Monocle’s editor in chief Tyler Brûlé and culture editor Robert Bound speak to Jakob Lusensky about the book Sounds Like Branding and the relationship between music and marketing.
Listen to the Monocle Weekly, edition 113, online or download the programme here and you’ll hear Monocle’s editors, amongst them Tyler Brûlé, speak with Jakob Lusensky on how music and marketing have blended together, how it has affected artists, the future for music branding, and much more (if you want to go directly to this, skip to 38:00).
About the book Sounds Like Branding
Sounds Like Branding is an ‘ear-opening’ journey through the history of music and marketing, from the humble jingle and the arrival of Muzak to Michael Jackson’s groundbreaking association with Pepsi in the 1980s and music branding embraced today by global brands such as Nike, Starbucks, Levi’s and Coca-Cola.
“Jakob Lusensky has done a great service to all marketers by writing Sounds Like Branding. Every company should have a music strategy. Some do; most don’t. This book shows you how. It’s a five step programme – a very short stairway to heaven.” Kevin Roberts, CEO Worldwide, Saatchi & Saatchi
The Monocle Weekly is a mix of smart discussion, previews, field reports and feature interviews. From Monocle’s studio in London and their bureaux in Tokyo and New York, Monocle’s editors focus on the stories shaping the week ahead.
Culture editor Robert Bound is a regular with his weekly playlist of artists established and obscure and editor Andrew Tuck is at hand to moderate debates and pull in contributions from our correspondents in far flung corners of the world. The Monocle Weekly is hosted by editor in chief Tyler Brûlé.
The Smirnoff brand are bringing back The Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange Project, building on the great success of 2010’s global initiative. Like last year, the vodka brand is encouraging its fans to share what makes their nightlife original and vote for the best ideas. These will be implemented on November 12, the big night. This time, 50 countries all around the globe will be involved in the night swap.
These one-of-a-kind nightlife parties, which will include music, drinks, places, tastes and dances, will be hosted at special venues: Just like in 2010, people from one country will contribute ideas for a party to be arranged in another country. Last year, the programme was launched in 14 countries (the USA, Australia, Canada, the GB, Thailand, Brazil, and Germany, to name but a few) in 10 different time zones, engaging 2 million people through Smirnoff Facebook fan pages. This year Smirnoff decided to give an opportunity to say ‘I was there’ to as many as 10 million fans, by extending the cultural exchange project to include 50 countries in total. Some of the countries involved are Australia, Brazil, China, Colombia, Dubai, Germany, Ghana, Great Britain, Israel, Serbia, US and Vietnam (find the full list in the press release)
This year, the Smirnoff brand also partnered with Madonna in a search for “the Most Original Nightlife in the Universe”, to find the best dancer to join Madonna’s next tour.
Revellers worldwide are invited to co-create and participate in the Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange Project by contributing ideas on what makes their local nightlife distinct in the categories of drinks, dance, fashion, music, places, and more creating a nightlife cocktail of unique events. The most inspiring suggestions from each region will be captured online and exchanged with another country on November 12, when the night swap takes place.
By participating online, fans will have the chance to win a place at one of the global events or experience another country’s party at a Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange Project event in their own city.
Microsoft wanted its agency, Droga5, to help leverage the usage of the Bing search engine. To expand the search reach, Bing needed to become more culturally relevant and appeal to a younger audience. The launch of Jay-Z’s autobiography ‘Decoded’ was used to do this. The book’s 350 pages were individually placed in a plethora of different locations, over 13 cities all around the world. The chosen location for each page was contextually relevant to the page itself, meaning that you could literally walk through the life of Jay-Z. But the location of each page could only be found by using Bing search and maps.
For the ‘Decode Jay-Z with Bing’ campaign agency Droga5 won both the Outdoor and Titanium and Integrated Grand Prix at Cannes Lions 2011.
“We loved its bravery, its boldness, its innovation,” commented Cannes Lions’ Titanium and Integrated Jury President Bob Scarpelli, chairman of DDB Worldwide. “It’s immersive. It’s interactive. It’s creating conversations with customers. It gave millions a reason to use Bing. They put every page of Jay-Z’s new autobiography out in the world every day for a month in 13 major cities in the world. Fans could walk through J-Z’s life.”
The unique partnership brought Bing to the forefront of pop-culture and gave millions of Jay-Z fans a reason to use Bing Search and Maps.
The results, except from winning the Grand Prix for Outdoor as well as Titanium and Integrated at Cannes Lions 2011:
The average online player engagement was over 11 minutes per visit.
Jay-Z’s Facebook fans grew by one million during the campaign launch.
Decoded went straight to the New York Times Best Seller list at #2 its first week.
Bing.com saw an 11.7% increase in visits the month of the campaign (Bing’s only form of marketing during this period).
Bing.com entered the top ten most visited sites in the US.
Bing earned 1.1 billion global media impressions.
Bing’s ‘intent to use’ scores were higher than any other Bing marketing initiative ever according to ComScore. Online Buzz and Social metrics were above average for any Bing marketing program according to Nielsen BuzzMetrics.
This project is truly an excellent example of how music branding can work when done correctly.
Read more about the case and other Cannes Lions winners here.
In March 2010, ABSOLUT Vodka teamed up with Jay-Z to release a 14-minute documentary about the musician’s life and work, and now it’s announcing another two-part film starring rapper and record producer Cee Lo Green.
