One Book And Two Authors Explain It All
London Piccadilly during night evening
Music and brands have been intertwined with one another for decades. From songwriters penning jingles for TV spots in the ‘50s to superstars like Beyoncé getting paid a reported $24 million for one concert to open a new hotel, the relationship between musicians and the music industry and brands of all types has changed dramatically in the past half-century, and it is not done evolving.
Many brands understand that music is important to their marketing efforts in one way or another, and there are countless examples of commercials, campaigns, and projects crafted by musicians, their teams, marketing departments and even outside firms that connect the two worlds that have worked brilliantly…but there are likely just as many that have failed.
So why does one attempt land so well while others falter? How important is music to a brand, especially one looking to boost sales or reach a new audience? Two experts who have spent years at the intersection of music and brands–Joe Belliotti, former Head of Global Music at the Coca-Cola Company and Rebecca Jolly, “a global business consultant focused on innovative brand solutions for start-ups and international enterprises across the music, publishing, and entertainment industries” (according to her author bio on Amazon)–worked together to attempt to answer these questions and provide a roadmap to success for companies looking to invest in music.
The pair have just released their book How Music Grows Brand: A Field Guide, and they answered complex queries about this relationship and make the case for music remaining the best bet for a brand to expand its reach and accomplish its goals.
Hugh McIntyre: The title is really catchy, but how exactly does music grow a brand?
Joe Belliotti: It’s a good question, and that’s why we wrote a book on it, because there’s so many ways. Music and advertising and brand content helps extend the reach. It captures attention. Even going back to when Nike used The Beatles’ “Revolution,” right? Everyone was aware of that ad.
If on TikTok, it’s a sound-on platform. 96% of the people on TikTok listen while they’re watching their content, unlike Facebook and Instagram and everything else. So music and sound has played a much more important role, especially for brands to be able to capture attention and get people into their stories.
Then there’s this whole idea of music as a passion point, right? Being present at music experiences for brands to connect with consumers in real life, or to create content programs with artists. At Coke we did a whole bunch of things. We created a digital radio station in Latin America called Coke.fm. We were the biggest radio station in Brazil and Mexico. We owned our own festivals in southeast Asia. We created a TV show in Pakistan called Coke Studio, which spread throughout the Middle East and Africa.
There’s all these different ways music can help not just attract audiences, but also be used to drive business. We put a lot of examples in the book, but at the end of the day, it’s really about figuring out what a brand is trying to achieve and then how music can be part of the marketing mix to help them get there.
Rebecca Jolly: I’ve worked for a long time on various different sides of the music business, whether it’s music media or entertainment, and a lot of what I’ve done is have conversations with brands who have come to us and said, we are having a challenge in terms of needing to change perception among an audience. We want to be able to drive sales, or we want to leverage some other part of the business. And we know that music aligns, whether it’s an alcohol brand or a tech brand or a fashion brand. We know that music is really a huge part of our audience’s lives. So how do we then build a program that’s going to create that change and transformation for the brand?
We’ve seen times when we’ve actually created a tangible shift. We all know that it can be used as a marketing platform through creating events and branded content around music. But actually there’s a couple of occasions where I’ve worked with a brand to create a music program that has actually created a dramatic uplift in sales.
There is so much that can be done here, but it’s very complex. But we know that if we can create some kind of framework where we can then facilitate brands finding it easier to work in the music industry, finding it easier to create those alignments and ultimately get more investment into the music industry, then that’s what we should do.
McIntyre: Why is music so useful in growing a brand as opposed to celebrities, sports, or something else?
Belliotti: When brands do research, music always comes up–regardless of the demographic–as a top passion point. Aside from that, the amount of time people spend with music, the consumption on different platforms, whether it’s through video, audio, or even just following artists on Instagram… Music is also a signal of identity. We connect with each other over music. Music is an even more powerful source of connection than sports or politics or even religion. We bond over music. We form social connections over music. And that is a really powerful thing for brands to be part of that conversation and utilize.
We talk a lot about brands utilizing music because we feel like if brands can use music to drive their business, they end up investing more in the music industry and artists, which is great, and it ends up creating more content and experiences for fans. We look at this as a win-win-win, but it starts with the brands driving that value.
