Music Takes Center Stage in Financial Services (Content) Marketing
Perhaps music’s most prominent role in marketing is as the ever famous (or infamous?) jingle. Whether it’s McDonald’s old school Big Mac jingle or the more recent diddy – “We are farmers” (sing it with us now: bum ba-dum ba-dum bum bum) – from Farmers Insurance, we bet you can recall eight or 10 without giving it too much thought.
But both music and marketing have matured. While the right jingle may always be coveted by brands, many build their strategies around deeper engagement. As part of that effort, many brands are looking to experiential marketing.
Chalk it up to savvy 21st century consumers who are pretty “hip to” most marketing tactics. As we’re all well aware, they don’t want to feel “marketed to.” And so what’s happening now is that companies want to engage with consumers; they want existing customers and prospects to experience their brands. For many, including financial services brands, music is the perfect vehicle to make that happen.
Check out this headline from eMarketer: “Concertgoers Leave with Brands Stuck in Their Heads.” According to an October 2014 study cited in that post, “one in three concertgoers said they remembered the show partner of the last live event they attended, and fully 44% of respondents said music partnerships were the factor more likely to increase positive feelings toward a sponsor brand.”
So what do we know about music lovers?
Respondents in the survey summarized by eMarketer ranked music as “the most important activity in their lives.” And those who stream music are “significantly more likely to recommend a brand, consider a brand trustworthy, be willing to pay more for a specific brand and feel that a specific brand is the only one for them,” says ClickZ in a recent story on the “goldmine” of data music streaming can provide marketers about consumers.
It’s also interesting to note that when it comes to marketing to Millennials, music is a particularly effective tool. It’s “an emotional touchpoint for Millennials,” says Mashable. In “Why Music Is an Effective Millennial Marketing Tool,” Mashable quotes Lori Feldman, EVP at Warner Brother Records. Feldman says, “Music and the artists who make it are integral to helping connect brands to consumers.”
And if that branded experience is live? According to a Momentum Worldwide study, it “drives an average of…
- 65% of people to recommend that brand,
- 93% to talk to others about their live branded experience,
- 59% to purchase the brand after a live experience, and
- 68% to search for additional information about the brand online.”
What’s at work in the duo of music and branding?
Writing for Forbes, Steve Olenski explores why music plays a big role when it comes to branding. Olenski quotes several experts (in both music and branding), including Eric Sheinkop. Sheinkop, author and CEO of a music licensing platform, tells Forbes, “Music brings value to a brand in three ways: identity, engagement, currency. Specifically, using music to establish an emotional connection with a brand increases brand recognition, creates excitement and buzz beyond the brand’s core products or services, and can empower consumers, giving them valuable content to discover and share. Music creates the value that brands need to win the war for attention and develop a genuine connection with their consumers. When used correctly, music not only creates loyalty, but true advocacy.”
In other words, music can very much help brands with some of the most important components of modern marketing: not only engagement and buzz, for example, but – we know it stood out to you in what Sheinkop said! – content to discover and share. And that’s exactly what we found in three music-centric marketing efforts from top financial services brands.
Gwen Stefani and Mastercard
For its “Priceless Surprises” campaign, Mastercard has partnered with Gwen Stefani. So far, the partnership includes a 30-second spot and a concert. Mastercard’s CMO told Adweek, “Gwen Stefani’s personal brand, consumer appeal and sheer energy are what make her an ideal partner to serve as an ambassador for our Priceless Surprises platform.”
Previously, the campaign, which rewards customers with surprise gifts for using their Mastercards, also tapped Justin Timberlake, who is credited by Billboard as a cofounder of the Priceless Surprise program as part of a “multiyear partnership inked with the company in 2013.”
Mastercard’s “Priceless Surprises” campaign is all about experience marketing (in this case a more-involved version of “surprise and delight). Pairing it with highly popular music – including a live concert – not only deepens the experience for customers but also gives other consumers reason to pay attention to the brand.
Chase, Apple Pay and David Guetta
In November, Chase offered a free and exclusive download of David Guetta’s album Listen when its customers added a Chase Visa card to Apple Pay. The collaboration, a content marketing campaign aimed to speed adoption of Apple Pay, offered the album to early adoptees of Apple Pay prior to the album’s official release.
Citibank and Columbia Records Partner on “Culinary Beats”
Billboard opens an early article about the “Culinary Beats” web series by reminding readers that chefs are “the new rockstars” and that many musical artists now “indulge their inner foodies.” Certainly there is great energy and buzz around both music and food, and the online content marketing effort from Citibank and Columbia Records creates content at an intersection between the two.
As reported by Billboard, “Culinary Beats” was designed as a “branded entertainment opportunity,” featuring events like “pop-up concerts at restaurants where card members have exclusive access.” The series was produced in short episodes (content that’s easily consumable and easily sharable, of course).
One episode featured Mark Foster (front man for Foster the People) sitting down with Chef Josef Centeno to talk about the song writing process… and then visiting the restaurant to cook a meal. In another, The Fray performs its hit “You Found Me” in the corner of The Little Owl, a Greenwich Village restaurant where the band also made pork chops with Chef Joey Campanaro.
The series appears at Yahoo! Screen, and both Season One and Season Two of “Culinary Beats” are available at Citi’s YouTube channel.
Takeaways
It’s not news that financial institutions understand consumer trends: as an industry, financial services has always had access to some of the most extensive behavioral data out there. But what’s exciting about these campaigns is that they represent proof that financial services marketing is becoming agile enough to act upon those consumer trends – a revived love affair with music, a desire for experiential marketing, etc. – in a more timely fashion. And when it comes to content marketing, relevance is of the utmost importance.
In addition, we’re delighted with the diversity of these campaigns. Each represents the unique attributes of its brand, and each takes into account a different goal/strategy: card use in the Mastercard example, adoption of new technology in the Chase example and for Citi, increased awareness of its dining and entertainment rewards category. Together, the campaigns show how experiential marketing and content marketing can be (and must be) personalized not just for the audience but for the brand’s business objectives.