The first chapter of their work titled ‘Cee Lo Distilled’ will appear on the brand’s Facebook page on June 27. As for now, ABSOLUT launched a 1’45’’ teaser, which previews the upcoming film produced by the brand in cooperation with The Fader. The new creation is taking viewers into the world of the celebrated rapper as he tells about his family and childhood, shares on what ‘being truly exceptional’ in today’s world of music means to him and what inspires and influences his work. In general, the movie seems to be just a new piece revolving around another performer—but since this musician has a unique charisma and talent, the film is really worth seeing. The second and the final chapter of the documentary will go online on July 6.
The book Sounds Like Branding is an ‘ear-opening’ journey through the history of music and marketing, from the humble jingle and the advent of Muzak to Michael Jackson’s groundbreaking association with Pepsi in the 1980s and the music branding embraced today by global brands such as Nike, Starbucks, Levi’s and Coca-Cola.
Interested in a sneak preview of the book? Download a free excerpt of Sounds Like Branding for a tweet and read about why you should market your brand through music, the music stairway, strategies for working with music and more!
Get a free excerpt
Sounds Like Branding is published by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (A&C Black Publishers Ltd) in the UK on the 18th of July and can be pre-ordered below. Order Sounds Like Branding at Amazon.co.uk
For more info about the book, check out The Book page.
Everyone loves music, but not everyone loves advertising. Faced with increasingly impatient and fickle customers, some of the world’s most famous brands have been turning to music and artists to engage the public in a way they could never do alone. Why? Because music speaks to our emotions, brings people together and starts conversations. If used correctly, it can turn a one-off purchaser into a loyal fan.
“Jakob Lusensky has done a great service to all marketers by writing Sounds Like Branding. Every company should have a music strategy. Some do; most don’t. This book shows you how. It’s a five step programme – a very short stairway to heaven.” - Kevin Roberts, CEO Worldwide, Saatchi & Saatchi
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (A&C Black Publishers Ltd) will publish the English version of Sounds Like Branding in the UK on the 18th of July.
Eric Welles Nyström, member of the Heartbeats Movement and our man at this year’s Coachella, gives you his ‘Top Lists’ in regards to bands and brands performing at the music festival in California.
Best Brand Investments
Adidas & Jeremy Scott… Following last year’s success at Frank Sinatra’s old house in Palm Springs, this year’s party was by far the most anticipated and desired of all offsite events. Starting with a secret shuttle transportation from Palm Spring’s Museum of Art (another renown piece of architecture in the city) the party was hosted at Elvis Presley’s old estate (!!!), the night went down with Robyn DJing, Kanon Organic Vodka drinks and an installation of Jeremy Scott’s Teddy Bears that made people go nuts at the end. In short, the perfect brand event, put together by LA agency People’s Revolution.
The Creator’s Project, sponsored by Vice and Intel… By far the biggest and most complex initiative of any brand-related events at Coachella, it was executed just as well onsite as it is communicated online. Besides numerous impressive art installations across the festival grounds, the initiative also featured onstage collaborations with Animal Collective, Interpol and Arcade Fire, and incredible visual work beside the stages. On top of that, they even booked a number of young and yet equally cool bands from China and Brazil.
3 Best Performances
Robyn and her non-stop, breathtaking live performance… robyn.com
Nosaj Thing and his incredible visual show… nosjathing.com
Magnetic Man, who’s tight video and audio performance blew everyone’s mind away (including bystanders), in similar style to Nosaj Thing. myspace.com/magneticman
3 Best artist styles
The one and only Erykah Badu…
Twin Shadow’s George Lewis Jr…
Chromeo and their backup singers, in wonderful Robert Palmer tradition…
3 most interesting new products
IMakeMyCase and their futuristic, on-demand case-making robot… custom.case-mate.com
Mutewatch and their touchscreen watch, which saw love from a number of DJs, stage engineers and artists stylists… mutewatch.com
Native shoes and their perfect festival shoe, which was as light and comfortable as the so hated Croc, but as elegant as any sneaker… nativeshoes.com
3 not-so-surprising surprises
Kanye West and his ego, which harshly cancelled all rumours of Coachella finishing in an epic manner of guest appearances by Daft Punk, Jay-Z and Rhianna. Alone onstage for almost the whole performance, Kanye’s show also lacked live instruments and live back-up vocals
Ariel Pink and his mental state, which lead to a break down at the end of his set…
Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig popping in on Chromeo’s show, to perform their great new track ‘ Wouldn’t It Be Nice’
Interview Magazine gives us this interview with ‘hip hop’s newest name’ Theophilus London. London has been doing it the way we’ve talked about for a while, i.e. working with brands as the new record labels…
…
POLLOCK: When you say your brand relationships, you’re talking about Bushmills and Cole Haan?
POLLOCK: What’s it been like working with them and rising at the same time?
LONDON: It’s such a new idea, because you’re supposed to rise first then all that shit comes. Like, “Oh this song is hot. Let’s put it in a commercial.” But I got these deals before I was a household name to the masses, not just to the progressive people that know me. It’s about the fucking people who are chilling in this pool right now. They get to know me because of a commercial or a billboard in New York City. It’s such a new idea. I’m building a new business model for artists who want to do this after me—artists that haven’t even put an album out yet. I put an EP and three mixtapes out. I didn’t know that was the path I was choosing. And I’m really cool with ladies, so if it’s a lady in charge of the brand, then, yeah, I’ll get the deal. You know, in a business way.
Those of you who follow us regularly have probably seen the video of London spontaneously performing ‘The Brand Song’ backstage at SXSW. Those of you who haven’t, check it out.
About the book Sounds Like Branding
The book Sounds Like Branding is an ‘ear-opening’ journey through the history of music and marketing, from the humble jingle and the advent of Muzak to Michael Jackson’s groundbreaking association with Pepsi in the 1980s and the music branding embraced today by global brands such as Nike, Starbucks, Levi’s and Coca-Cola.
