We spent 2 days in the Edison Ballroom absorbing discussions on several facets of music branding including picking music for commercials, composing original music and artist-brand relationships. And while there were many great moments to cover (including Kid Rock’s quip to the editor from Billboard that “I’ll handle the jokes, thank you” and Devo’s riveting, tongue-in-cheek focus-group tested new album), we are going to focus on the two areas in which everyone seemed to be in consensus: Customer Engagement and Artist-Brand Partnerships.

It was in the very first panel where Sheri Timmons, from Levi Strauss & Co, stressed the importance of customer engagement through rich content.  The key, said Timmons, is “being there when something magical happens or enabling it to happen.”  Levi’s music program placed artists in the studio to reinterpret some of their favorite songs – examples can be found here.  This resulted in short form web programming in addition to the music itself and as fans get closer to the artists, they get closer to the brand.  This idea was echoed in the case study for Cotton in which artists recorded their own version of the famous “Fabric Of Our Lives” lyric associated with the brand.  Cotton’s campaign went beyond the free mp3 and extended into web programming and commercials which showed the artist’s in their own environments (their cities, their houses, their lives.)  Cotton’s campaign was a success – the site achieved 2.4 Million hits in 3 months with customers actively creating stylebooks that featured the artists (Zooey Deschanel’s had 350,000 users.)  Even the Creative Directors’ discussion, which focused primarily on the one-way communication of a 30-second spot, the concept of engagement rang true.  As Michael Lee, Executive Creative Director at EURO RSCG said “Music is the single most subjective part of a spot” and indicated that personal taste goes a long way toward engaging (or, conversely, alienating) your customers.

The notion of “Not Sponsorship, but Partnership” was echoed across many of the panels including the Levi Strauss discussions, the Cotton Case Study, the conversation with EA’s Steve Schnur and, most obviously, in the Lexus Case Study.  What made the Lexus scenario so interesting was the artist himself, Ryan Leslie, who seems so far removed from the aloof-artist stereotype that he could have easily been mistaken for a CEO.  The delight that Lexus had in working with Ryan was apparent as Ryan brought in not just his music and personality, but creative marketing ideas and a serious digital knowledge base.  As Ryan said “I am an artist and artists want to create, it was interesting not to be tied just to a single, but to be involved in all the creative discussions and strategy for Lexus.”  Lexus and Leslie’s 360-degree artist-brand partnership was effective: a 216% sales increase and 3.3 Million impressions during the campaign.  Kid Rock was another case of deep partnerships in addition to his partnership with Jim Beam, as he is owner, investor, sponsor or just plain spokesman for so many brands, it’s difficult to keep track.  His most captivating brand partnerships were the ones in which he has a direct impact on the lives of people in Detroit through job creation at his local brewery and clothing lines.

From the perspective of the content providers, as opposed to the brands and agencies, a somewhat controversial question of the “Free License” was another recurring theme and we understand artists’ and labels’ concerns here.  The general consensus was the need to evaluate each opportunity based on the whole experience and not just the financial rewards.

A Twitter-feed ran behind the panel following the tweets related to the conference.  Amongst a handful of semi-obnoxious pitches for jobs or “get a free song search now!”, were some really insightful posts which I am including below.  You can access the entire Twitter feed here.

jaybirdcom – so why hasn’t an artist done a p&g-style marketing study before Devo?

Finally, as opposed to our fuzzy iPhone shots above, you can see some nice pics of the event here.

“It’s ev’ry Sunday morning when I am by your side
We’ll jump into the Wagon and all take a ride
Wait for the Wagon, Wait for the Wagon
Studebaker’s Wagon and we’ll take a ride”

“Wait For The Wagon” was first written in 1850 (so says Wikipedia) and a few versions of the song on YouTube have no mention of Studebaker.  We dug a bit.  According to this nugget from “The Life Of Clement Studebaker” (written in 1901 and published in 2009):

“A little girl wrote him a letter telling him that she could play the music of “Wait For The Wagon” which had been set to words advertising the Studebaker wagon.”

So, Studebaker commissioned the new version of the song with new words to promote their product.  This beats by about 20 years what we had previously thought was the first example of Music Branding – the 1905 sheet music for “In My Merry Oldsmobile.”

What was it about car companies in those days (and today) breaking ground with music?

“We simply presented an idea to Verizon and they liked it,” says Mike Boris, Music Producer at McCann Erickson, the agency behind the entire Verizon campaign.  “They had no intention of affiliating with Big Red, they just thought it was a song that everybody would recognize and they wanted to have fun with it” he continued.

And he should know – years before he was the guy choosing music for L’Oreal, Buick, Mastercard and, yes, Verizon commercials, Mike was a sound engineer on one of those Big Red sessions in the early 1990s.  “We brought in one of the original singers from the Big Red spot who I had known from doing that session,” said Mike.

Mike helped run the new session and told us that Wrigley, who owns the copyright on the Big Red jingle, was up for it.  When I asked Mike if they had any concerns about lending their brand sound to another, he said Wrigley had no concerns.  “They asked us to include a Big Red T-shirt which we did and I think they actually got a lot of recognition from the spot.”

