What Marketers Can Learn From Brand Collaboration in Music ????

Music is layered with collaboration, and the music industry can teach us a lot about how to proactively align with other brands in an effort to amplify our marketing practices.

For marketers, brand collaboration is one of the most powerful and versatile tools that can be leveraged to engage consumers in this modern (read: cluttered) media landscape. The idea of collaboration is nothing new, but in the business context, it typically connotes the idea that individuals, teams and departments need to work better together within a given company. It may even stretch beyond that and speak to external collaborators, but until recently the emphasis has not been on how these external partnerships can be brought to the forefront in terms of the consumer experience.

When I decided to research the concept of brand collaboration I began by looking back to understand the early instances of the approach and how it evolved over the years. I found examples of early branded entertainment like the GE Theater and soap operas (sponsored by companies like P&G), co-branded products and licensing from Disney, and early athlete endorsements like the NBA’s Bob Cousy x P.F. Flyers. During this exploration I also looked back at my own interactions with brands and media when I was a kid. Two industries in particular stood out as most committed to the idea of collaboration: sports and music. As I detailed in my previous post, sports leagues, teams and, perhaps most notably, athletes have developed their own unique brands that provide a new and exciting opportunity when they are paired with product-, service-, content- and experience-based brands.

Now let’s look back to see how, beginning in the early 1980s, music became even more layered with collaboration at every level. Throughout this exploration, think about how these examples and insights might be adapted to your own industry, business and brand.

I Want My MTV

As a young kid in the 80s, you belonged to one of two households—those that allowed MTV and those that did not. Guess which one mine was? When talking about my passion for music, my mother likes to reminisce about the day she walked into the living room to find me jamming out to MTV. Knowing it was banned in our household, I pointed out that she said I couldn’t watch MTV, but she didn’t say anything about listening to it. I had used the contrast knob (remember when TVs had knobs?) to blur out the picture in an attempt to get around her rule. But why would I bother doing that? What drew millions of people just like me to the channel in the first place?

It turns out that MTV marked a pivotal moment in the evolution of media and branding. Not only was it a visually appealing medium that played right into my short attention span, but from a business standpoint it was also the first mass media channel to completely blur the lines between content and commerce. This created a complex ecosystem and an ideal platform for brand collaboration.

Every music video on MTV — in addition to being highly entertaining and cutting-edge in terms of creativity — was essentially an advertisement for an artist and an album. Just like sports announcers, video DJs (or VJs) became the voice of the MTV brand, providing commentary on videos, interviewing artists and reporting on the news.

Consumer brands quickly adapted their approach and made advertisements that resembled music videos. By leveraging the same tone and style, and often collaborating with the same artists, brands became an integral part of the viewing experience and less of an interruption. Whether you had an artist in your advertisement or not, being on MTV meant you were collaborating with their brand. It allowed you to co-opt some of the ‘cool’ and feed off the rebellious nature of the channel that turned on young people and turned off most parents.

Wanna Dance?

In the early days no artist stood out more on the MTV platform than Michael Jackson.

With the help of MTV, Michael Jackson built an empire that redefined the meaning and impact of personal branding in entertainment. He was already famous, but he took full advantage of the new music video platform to take his career into the stratosphere. He captivated us with his songs, dance moves, style, eccentricity and his use of visual storytelling. I’m only slightly embarrassed to admit that I had a make-your-own studded glove kit and mimicked his dance moves in my living room. Jackson’s brand grew as he released a string of hit records and collaborated with a variety of other brands to amplify his own reach and simultaneously increase their cultural relevance.

One such brand was Pepsi. Their main competitor, Coca-Cola, had built a global following that benefited from a variety of collaborations with brands like McDonald’s and successful advertising campaigns that focused on friendship and happiness. To win, Pepsi had to carve out an edgier and more youthful position. Michael Jackson and MTV were the perfect partners. The Pepsi tagline, “The Choice of a New Generation,” tapped into the idea that the product — just like Michael’s image and MTV — was not for everyone. This was a bold move because, on the surface, it alienated people and limited the brand’s appeal. However, savvy business leaders and marketers know it is always better to be some people’s number one than everyone’s number two.

The brand took things even further when they commissioned Jackson to rewrite his hit song “Billie Jean” for a commercial, and hired legendary advertising exec-turned-filmmaker Bob Giraldi to direct the spot. At the time Bob was known as one of the directors driving the new music video genre ushered in by MTV. He crafted the commercial to resemble Michael’s “Beat It” video, which he also directed, and featured a gang of kids mimicking the King of Pop’s dress and dance moves while Jackson sang, “You’re a whole new generation, you’re a Pepsi generation, taste the thrill of your day and taste the Pepsi way.” Bringing all of those elements together was a monumental marketing moment. The collaboration took on an added layer of virality, long before what we know as viral today, when Jackson’s hair caught fire during the filming of the campaign’s second spot. Eventually it premiered on MTV as part of a special prime-time program, resulting in one of the first instances of a commercial running as actual content.

