The music business landscape started changing almost a decade ago with the shift in consumption habits of the consumers from physical to digital formats. The digital business in India has seen a massive shift almost every 2 years and the last couple of years has forced the music labels to re-invent themselves. We, at Universal Music, were the first ones to transform ourselves from a pure music label business model to music entertainment business model and have been the only music label that has successfully managed this transformation.
When we were going through this transformation I was very clear that we needed to make this change / shift, keeping the end consumer at the forefront of this strategic change.
For the purpose of simplicity, we identified that the consumer will fall into one of the below mentioned verticals i.e. consumers who will be willing to pay for content (pure play music transactions), consumers willing to pay for experiences (experiential) and lastly the brand-led propositions (both strategic and tactical). We decided to be present across these three verticals to in-order to ‘change the game’.
I shall restrict the conversation around the third vertical where I believe the next opportunity lies in. I have had a fundamental belief many years before I was picked to run a multinational music business – That Music & Youth & Brands form a mutually co-dependent highly symbiotic triangle.
In 2006, I had an idea that may have seemed a bit hair brained back then, but one that needed to be pushed because it was a bit ahead of its time. It was called “Sunburn” and started as a pet project that I always knew in my heart had great potential on one hand – since we were leaders in the intellectual property space even though the founding team including me didn’t believe it would turn out to be Asia’s leading EDM festival in a few years; not to mention rate in the top 10 festivals in the world.
Magic of Music
When we were going through this transformation I was very clear that we needed to make this change / shift, keeping the end consumer at the forefront of this strategic change.
For the purpose of simplicity, we identified that the consumer will fall into one of the below mentioned verticals i.e. consumers who will be willing to pay for content (pure play music transactions), consumers willing to pay for experiences (experiential) and lastly the brand-led propositions (both strategic and tactical). We decided to be present across these three verticals to in-order to ‘change the game’.
I shall restrict the conversation around the third vertical where I believe the next opportunity lies in. I have had a fundamental belief many years before I was picked to run a multinational music business – That Music & Youth & Brands form a mutually co-dependent highly symbiotic triangle.
- Music has the highest engagement levels on social media
- Music has the ability to be aligned to genuine passion points that create long lasting brand associations in the minds of the youth
- Majority of people discover new music and artists through brands
- More than 9 out of 10 people are positive towards brand
- and artist collaborations
- Music has a measurable effect on brand and target audience
- Music is a strategic communication tool for the brand to the youth
- Music is a differentiation element for a brand
In 2006, I had an idea that may have seemed a bit hair brained back then, but one that needed to be pushed because it was a bit ahead of its time. It was called “Sunburn” and started as a pet project that I always knew in my heart had great potential on one hand – since we were leaders in the intellectual property space even though the founding team including me didn’t believe it would turn out to be Asia’s leading EDM festival in a few years; not to mention rate in the top 10 festivals in the world.
Now, by putting it in perspective, look at how my (music +youth + brand) triangle comes into play. What are the key ingredients you need in an IP based around music?
All the other pieces of the pie are important but replaceable with another equivalent. In the center are these 3 elements: Music, Youth & Brands.
Without a brand / brands you will never have the financial bandwidth to power the property. The brands bring their media strengths & large internal & external networks. From experience I can tell you it’s close to implausible to execute as a promoter without this key partnership.
If you have an idea whose time has come like Sunburn, the youth will latch on with greater aggression than you have originally budgeted for. The one truth I have learnt the hard way is this – while they may latch onto a property what they are consuming in the early years -before they are hardcore Sunburners – is the Music & the artists within the framework. Another learning is that once you’ve hooked them in where they are consuming everything you are dishing out, if you drop the MQ – Music Quotient in any of the following seasons, you’ve have lost them forever.
My key takeaway: this is one such classic case that is a win-win-win for everyone concerned. The brand gets an unusually higher ROI than regular advertising because this is a direct way to engage; more believable than a 30 second spot. The promoter wins because he has hedged his risk & ultimately the consumer wins because he has something that he/she believes to his own & there is no ratification greater than that in the world of advertising. Ask any CMO & they will tell you that.
When I took over at Universal Music a few years ago I came in with this mindset that apart from the regular label business there was a massive opportunity to get my triangle in play. Only what I didn’t realize back then was that my global counterparts had started doing that on a scale that was way beyond my imagination. One of our newest & fastest growing business verticals within the UMG’s global footprint is our “New Business Vertical.” This is where our music 360 (i.e artist, music, images, merchandising, live & every allied connection you can think of) assets marry the brand’s objective & deliver a customized youth solution like no other.
Our annual renewal track record is epic because it delivers to the brand a custom tailored solution that keeps their target audience; the youth latched on and engaged over vast periods of time.
There are many examples globally of the biggest companies like HP, Max Life, Turkish Airlines, Mercedes, Bang & Olufsen that are already engaged in several multi-country deals. HP operates HPCM powered by UMG in 34 countries around the world.
