Marketing with Music Gone Wrong

Music is such a popular (read: effective) tool for marketing that occasionally big companies will make what I believe are big missteps in trying to cram music into their brand messaging.

Sometimes there are TV spots whose concepts clearly started with the song, then the spot was built around that. Someone in the C wing said “I love this song, we gotta use it in our commercials!”, and next thing you know your TV’s showing you an SUV driving through an empty cityscape to the strains of “Dust in the Wind” by Kansas. Ugh.

The latest one to make me shake my head sadly is the Direct TV spot / music video featuring Beyonce pitching the service by singing about how great Direct TV is while a team of nattily clad gents join her in a smartly choreographed routine.

(Her spots for Amex, on the other hand, are much more tastefully done.)

Will her fans start screaming for Direct TV now? I kinda doubt it, but who knows. The bigger issue for me is that the commercial is barely distinguishable from a music video, which of course is the point. But that just goes to show you how truly manufactured top 40 music and videos are these days. And is Beyonce a manufactured act? See, THAT’S my point – no, she’s not. She is truly a multi-talented performer. And this kind of thing is way beneath her.

The key to making an artist & business partnership really work, really resonate with the fans that the company is trying to reach, is to make it authentic. There needs to be a philosophical match, if you will, between artist and company. Something that makes sense not just to the target consumer, but to the artist’s fan base.

Every artist will have her or his own definition of selling out, as will their fans. There are lots of great ways to create a great joint promotion partnership between artists and companies, but if you ask me this is a textbook sellout.

Posted Tuesday December 4, 2007
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