Built On Collaboration

While Michael dominated the early days of MTV, and I practiced my Moonwalk, the relatively new music genre of hip-hop was also emerging, and it was literally built upon collaboration. First and foremost, the music itself often layered one record over another or new lyrics over audio snippets of existing songs. This foundational element set a tone and led to more artists working together in this genre than any other.

My friends and I were completely obsessed with hip-hop from the moment we heard it. I’ll never forget the first time I saw the Parental Advisory stamp on a cassette tape that I was probably too young to listen to. Of course, just like my mom’s short-lived MTV ban, the label made me even more curious. At first we relied on each other to discover new artists, but soon we began looking more to the artists themselves to connect the dots and expose us to their contemporaries.

When artists formally teamed up as part of a group like Wu-Tang Clan, they had a better shot of breaking out than they did as solo performers. Although each individual member was unique, they typically shared a common style, their own language, and in many instances a hometown or region. Most importantly, they shared the spotlight on the same songs and albums. Even if an artist wasn’t officially part of a crew they could quickly become associated with one if they were featured in a song. For example, I first heard Snoop Dogg when he was featured on the song “Deep Cover” with Dr. Dre, which was also Dre’s first solo song after leaving the group, N.W.A. Snoop was just one of many superstars Dre would go on to collaborate with and introduce to the world, including Eminem, 50 Cent, The Game, Kendrick Lamar and others. Even Dre’s labels — Death Row Records and later Aftermath — were collaborations with his long-time partner, Interscope Records executive Jimmy Iovine.

As this collaborative formula proved successful, it was emulated by more artists. Once Snoop was established we were introduced to his crew, Tha Dogg Pound. Many artists took this a step further and began launching their own record labels. Eminem created Shady Records, another imprint of Iovine’s Interscope, relying on the same theory of collaboration by introducing his crew D12, not to mention the business benefits that come from owning more of your own intellectual property.

Collaborations in hip-hop continued to evolve and even some of today’s biggest stars in other genres owe their continued relevance to the world of hip-hop. Take Justin Timberlake, whose foray into becoming a solo artist was ushered in by a collaboration with the rap group Clipse and production from Pharrell. This was masterfully executed to help JT evolve from his boy-band branding into a pop star.

A similar collaboration phenomenon also played out in hip-hop and other genres through sampling: the art of taking pieces of songs and using them like instruments to construct new tracks. By sampling, an artist reveals something new about themselves and their brand. This holds true when an artist quotes an existing lyric from another song, and even when an artist or band performs a cover song. These associations make statements and inform how brands, in this case personal brands, are perceived.

Christopher Wallace, better known as the Notorious B.I.G. or Biggie, applied all of these tactics to launch his career. He first came to the attention of most fans through his feature on the song “Flava in Ya Ear” by Craig Mack, a popular rapper at the time and a fellow member of Bad Boy, a record label with a variety of artists.

Although Biggie was later shot and killed, allegedly as a result of an ongoing battle with west coast rappers, the lyrics and hook on the first song of his first album were each sampled from the king of west coast hip-hop, Dr. Dre. In doing so, Biggie was paying homage to an artist he admired and revealing his taste to fans. And in giving listeners something familiar, a point of reference, he also made his music and his personal brand more approachable. Familiarity, trust, respect and admiration can all come from producing and experiencing a thoughtful collaboration.

Biggie’s producer, Sean “Puffy, Puff Daddy or P Diddy” Combs, was a student of music and a great marketer who took the art form of sampling to a new level. Although many would challenge his assertion, Combs claimed that he invented the remix. As documentary filmmaker Kirby Ferguson established in his 2010 film Everything Is a Remix, artists have been stealing from each other forever, but Combs and others in hip-hop made it a deliberate part of the art form.

Today two of the most popular places to discover new music are YouTube and Soundcloud, especially when it comes to hip-hop. There we find another example of branding and collaboration playing out. As young artists create music, they often collaborate on the production, and in many instances they do it virtually. In fact, an entire economy has been built around marketing and selling instrumental beats over the Internet.

Bedroom and basement beat makers sell creations on social networks and within communities like BeatStars and MyFlashStore, where anyone can listen to, license or outright purchase the music. Like any growing marketplace, it’s getting crowded and becoming difficult for newcomers to stand out. In an attempt to overcome this and attract attention, many producers create type beats, as in Drake-type-beats, or beats that sound like the artist Drake. This illustrates one of the same principles that drives collaboration: association.