When those of us in Music Branding make the case that a brand “owns” their sound, how does that hold up in a case like this? It’s an interesting question and one that merits further discussion.  Does Verizon plan on using any more jingles in this way? “Nah,” says Mike, “There are no current plans to do this again although you never know!”

Watch for yourself:

Verizon’s “Big Red” Commercial:

Original Big Red Commercial:

The total investment by Jovan to have their name on tickets and posters? $1 Million.  For this the Rolling Stones heard cries of “sell-out” from their fanbase but ultimately this introduced a whole new way of associating music with a brand.

By the way, the cost of the recent Blackberry/U2 sponsorship?  $150 Million (reportedly)

Enjoy the vintage poster!

Jerry put me in touch with Tom Pratt, the Executive Creative Director on Crayola at McGarry Bowen and we had a discussion about these music choices.   Music branding experts profess that the right song has to tell both the commercial’s story as well as the brand’s story.  “Crayola is a storytelling brand,” begins Tom, “and the right music helps tell that story.”  I wanted to know specifically what it was about these songs that made them a natural choice for these spots. The songs “not only helps reflect the idea of Crayola as a innovator of new ways for kids to express themselves,” he said, “it also reflects it’s relevance to a new generation.”

As an avid consumer of online music blogs and websites, I was aware that the Crayola spots had been covered on some pretty cynical websites (Stereogum, Pitchfork) who were largely supportive.  I asked Tom how conscious McGarry Bowen and Crayola were of the underground appeal of these artists. “Crayola is all about creative energy, exploration and discovery,” said Tom, “and our music choices were meant to help reflect that.”  As to whether appealing to cynical hipsters was part of the strategy, Tom admits they “were very pleasantly surprised at the warm acceptance of our efforts by the music community.”

Historically, from Nick Drake (VW) in the late 90s to Phoenix (Cadillac) today, ad agencies have a love affair with up-and-coming or underground artists but how much of it has to do with each client?  ”Crayola does have an adventurous spirit and a genuine interest in being experimental in the ways it reinforces itself as a creative brand,” said Tom, “(and) that spirit is reflected in all the ways it sets itself apart from other toy brands.”

Tom concluded, “We like to think that we are joining hands with new up-and-coming bands to bring their creativity, and ours, to a new audience.”

Crayola Glow Station Spot
Music by Dan Deacon

We have often thought that a music strategy that looks to the brand’s attributes to find the right musical voice is a seperate marketing idea than a simple celebrity endorsement but in cases like the above (and the Christine Aguilera/Target partnership, for instance), these two ideas have converged.

Is there a difference between Music (Sonic) Branding and Celebrity Endorsement?  Are cases where the two converge an easier sell to marketers and branding folks?

We would love to hear from a variety of marketing and branding pros what you think – please chime in.

Did a Marketing Director at Polaroid just lose their job to Lady Gaga?

Or is this just a substitute for “celebrity endorsement”?

Should we shake it, shake it, shake it like a Polaroid picture?

None.  Even though Petra Haden, Matt & Kim and Shiny Toy Guns got more than one mention, there was no clear winner.  Read the lists below and let us know what your favorites were!

- AD TUNES TOP AD MUSIC OF 2009
– TV AD MUSIC’s BEST AD MUSIC OF 2009
– SPLENDAD’s TOP AD MUSIC OF 2009
– FOUR OH SEVEN’S TOP 5 COMMERCIAL SONGS OF 2009

Bonus Lists!:
– BILLBOARD (ALSO ADWEEK) 15 BEST USES OF MUSIC IN THE 2000’s
- MUSIC-ALLY TOP BRANDED MUSIC APPS OF 2009

1 – Stone Roses – Stone Roses Reissue
2 – Florence + The Machine “Lungs”
3 – Mayer Hawthorne “A Strange Arrangement”
4 – Miike Snow “Miike Snow”
5 – Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros “Up From Below”
6 – Deastro “Moondagger”
7 – Antony & The Johnsons “The Crying Light”
8 – The Generationals “Con Law”
9 – Mexican Institute Of Sound “Soy Sauce”
10 – The Phenomenal Handclap Band “The Phenomenal Handclap Band”

As year-end “best of music” lists collect in your inbox and articles recapping the entire last decade clutter your web browser, it seems there is some excitement starting to form around this industry we call home (whether we call it music branding, sonic branding or audio branding is another topic altogether.)

Recently, everyone has been talking about the power of music to tell a brand’s story and over the last year, those discussions have crescendo-ed into a roar. (Please pardon the music puns.)

In fact, Adweek & Brandweek alone have run a whole host of interesting looks at music branding this year:

- TRENDS IN MUSIC BRANDING

- ADVERTISING IS THE NEW RADIO

- SWEET HARMONY FOR BRANDS, MUSICIANS

- HAS MUSIC BECOME DEVALUED AS A BRANDING TOOL?

- BRANDS URGED TO ENGAGE MUSIC FANS

Not too mention that this year saw the launch of the first Audio Branding Conference, the first Social Network for Music Branding Professionals and a brand new music service designed for brand-sponsored playlists.

All this points to the fact that more and more brands are taking music seriously as a part of their marketing platform. Couple that with a recovering economy and I predict that 2010 will be, to quote one of my favorite films, “The Year That Music Branding Broke.”