Music Branding: Intertwined Industries

       Music is defined as pitches played in time, but with its rapid evolvement and popularity, it can more easily be defined as an emotional escape to most. When I am having a below average day, there is no better way to wipe the slate clean then to drown my ears in beautiful music. Being lost in a song is almost like being in somewhat of a euphoric state, and I for one hate being interrupted by advertisements every time I click on a new song on YouTube. The world of advertisements is taking over once again, and with there being so many different types of music with different followings, it is yet another way to reach a large audience. The music industry is becoming more and more intertwined with the advertisement media; from popular songs being used in ads, advertisement videos shot with artists, and even interjecting advertisements into songs. Numerous artists are teaming up with big brands using ethos and pathos as there primary advertising techniques; such as Blackberry and U2, and the many artists from Coca- Cola’s “Open Happiness” campaign to ensure that people are happily ready to empty their wallets.

            The idea of famous artists teaming up with brands is called “music branding,” which is the use of music to reinforce brand identity.  It just makes sense, a mutual partnership helping both parties. The company supporting the artist can help hugely in funding, as well as promoting the band to all of the consumers loyal to that company. For example, if you were to buy a certain item from a company in a partnership with an artist they would likely have the artist’s name incorporated in the product or packaging. At the same time the musical group or artist is constantly promoting and spreading the message of the company, resulting in an increase in sales. A shout out to a company at the end of a concert is a great way to spread the word, and this often happens when an artist has the support of the company. Even something as simple as an artist wearing a certain brand can hugely effect sales. Also, when artists go on tours, their tour is always presented by a certain brand, and this is advertised on merchandise and cd’s form the artist. I for one say that music branding helps the music industry, but only to a certain extent. There are a few things that I do not like about music branding, like all of the advertisements that I have to sift through just to find the song I am looking for. Especially on YouTube, possibly one of the most used websites to search for music worldwide, being interrupted by an ad when I am trying to do nothing more than listen to a song is just wrong. I also feel that when an artist joins a campaign for product promotion, it somewhat takes away from their music and the uniqueness of it, like an underground artist going mainstream. When a song that you really like goes totally mainstream it is a bummer, relating to when songs are chosen for advertisements and over played entirely. But needless to say, without the support of big brand names and their money, the musical industry would not have the potential that it now does. For example, DEMF (Detroit Electronic Music Festival) is held every year in Detroit’s own Heart Plaza, and without the funding from Red Bull and Vitamin Water, the event would be nothing like it is today. The two main stages are the Vitamin Water Stage, and the Red Bull Stage, and needless to say having big flashy logos on the stages that thousands of people are dancing and having a good time in front of will surely have a positive impact on the companies. With money like this being added to the music industry, the possibilities are endless. New sounds could be engineered, new software developed, and so much more. My hope is that this trend takes a turn in a better direction, using funds to better the music itself, rather then just corporatizing artists and the music that goes along with these artists.

     Music branding mainly focuses on the technique of ethos to draw in the attention of their consumers, sprinkling in pathos to keep the viewers interested. Basically meaning that in their advertisements they are getting approval of their product from somebody famous so that other people will want to go out and buy that product too, while at the same time using good cinematography and special effects to appeal to the viewer’s senses and emotions, creating a well rounded commercial. This technique is constantly used in pretty much every make up ad, many clothing ads, and even ads for drinks such as Gatorade. The idea is to make people think that purchasing a companies product will make them “cool” like the famous person they saw do it on television. Practically everyone likes music, and respects the artists that make that music. Who wouldn’t want to be like the rock star using a Blackberry phone? Or the hottest pop artist rocking the Adidas kicks? Music Branding simply works, and it works well, explaining its rapid growth in popularity.

            Famous rock band “U2” has done a lot with music branding over the past ten years. U2 is an ideal target for companies seeing as how they have one of the biggest if not the biggest followings of all bands world. They have teamed up with two massive companies in the past decade including Apple, and Blackberry. Their newest album was sponsored by Blackberry and the campaign included the release of the commercial featuring their new song “I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight.” This was a very largely popular commercial viewed by millions of people initially being drawn in by ethos when they see U2 take the stage, and with a band like this sponsoring a product it will appeal to a huge audience. Not just because of the music, but the ad itself featured brilliant luminescent visuals, and complex cinematography to keep the viewer alert for the end of the commercial. The ad closes out with the Blackberry logo, and the slogan “Blackberry loves U2”. Such a simple message, but all of the people that love U2 can relate to this message, and in turn relate to Blackberry. Music is such a powerful element in the way people view things, therefore nothing more is needed but a message as simple as this. This commercial relies on ethos and pathos to get their message across to the viewers, I mean of course it is a very cool commercial, but without the support of U2 (ethos) it is nothing. It is the scene of a perfect rock concert where everyone is happy and jumping around, capturing complete euphoria and appealing pleasantly to all of the senses. This demonstrates pathos because people are seeing something that they would enjoy and want to be a part of. I mean lets be honest, who wouldn’t want to be? Everyone likes a good rock concert, or at least some kind of concert with the lights flashing in your face; which is why it appeals to a much larger group then just fans of U2. This is a perfect example of how music branding works, and is only the latest work of music branding done by U2.