Jolly: I think there’s another reason why music sits differently from other passion points or cultural pursuits. Music has no boundaries. It’s almost geographically-agnostic. I’m yet to meet one–and I probably wouldn’t really want to–someone who doesn’t like music of some kind. There’s a lot of people who don’t like sports. There’s a lot of people who aren’t interested in fashion. With music, there’s something for everyone.
There’s only a certain amount of brands that can be involved in sports. Some just are never going to fit that. But there’s music for everyone. There are also so many different parts of your brand campaign that music can fit into, whether it’s advertising, creating something bigger, or something event or live-related.
The breadth of opportunity also comes with its drawbacks, and I think it frightens people off. It’s very much a, “Where do you begin?” What is the right music strategy for you? But that’s also the opportunity. If you get it right, you can absolutely transform what you do.
I worked for a long time in electronic music, and we actually created so many global campaigns because it translates into every different language. Because a lot of it has no language.
McIntyre: How has the relationship between brands and music changed in the past few years?
Jolly: I think brands have learned how to do it better. There would be so little thought going into it. Like, “We’ll align ourselves with a pop star, and it’s got to work because the pop star’s massive, right?” We created in the book a checklist for how you find a fit between music and brands. Positioning, what space you inhabit… They have to be the same and be a good match.
Also, the last few years have seen them play a more fundamental and important role in the music industry. The model has shifted, as we all know. Music doesn’t make money in the way that it used to, and so it has to come from somewhere else. People on the music side have opened up to that. I think the collaborative process has improved in terms of creating something that really works and resonates. If you get it wrong, you’re going to be called out in a heartbeat these days, so I think people take a bit more care.
Belliotti: Celebrity actors and spokespeople are relatively easy because their whole career they use other people’s words, right? Audiences are used to them delivering messages or stories that aren’t theirs. Not so much from music artists. It’s their words, it’s their story, it’s their background. So how do you insert a brand message into that? I think that’s where it went wrong. Where brands were hiring artists to do something for their brand, but not considering that the relationship they have with the audience is because of them as a person.
McIntyre: The world seems to be headed into an economic downturn, and it seems like it will be harder for marketers to justify paying musicians and to track success. How do you think the relationship between brands and music will change because of this?
Belliotti: I think music is something that we look to in good times and bad times. To enhance our moods and lift us out of a rough time. If brands look at the opportunity with music from a consumer perspective, it’s as powerful as ever, regardless of the economic condition.
I think there’s this fallacy that music is expensive, and I don’t think it has to be. You don’t have to always hire Beyoncé to do a private show. There’s so many other ways to get involved, whether it’s emerging artists or playlisting or even telling stories around music that don’t necessarily take eight figures.
Jolly: The next year and whatever follows will speed up the change that’s been happening anyway. I think it depends how smart a brand is. There are brands that will realize that if budgets are being reduced and if they have to be more nimble with what they do and what they spend, they can do that in a different way. People are scaling back on TVCs [television commercials] and the money they spend on advertising and music associated with that.
You can work with five emerging music artists and create something that’s far more impactful and engaging and resonates with the audience. I grew up in Manchester, and I saw firsthand the music and creativity that came out of the absolute economic on-the-floor situation that was the ‘70s and ‘80s. I like to think when we are in a really bad place economically, that’s when people get creative and that’s when some of the best, most interesting things can happen. I’ve been trying to be optimistic here. I hope that’s how it goes.
It’s pretty hard to scale like a sports sponsorship or various other things. But you can do something really impactful with music with $10,000.
McIntyre: What is a trend, a technology, or something that you see coming up this year that will change the relationship between brands and music?
Belliotti: ChatGPT is reigniting this conversation on AI-driven music. People are worried, “Is AI going to create the next hit song?” And I think eventually, yeah. It’s inevitable, but I think for the time being, it really is a useful tool to embellish music. It may give people who don’t have all the technical or musical expertise to share their stories or express themselves more opportunity to do so. The 808 changed music for hip-hop. Even though we didn’t play drums, we could create a great beat with the 808. I think ChatGTP is a similar type of tool. I think AI in general is really interesting for music.
Also there’s still this convergence of virtual and real life that’s happening. Before the pandemic you had to sponsor a huge festival to reach a large audience. Today, you can have a very intimate event with a small group of people and live broadcast it and create a global experience. I think the hybrid of virtual is going to continue to see traction.
