotions, Pop2Life has discovered the secret sauce that makes these partnerships so successful - uniting the right brand with the right artist in the right place at the right time.
How Branded Music Events and Promotions Work
Branded Music Events and Promotions include three players: a brand, a music artist, and a media partner (or partners) such as radio or television stations. With a three-way relationship that benefits each player, Branded Music Events and Promotions are much more cost effective than traditional artist performance sponsorships.
It all starts with a killer concept and unique angle that creates a definite “wow factor” for the fans. From there:
Apply a significant portion of the budget to create a high impact event in a unique location, which, in return, will require less money to secure an artist
Select the right artist at the right time to reach the right audience - it’s not always the obvious choice
Work closely with the artists’ manager and/or record label to negotiate a valuable partnership
Sweepstakes are the heart and soul of Branded Music Events and Promotions, driving the promotion that the brands and artists share on their social networks and that the media partner plugs on their airwaves. So, once the event’s location, artist, and experience are secured, the media partner amplifies the event by promoting the sweepstakes to their audience to win a once in a lifetime fan experience.
All of these details come together to drive awareness for the brand, artist, and event. It’s a three-way partnership where everyone wins.
The brand gets:
Radio promotion
Press associated with the partnership
“Cool points” (strategic alignment with a popular artist)
Access to the artist’s audience
Data capture
Valuable co-branded content
The artist gets:
Radio promotion
Press associated with the partnership
Access to the brand’s audience
Valuable co-branded content
The media partner gets:
• High-value giveaway for their audience - driving listenership and loyalty
Branded Music Events and Promotions are built upon the idea of creating meaningful, bold, and emotional connections between the brand and the fan. Similarly, the music industry was built upon the idea of creating an emotionally-driven connection between the performer and the fan. Today, however, as artists gain popularity and stop performing in nightclubs and start performing in multi-million-dollar football stadiums, it becomes a challenge to nurture the fan-brand connection. Yes, the fan who dished out an arm and a leg to afford front row seats might feel this connection, but what about the fan in the nosebleeds? Shouldn’t he or she have the same opportunity to connect with the artist? Why should this connection be selective?
Stripped down performances, in intimate venues leaves an emotional impression on attendees, keeps costs low, and creates an air of exclusivity that increases the value of the offer for both the media partner and the fans.
Why Branded Music Events and Promotions Work
When everybody brings the greatest part of their asset, and all parties are getting the best from each other, everyone walks away feeling like they've made out like a bandit.” - Michele Wiltshire, Pop2Life President & COO
By creating a natural music partnership, brands are able to align with a hot artist and leverage their “cool factor” to create a lasting connection with that artist’s fans. Consumers who attend events featuring their favorite artists are more open to absorbing marketing messages because of the positive association they feel between brand and artist.
These partnerships are a win-win for all parties because:
Brand alignments are a key contributor to an artist’s revenue stream, just like touring,
merchandise purchases, downloads, fan clubs, and digital streams
Artist value lies beyond a one-time paycheck
Likewise, for a brand, sometimes the value lies beyond immediate sales
According to IEG’s Sponsorship Report, brands will pour more than $1.4 billion into sponsoring music venues, festivals, and tours this year (+4.8%).
Identifying and Pitching an Artist
Branded Music Events and Promotions work best when the artist in the partnership has a new album or tour they’re promoting and their fan base is comprised of (or aligns with) the brand’s consumers. The most time-effective ways to discover which artists are looking for promotional opportunities are through:
Industry sites: Direct-from-the-source access to charts, events, news, and analysis
Agency partners: Agents have deep-rooted knowledge of which artists align with which venue, audience, location, media territory and... brand.
Identifying and Pitching Media Partners
Radio stations are the most common media partners in Branded Music Events and Promotions because they have large/targeted audiences with consistent/predictable turnover rates. The more turnkey the process is for the media partner, the more likely they are to continue a professional partnership with the brand.
Once they are armed with sweepstakes details that tells radio listeners when to tune in for a chance to win and how to register on their website (like written copy, recorded promos, and web banners) the sweepstakes runs like a well-oiled machine until the winners are chosen and contacted.
Promoting on air sweepstakes allows radio stations to engage and nurture their audiences with exclusive and valuable opportunities. Sweepstakes provide value to fans by granting them unique access to a once-in-a-lifetime experience. They also provide value to media partners, who leverage the contest in exchange for media promotions. Typical radio sweepstakes require listeners to tune into the station to win tickets to the event, plus extras such as airline tickets, hotel accommodations, artist meet and greets or private performances.
By ensuring each radio station involved in the partnership follows the same promotional model over the same time period with the same registration process, brands can create a huge swell of promotion across the country.
How to Get the Most Out of Branded Music Events and Promotions
In order for Branded Music Events and Promotions to make sense as a stand-alone moment in music history, the partnership between brand, artist, and media partner has to be natural, uncontrived, and value-driven.
To ensure that the brand extracts the most value out of these experiences, it is critical that the partnership, sweepstakes, and event make sense together for the fans. Today’s consumers are hyper aware of marketing ploys and can spot inauthenticity a mile away, recognizing a promotional stunt masked as an experience. However, they do appreciate and reward brands who market themselves differently and smartly.
To approach branded music partnerships differently and smartly, brands can evolve their marketing even more with:
Social sweepstakes: Beyond the on-air sweepstakes being promoted by the media partner, run a social sweepstakes as well. Encourage fans to “share and post to win,” exponentially increasing the brand’s social media impressions to thousands of new consumers. Social contests can even continue through event day, with quick contests such as “tweet your way to the front row.”
Influencers: Brands must leverage the power of their experience for consumers and industry influencers alike. Reserve a collection of VIP performance tickets for potential partners, industry newsmakers, and thought leaders, so they will have the platform to interact with your brand firsthand. And participate in a money-can’t-experience, themselves.
When you think of concerts you’ve attended in the past, you may recall specific songs or sets by your favorite artist. When you’ve been exposed to a Branded Music Event and Promotion, however, the entire experience resonates with you.
Branded Music Events and Promotions in Action
Country music superstar, Jason Aldean, took the stage at Nashville’s Riverfront Station to perform a free acoustic concert celebrating AMC’s Western drama, Hell on Wheels. The series tells the story of a Confederate soldier who sets out to avenge his wife’s murder by Union soldiers when his journey takes him to a lawless town along the Union Pacific line of the Transcontinental Railroad.
Aldean accompanied 120 lucky contest winners to the concert venue in a custom, Hell on Wheels train, where the country artist held a meet and greet before the show. The event and fan contest details were promoted on country music radio as well as on AMC. Market research showed that Hell on Wheels viewers were also, largely, country music fans, so by aligning the show with a popular country artist, AMC tapped into Aldean’s fan base to drive additional viewers to the series premiere.
Due to its massive success, AMC engaged Pop2Life to host Branded Music Events and Promotions for all six Hell on Wheels season premiere music events featuring Zac Brown Band, Luke Bryan, Brantley Gilbert, Dierks Bentley, and Brad Paisley.
