SOUNDS LIKE BRANDINGâ„¢ Global Insights in music branding and communication

The results of an exploration Strategy?

We see more and more brands working with exploration strategies in music these days and the latest one is from car brand Fiat in the UK. An exploration strategy means a brand guiding people to new music and artists that they haven’t heard before. In this way taking more of a grassroot approach and lifting up new talent to a larger audience.

It’s great to see more brands involving on a micro level but the question remains, what happens to the bands that win these competitions? Normally you hear and read lot about the initiative in the beginning of the campaign but don’t see much of the results. What was really in it for the artist? Did it help them in their career? Did they get the huge success that was promised in the campaign?

Let’s follow Fiat and see what happens…

7″ pre-listening party in Stockholm

Thank you everyone for attending our little pre-listening party of ‘Sounds Like Branding’ yesterday! The 7″ vinyl is a beta version, limited to 250 copies (in audio) of the full book, which is to be released in Swedish at the end of March. The beta version will also be available on Spotify in English.

How to use Social Media in the Music Industry

Media futurist Gerd Leonhard delivered some great insights at this years Midem. Spend a minute or two looking through this presentation on how to use social media in the music industry.

‘I’m with the brand’ slides from Midem (with audio)

How to sell out (without selling out)!

At this year’s Midem we will teach the music industry how to sell out. Or rather how to avoid selling out but still get in bed with a brand. We will go through a five step model of success on how to build a successful strategy to get their interest. It includes the importance of defining vision, goals, values and a unique story. Also, how an artist/record label/festival owner should define their assets (from the perspective of the brands) and present these for potential brand partners. Part of the seminar will be focused on how the music and marketing industry have to start to understand the other’s objectives and culture. We will upload the presentation on Slideshare for you to watch after the seminar. See you on La Croisette?

The Ice effect

Christmas been completely freezing here in Stockholm with around -15 degrees celcius on average. That is about the same temperature as inside the Absolut Icebars. A joint venture between Absolut Vodka and the Icehotel in Northern Sweden, the company run bars completely made of ice at different locations across the globe. Earlier this year we conducted a study to measure the effect of the music identity we developed and implemented in their bars.

The result was stunning. It showed that 77% of respondents reported a greatly enhanced experience when the music identity was played (the opposite of when commercial radio was played). And furthermore, the number of respondents who
wanted to stay longer or come back rose by almost 250%.

Experience the full Absolut Icebar study here.

Why a music strategy matters to brands

“Music is both content and media. If we characterize consumer engagement as the sum total of the numbers of daily impressions plus the total amount of content consumtion, then music offers the largest array of consumer facing touch points (reach) than any other category and is by far, the most consumed entertainment content today.”

Steve Yanovsky, Music and Emerging Media Consultant, Mindshare

Read the full article

New workshop and exciting news for 2010

Hello!

It’s been a bit quiet here for a while. The main reason is that right now we are finishing finishing the final edits of the book “Sounds like branding” published by Norstedts publishing house, Sweden in mid-March.

For all you english speakers there will be a beta version released around the same time as an audio book on Spotify as well as a limited edition (250 copies) 7″ vinyl…we will give you all details of this in the new year.

If you happen to come to Cannes in January for the MIDEM fair you should really check out our workshop below. Jakob from Heartbeats will also sit in the experts panel of MIDEM +.

Enjoy Christmas!

 

I’m with the brand!

A workshop on how to build a successful
strategy to interest brands
(or how to sell out without selling out…)

MIDEM, Cannes Monday 25 January
4.00pm to 5.00pm

How to define your assets in the best way, identify your band/festival’s identity, package & present yourself to a brand, build a connection with it, monitor success…these are key factors for success to be discussed, together with best case practices on the ones that are doing it in the right way. All questions are welcome!