Jolly: Everyone is talking about ABBA Voyage in London. The holograms of ABBA. Some people were over this weekend and they were raving about it, and I’m not personally an ABBA fan, but they [say] you don’t have to be. It’s absolutely incredible. They kept forgetting that they were not real. I think we’re going to see more, because it is so successful. They’re filling that show twice a day at 3,000 people, every day. It’s absolutely insane. And they’re not even real people!
In a completely different direction is the expectation of the audience. It can be for a brand or someone in the public eye. Anything that the younger audience consumes in any way. The audience these days is so driven by what they do beyond just their central purpose. What causes are the artists associated with? How do they use a music platform to actually create some real impact? We’re seeing more and more of that, and I think it was propelled by the pandemic.
Belliotti: Yeah. I love that. Music for social good.
McIntyre: Is there one project or campaign in particular that combined brands and music that you cite as a great example?
Jolly: I have a great example of impact. Every brand wants to do something great and lovely and creative and something that feels good, but ultimately every brand has their bottom line, and there’s often a massive disconnect. There’s always that struggle to connect the marketing campaign to the sales funnel.
I was working for MixMag and our client, Smirnoff, they were just not getting any traction. They were not getting into any of the bars they wanted in Brooklyn. None of the bars would list them. They all kept rejecting them. They came to us and were like, “What can we do to shift our perception?” We started these events called the MixMag Lab, which were tiny events. One was in Williamsburg and one was in downtown LA and we brought in a massive DJ for a tiny audience of 40 people or so and streamed it globally and every, and did it every week.
Millions of people tuned into the livestream every week. It was super, super successful. About four or five weeks after we started the head of brand from Smirnoff called me to say, “After not being able to get into any of these bars, suddenly all these bars are letting us in.” They entered a whole region that they hadn’t been able to get into, and their sales went through the roof. It’s maybe not the most interesting creative project, but it’s black and white. You can see the impact that it had.
Belliotti: I don’t know if you remember Converse Rubber Tracks? So the story goes, Converse created a studio in Brooklyn and they gave this studio time to artists for free. The catch was they didn’t ask for anything in return. They didn’t ask for rights to the music, they didn’t own it, they couldn’t use it. They didn’t ask for the artists to be on their website, they didn’t ask for anything. That’s a hard sell for a brand to say we’re gonna make an investment to do this, but not get anything in return. But they did get something in return. They got these artists wearing their shoes, and they got the fans of these artists wearing their shoes. So it actually did drive business, but the way it was designed was brilliant. It was very altruistic.
Jolly: It’s rare that a brand has such a long-tail view on things. I think when they partner with music, they want that instant return. But that reminds me of a couple of other examples, which I kind of touched but didn’t necessarily work on myself. One is the Sour Patch House. I love the guys who did that. And that was so successful. They [Sour Patch Kids] created this house where bands could crash in New York. All they had to do was post from the house.
And then also obviously Red Bull Music Academy. I think that laid the foundation. That kind of is the holy grail reference for every brand and their music program. Everyone still wishes they’d come [up with that].
McIntyre: What made you decide to write this book? And what made you decide to write it together?
Belliotti: There are so many interesting examples of the intersection of music and brands. We wanted to go a little deeper and provide the tools and the frameworks and the strategies to help brands get there. Because I think that’s what’s missing. Not every brand has a music person. There’s no chief music officer yet, which there should be.
Jolly: We want more brands to do that. So they invest more in the music industry, which we’re both very passionate about. Yeah.
Belliotti: Why together? It’s an impossible topic to wrap my head around alone. When we started talking about it, Rebecca and I, we found we brought a lot of similar perspectives, but also two different perspectives. I had time as the head of music at Coke for eight years and I was inside a brand and I always think brand first. Rebecca always thinks culture first. We should be thinking culture first and we should be thinking brand first at the same time.
Jolly: Between us, I think we’ve worked at literally every single different part of the music and brand worlds. It just made so much sense. There’s not a stone left unturned between us and I think there’s a lot of lessons. There’s a lot of understanding of the complexities and experiences where people have been turned off working with music because they just haven’t been able to understand it or get it right.
