How To... Find The Right Musical Partnership For Your Brand

When virtual reality finally goes mainstream, it’s worth taking a moment to consider the role musicians have played in the journey from basic visuals to fully immersive virtual environments.

Michael Jackson’s legendary 4D movie Captain EO [above] was premiered as long ago as 1986 and, through a brand partnership years ahead of its time, would delight Disney resort-goers for a full ten years before being returned to screens one last time in 2010 following the singer’s passing. In 2014, Bjork made her first foray into 360-degree video, bringing the technology to a whole new audience globally. Just 12 months later she took this venture to the next level by teaming up with Dentsu Lab Tokyo for an incredible 360-degree VR live stream.

All told, there’s a lot to be said for brand/music partnerships. Musicians are natural innovators, not just in their recorded work but in their overall creativity, as the above examples demonstrate perfectly. Make the right musical alignment and a brand can transform audience perceptions. That said, music fans are often as loud and vocal as the artists they support; get the partnership wrong and in today’s 24/7 social media-driven world of constant commentary and feedback, both brands and musicians can face flak like never before. Just ask Clean Bandit [below], or Spoon, or on the brand side, the good folk at Cortana, Samsung or Pepsi.

To avoid this type of negative audience reaction, one of the key trends we’ve started to see of late is brands looking to differentiate themselves by brokering musical partnerships that benefit the music community as a whole, or by abandoning A-list talent in favour of obscure or unknown artists that they can take to a wider audience. Levi’s has long been a strong example of the former, most notably with the Levi’s Music Project, which is geared at delivering music education to young people courtesy of Alicia Keys, Skepta and others.

As for promoting unknown artists, look no further than Fiat Chrysler, a brand that has promoted a vast array of emerging talent, most notably Morgan Dorr via the 4x4ever 2016 Super Bowl, below (not a bad way to ramp up your exposure as an artist). As streaming has taken over as the preeminent form of music consumption, accessibility to artists has been democratised like never before. It’s easy to uncover new songs or new artists via streaming – just look at your recommended artists, check out a curated playlist based on mood or vibe, or even type in a random word into your streaming search engine.

When we teamed up with luxury travel brand Destinology for a recent web and TV ad campaign, we were slightly more sophisticated in our approach than the latter option, but the same core principles applied. Destinology knew that they wanted Kodaline’s ‘High Hopes’ for the ad, but they also knew they wanted a different take on the track, something that would be instantly recognisable but also unique to their brand. We helped Destinology team up with unsigned talent Jemma Johnson from Manchester to record her own adaptation of the Kodaline track, which proved the key to unlocking a creative so successful that it ran for a full year. 

There are three clear advantages to harnessing unknown talent. It creates a point of differentiation, it gives the sense of supporting the broader music community, and of course, it’s cheaper from a licensing perspective than attempting to use a global mega-hit. But while this approach can save brands money, it’s worth remembering that it can be far from straightforward.

Licensing is always hard work and requires experts on the case to ensure the crossing of Ts, dotting of Is, transparency and absolute clarity over rights and usage. With unknown artists in particular, it can become a murky business. They may not have registered their tracks properly, or established a clear agreement over songwriting credits. These days new artists can literally break overnight – just ask Maggie Rogers – so if a brand wants to deploy the services of an unknown talent, they need to make sure they have done their due diligence well before the collaboration goes live.

From underground, community-driven campaigns through to hi-tech VR activations, finding the right song and the right artist is key to campaign success, yet both worlds can be difficult to navigate from a licensing perspective and it’s important for brands seek out appropriate guidance early in the process. Licensing is complex, of that there’s no doubt, but the potential rewards of getting musical partnerships right can be hugely valuable for brands of all sizes.