Sonic branding is catching on. Just last week, Mastercard unveiled their new sonic identity not long after their move to a new wordless logo. Mastercard, unlike so many others, recognizes the power of sound to help distinguish themselves in a crowded marketplace. Furthermore, with the explosion of smart speaker devices on the horizon, the time […]
Music moves people. Live music moves people deeply. The experience lingers for days, weeks, sometimes for years.
Naturally, brand marketers would love to gain some of this attention for their own purposes, and increasingly they’re turning to experiential marketing to deliver. Which is why it is not surprising to learn that WPP has ponied up $10 million for a share of SFX Entertainment, media mogul Robert F.X. Sillerman’s recently revived company (he sold the company to Clear Channel for $4.4 billion in 2000).
In January, SFX Entertainment purchased the North American division of Holland-based ID&T Entertainment, the world’s largest dance music concert promoter.
Here is footage from 2012′s Tommorowland event in Belgium:
SFX also owns nightclubs and music download store, Beatport.
WPP “recognizes the power of dance music to coalesce and address an increasingly difficult-to-reach audience,” Mr. Sillerman said.
Martin Sorrell, chief executive of WPP, compared the move to WPP’s investments in Vice, the Weinstein Company and others.
“Sillerman’s been extremely successful in consolidating fragmented industries which have untapped growth potential that generally have excellent marketing opportunities attached to them,” said Mike Principe, a former SFX attorney who is now CEO of The Legacy Agency. “He goes in, acquires en masse, and enjoys a leading position.”
Entering the music business for the first time, The Clorox Company and its marketing communications partner, DDB Worldwide in San Francisco, recently released to the public “The Blue Sky Project: A Clorox Charity Collection.”
“The Blue Sky Project,” is now available for purchase on iTunes and 50+ other online retailers for $6.93.
Music from the CD includes original compositions from independent artists Iron & Wine, Amber Music, Singing Serpent and Andrew Rodriguez. The music was originally featured in Clorox commercials.
Half of the purchase price will benefit Music In Schools Today, a nonprofit organization that supports music programs in public schools.
Lisa Bennett, chief creative officer and managing partner at DDB San Francisco, said, “Music has played an integral role in much of the work we develop with Clorox, because of its emotional connection with an audience.â€
Tarang Amin, vice president, Clorox Global Franchise, said, “Consumers were so passionate about the music they wanted to play it at weddings and dance recitals. This CD has truly been created out of consumer demand.”
I’m in Austin this week and so are 1500 bands, a great majority of whom hope to be discovered by fans and by industry insiders who can help further their musical careers. Given that preoccupation, I found it interesting that Ad Age is running a feature on music licensing opportunities.
According to 2006 Enders Analysis data, the market for commercial music licensing is in the neighborhood of $3 billion. So while artists in nearly every genre have opened their arms to corporate America, shifting from the polarizing world of “selling out” to the nuanced galaxy of “musical branding” is a challenge many still struggle with.
According to an executive familiar with music-licensing deals, for U.S. rights, marketers typically pay $150,000 for the master recording of a song and another $150,000 for synchronization — the right to put the composition in a TV ad.
The Ad Age article points out that Apple tends to cut those numbers in half, a fact that probably doesn’t bother to many artists or their management teams, since the association with Apple works to significntly elevate an artist’s visibility. For instance, when Apple picked Yael Naim’s song “New Soul” for its MacBook Air spot earlier this year, the Israeli singer-songwriter didn’t even have a record out in the U.S. But thanks to a single in the iTunes Store, the song made its debut on the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 9 with 135,000 downloads
Who's in charge here?
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