From a CMO’s objective point of view here is what associating music & brand delivers
A stellar India example would be HP Connected Music. Here’s how it works – you buy any HP product. On a one time registration basis, we deliver 2 million songs to you from over 30,000 artists across International, Bollywood, Tollywood, Regional, Indie, Jazz, Classical and so on. To top this, the more you engage with the platform the more we reward you. In that regard, a gratification could span from a tee shirt or a piece of merchandise to you sitting across Lady Gaga having a chat in her green room, after watching her concert like a VVIP.
This engagement is invaluable on every level. The video piece that the fan posts from his or her green room has a greater probability of going viral than any other content a brand could potentially stage and create. This is customer delight at its truest & highest level. A dozen examples like these can be given but suffice it to say that these kind of engagements are working incredibly well simply because of one truth that has emerged from market research time & time again; that music is in the top 3 priorities of every single youth however you slice the pie: demographically or psychographically. If you able to legitimately delight the consumer with what he or she considers his primary “Mojo”, then you will win big, and when I say big, it has helped us create a massive new business globally in less than 3 years. This kind of partnership delivers. Period.
By Devraj Sanyal
Source: http://marketingbuzzar.com/2014/08/the-magic-of-music-brands/
- Funding to get it going – usually promoter started but brand funded.
- Sales of tickets – That only the youth are buying (i.e 18-35 : with a key TG of 18-24)
- Music assets – artists / musicians / brands /music assets & publishing assets.
All the other pieces of the pie are important but replaceable with another equivalent. In the center are these 3 elements: Music, Youth & Brands.
Without a brand / brands you will never have the financial bandwidth to power the property. The brands bring their media strengths & large internal & external networks. From experience I can tell you it’s close to implausible to execute as a promoter without this key partnership.
If you have an idea whose time has come like Sunburn, the youth will latch on with greater aggression than you have originally budgeted for. The one truth I have learnt the hard way is this – while they may latch onto a property what they are consuming in the early years -before they are hardcore Sunburners – is the Music & the artists within the framework. Another learning is that once you’ve hooked them in where they are consuming everything you are dishing out, if you drop the MQ – Music Quotient in any of the following seasons, you’ve have lost them forever.
My key takeaway: this is one such classic case that is a win-win-win for everyone concerned. The brand gets an unusually higher ROI than regular advertising because this is a direct way to engage; more believable than a 30 second spot. The promoter wins because he has hedged his risk & ultimately the consumer wins because he has something that he/she believes to his own & there is no ratification greater than that in the world of advertising. Ask any CMO & they will tell you that.
When I took over at Universal Music a few years ago I came in with this mindset that apart from the regular label business there was a massive opportunity to get my triangle in play. Only what I didn’t realize back then was that my global counterparts had started doing that on a scale that was way beyond my imagination. One of our newest & fastest growing business verticals within the UMG’s global footprint is our “New Business Vertical.” This is where our music 360 (i.e artist, music, images, merchandising, live & every allied connection you can think of) assets marry the brand’s objective & deliver a customized youth solution like no other.
Our annual renewal track record is epic because it delivers to the brand a custom tailored solution that keeps their target audience; the youth latched on and engaged over vast periods of time.
There are many examples globally of the biggest companies like HP, Max Life, Turkish Airlines, Mercedes, Bang & Olufsen that are already engaged in several multi-country deals. HP operates HPCM powered by UMG in 34 countries around the world.
From a CMO’s objective point of view here is what associating music & brand delivers
- Brand content improvement
- Marketing support within our networks
- Communication enhancement
- Social media pushes
- Audience micro targeting
- Added value loyalty programs monitoring
- Event creation & delivery
A stellar India example would be HP Connected Music. Here’s how it works – you buy any HP product. On a one time registration basis, we deliver 2 million songs to you from over 30,000 artists across International, Bollywood, Tollywood, Regional, Indie, Jazz, Classical and so on. To top this, the more you engage with the platform the more we reward you. In that regard, a gratification could span from a tee shirt or a piece of merchandise to you sitting across Lady Gaga having a chat in her green room, after watching her concert like a VVIP.
This engagement is invaluable on every level. The video piece that the fan posts from his or her green room has a greater probability of going viral than any other content a brand could potentially stage and create. This is customer delight at its truest & highest level. A dozen examples like these can be given but suffice it to say that these kind of engagements are working incredibly well simply because of one truth that has emerged from market research time & time again; that music is in the top 3 priorities of every single youth however you slice the pie: demographically or psychographically. If you able to legitimately delight the consumer with what he or she considers his primary “Mojo”, then you will win big, and when I say big, it has helped us create a massive new business globally in less than 3 years. This kind of partnership delivers. Period.
By Devraj Sanyal
Source: http://marketingbuzzar.com/2014/08/the-magic-of-music-brands/
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