Being ethical and defining what it means for our business might not be an option anymore, but a necessity to stay relevant in the new, fragmented marketplace.
Heartbeats International gives you a whitepaper on Brand Ethics. This whitepaper is a call for those of us working with branding and marketing, to lift focus from consumer needs for a while and examine our own practice, how our everyday work actively contributes to society.
In a previous post, our friends at Splatter highlighted the benefits of brands involved with music festivals. Here they share some advice on how to make the best use of festival funding.
As Splatter mentioned in their previous post on Sounds Like Branding, brands can gain pretty much from being part of a music festival, e.g. engagement, storytelling, sampling opportunities and so forth. It is however up to the brands and their agencies to make the best use of a sponsorship and turn the fans into customers (or customers into fans, as we say at Heartbeats).
The obvious question for a brand wanting to leverage off the passion created by music is:Â How do they pick through the options and ensure marketing spend is effectively used?
According to Splatter, you should:
1. Ensure that involvement in a music festival or music festivals is a part of a broader music based strategy. The consumers will smell the lack of authenticity if your presence at a music festival (for cool cred) isn’t backed up by relationships with artists, fans, online leverage, great use of music in retail A-T-L that incorporate music in some creative way.
2. Work with a specialist that understands the market place and actually knows everything about the festivals, the music, the fans and the brands. There is a huge difference between the quality of festivals on offer, and you will save time and money by speaking to people that already know.
3. Work with only established events (or at least credible and authentic ones, according to Heartbeats). If a promoter comes to you with a grand idea to run a festival, but they have no history of doing credible events, then be very cautious.
4. Ensure that you have a plan for your participation involving detailed pre, onsite and post event creative, planning and execution. Leverage every step of the way. Get as much access to artists as possible, ensure you can use the festival in your own brand stories, get involved in the pre-event marketing campaign. Do some marketing of your own. Create content during the festival and spread it afterwards. Look for multi-year relationships, so you can build your brand alongside the festival as it grows.
5. Get creative. If you think that slapping some logos around the festival grounds and having hot girrrrrlls in short skirts handing out samplers is all you have to do once you are at the festival, then think again. Creative and useful experiences allied to pre-event participation and continuous conversations can turn festival sponsorship into something truly valuable.
6. Ensure you have pre-agreed metrics so you can measure your investment ROI.
So, which festival would fit your brand you think?
It’s been a long way down for Kodak. Unlike the record industry the photographic film companies barely received fair warning before their businesses crumbled to dust.
After a decade in the desert there might be some light at the end of the tunnel though. With appointment of CMO Jeffrey Hazlitt, Kodak set out on a furious restructuring of their marketing department and strategy. The outcome: So Kodak.
Now the campaign might look relatively basic, but the devil is in the details. One could suspect that the ambassadors (Rihanna, Trey Songz, Drake and Pitbull) have been chosen not only for their accomplishments in the studio and on stage, but also for their social media savviness. Added to this is a very successful blog campaign with key influencers such as Nahright.com, Onsmash.com and Concreteloop.com.
What demographic they’re going for? The one that have adapted to and developed social media further than any other, but that’s an entirely different article.
Take a look at, and read E-consultancy’s interview with Jeffrey Hazlitt.
Sounds Like Branding presents Heartbeats In Conversation With, a series of short conversations on relevant topics for marketing and communication. First out is a conversation between Heartbeats’ CEO Jakob Lusensky and Gerd Leonhard, media futurist and CEO of The Futures Agency. Watch them talk about the media of the future and what we can learn from the days of Gutenberg.
Audi raises curiosity through art. More than a 1000 square meter huge billboard, close to 200 spray cans, 14 days of work and 4 artists. Watch Audi’s vision come alive in Berlin. An inspiring marketing method that raises curiosity and brand awareness.
Sounds like Branding (How to use the power of music to turn customers into fans) is the forthcoming book by Jakob Lusensky, CEO at Heartbeats. The book takes you on an ear-opening journey through the history of music and marketing, from the humble jingle and Muzak to today’s music which is blurring the line between brands and bands; making brands in to the record labels of tomorrow.
We caught up with media futurist and CEO of The Futures Agency, Gerd Leonhard in Paris the other day. Here, in roughly 60 seconds, he gives you his take on the future of branding and communication.