     Back in 2004, U2 was teamed up with Apple for the release of their last album “How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb”. It actually came as a huge surprise to everyone when U2 switched to team up with Blackberry, considering how well their campaign with Apple went. This was back when Bono had his whole “Red” campaign going to help the people of Africa. They released numerous items that were red, and many of the profits from these items went towards helping the people of Africa. This included a red IPod that came out with the release of U2’s album. All the buzz that the “Red” campaign had created showed in the sales of the album and in turn, Apple products. The “Red” campaign also helped establish pathos as well as ethos for U2, because knowing that U2 is helping those in need will appeal to people’s emotions. Teaming up with Apple also allowed U2 to release an exclusive historical digital catalog along with their album, which meant more profit. Not only this, but it allowed U2 to release a commercial with their single “Vertigo” to promote their new album before it’s release. This commercial was nothing but brilliant, the idea behind it was very clever. Each of the members of the band looked like the dancing people you see on the ITunes cards. The timing of the music and filming fit together excellently, and it ended on a very good note, giving the viewer the ultimate experience. In other words, it is a well thought out commercial, demonstrating pathos as most do by appealing to the viewer’s senses and emotions. Also, seeing everyone dancing around and jamming with a solid color in the background looking like the figures on the ITunes’s cards would have many people immediately relate this to Apple. This causes Apple fans to gain respect for U2, and U2 fans to gain respect for Apple. Once again, a perfect example of music branding helping both parties, it is a win, win situation.

            Another case study that takes a little bit of a different approach at music branding is the “Open Happiness” ad campaign by Coca-Cola. For an up and coming artist, Coca-Cola is definitely a company that you would want to get involved with if you want to get your name out there. This is because of their huge following of loyal customers through the many years of its existence.  “For Coca-Cola, happiness is a five-note branding mnemonic turned into a song heard around the world. The effort, a collaboration with Atlantic Records for the cola's ‘Open happiness’ campaign from Wieden + Kennedy, stars a genre-bending mix of artists: Cee-Lo Green; Fall Out Boy's Patrick Stump; Panic at the Disco's Brendon Urie; Gym Class Heroes' Travis McCoy; and Janelle Monae.” (adweek.com). It is easy to see from the quote, that Coca-Cola didn’t just want to make a theme song, but they wanted to make a catchy hit song that people would play over and over again. To do this, they gathered many up and coming artists from the past few years and a team of professional producers to put together this clever song/advertisement. I like the approach that they took here, because it’s not just some stupid catchy jingle promoting Coca-Cola, but better yet a well thought out song created multiple artists that have different musical styles to reach out to a larger audience with various musical tastes.

The message portrayed in this song can be easily found in the chorus, where they sing “Open up, open up some happiness,” which is very upbeat, and of course by happiness they mean an ice cold Coca-Cola. Open Happiness became huge, starting with its popularity growing on MySpace, where it was streamed over 700,000 times. This song was also released on ITunes, where it reached number 27 in the pop charts. Not to bad for an advertisement is it? It wasn’t just popular in America, but Open Happiness aired all over the world in 31 different markets and was used in numerous ads and commercials to promote Coca-Cola. Due to “Open Happiness,” Coca-Cola’s Face Book page received an astonishing 25 million likes, as compared to Pepsi’s 4 million. Not only this, but the campaign was responsible for a spike in sales of Coca-Cola. This campaign was extremely effective because not only did it present Ethos with the number of artist’s collaborating together, but also it demonstrates Pathos in a way, because music definitely takes an affect on ones emotions. Pathos works effectively in this case because this is pretty much the definition of a laid back summer tune, and I for one could not be anything but happy while listening to this song. All in all this campaign proved to be extremely effective and is still helping Coca-Cola today.

            So for those of you who think the music industry is dead, guess again! It just needed a little bit of help from our fellow “big brands” in the advertisement world. With the presence of Ethos (the artist) and Pathos (your face lighting up when you hear your favorite song in a Snickers commercial) music branding has proven to be successful in these case studies as well as others. This trend is growing in popularity, and will surely continue to be used effectively in the future.

Ads/Songs Used: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caQYB7eKaCg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSvy9m2ih7o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cxfkg3RaRjs (I analyzed the song specifically rather then the video.)