As Biggie and Puffy did before them, by tying their product to an existing artist and personal brand, these producers create a familiar reference that increases awareness and consideration for something new. Artist A$AP Rocky even admitted to sourcing the beat for one of his songs by searching A$AP Rocky-type beat.

Hip Hop Rules

While every music genre gets in the collaboration game, and this is not a new phenomenon, the most creative brand partnerships have always been in hip-hop.

One of the first and most famous examples grew out of the track “My Adidas” by Run-DMC. As the song gained popularity in July of 1986, the month I turned seven years old, the group’s management invited adidas representatives to a concert at Madison Square Garden. On that night the band prompted fans to literally put their shoes in the air when they performed the track, further demonstrating their influence.

Music manager, label exec and founder of Translation—an advertising agency focused on being a bridge between culture and corporations—Steve Stoute shared his interpretation of what unfolded that night in his book The Tanning of America, “When adidas execs witnessed twenty thousand young urban fans jubilantly holding their brand aloft, they immediately saw the incredible economic potential that this new, raw form of entertainment possessed.”

The overall awareness and commercial impact of name-checking brands in music cannot be overstated. Most of these branded lyrics began as unofficial endorsements by artists who were unprovoked and unpaid. Still, it didn’t take long for brands like adidas to quickly realize the potential impact, embrace the phenomenon and begin paying artists. After that evening at Madison Square Garden, Run-DMC ended up with a seven-figure payday and their own sneakers, making them the first nonathletes to secure this kind of deal. Perhaps fittingly, Run-DMC was also the first group to blend hip-hop and rock when they teamed up with Aerosmith and produced “Walk This Way.”

“For anyone at any level of commerce, from corporate execs to aspiring entrepreneurs, from marketing directors to college students who will soon be entering the working world, this is theretofore a cautionary tale: Ignore the globalization of popular culture at your own peril.”

—Steve Stoute

Back to the Future

Just like they were for me as a kid, sports and music are arguably two of the most pervasive parts of our culture today. In fact, while television viewing has been moving to on-demand, streaming, and time shifting, the two things that are still consistently viewed live are sports and entertainment industry award shows. This viewership, and the layers of collaboration we see in sports and music, provide a stark reminder that brands must be part of our culture if they expect to be part of our conversations. And if they are not part of our conversations then their products will not be purchased.

When you combine this with the fact that individuals are more empowered to communicate through technology, build their own communities and influence one another, it’s easy to see why the brands that invest in collaboration to gain cultural relevance tend to win. We can look at recent efforts by Nike to prove out the increasing validity of this idea.

Today brands and products show up in sports and music all the time, but just as brands need to continue taking collaborations further to make them more creative and impactful, athletes and artists are doing the same. In some instances they create completely new brands and products that run independently and then form collaborations with known brands, while in others they launch with the help of a core brand partnership.

Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine built an empire with their headphone and speaker company Beats by Dr. Dre, which relied heavily on artist and athlete endorsements and, along with the streaming service Beats Music, sold to Apple for a reported $3 billion. Sean Combs turned Ciroc vodka into a juggernaut. Rihanna launched her Fenty Beauty line of products exclusively with retailer Sephora in the US and also has a popular sneaker line with Puma. Drake created his own brand, OVO, then grew it through collaborations with Nike’s Jordan brand, Canadian Goose, Timberland, Clark’s, the Toronto Raptors and fellow Canadian artist The Weeknd, who, in turn, launched brand and label XO in partnership with retailers H&M and Puma. Perhaps one of the most popular and impactful uses of personal branding and collaboration came when Kanye West helped adidas regain relevance, just as Run-DMC had done 30 years earlier, with the launch of his Yeezy Boost line of sneakers. This partnership, and the ‘Yeezy Effect’ may not last forever, especially if Kanye continues to be such a polarizing figure, but I think adidas made the right move by aligning with him and they will continue reaping the benefits.

This last point speaks to the idea that collaborations must be created thoughtfully and fit into a consistent brand story if they are going to be perceived favorably. It is not enough to simply insert your brand into culture without considering whether or not the alignment reflects shared values and goals and how you’re going to activate your collaboration.

What music collaborations have been the most impactful in your mind?

Are there others that stand out in your mind because they lacked fit, seemed purely opportunistic and harkened back to the idea of an artist selling out?

The above was adapted from the book, Collaboration is King: How Game-Changers Create Marketing Partnerships That Build Brands and Grow Businesses, now available for purchase on Amazon, Audible, and Barnes & Noble. Read the first chapter, check out the collaboration playlist featuring many of the songs in this article and download a free Collaboration Playbook to help map out your collaboration strategy at CollaborationIsKing.com.