The advertising giant WPP has formed a joint venture with the music producer and songwriter Alex Da Kid, a move that represents a deeper push by the company into branded content.
The new venture, which will be formally announced here on Tuesday during the annual Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, will work with brands and ad agencies to create marketing campaigns built around music.
“It just trails what we’ve been doing in content,” Martin Sorrell, the chief executive of WPP, said in an interview on Monday at the Grand Hyatt Cannes Hôtel Martinez. “Our business continues to be under pressure — our industry continues to be under pressure. We’ve had to develop new approaches.”
“This is another string in our bow,” he added.
The venture, called KidinaKORNERCreate, reflects a broader effort in the advertising industry to create content that blurs the line between marketing and entertainment.
The idea is to connect with increasingly savvy consumers, particularly young viewers, and offer them a compelling reason not to skip or mute ads.
Mr. Sorrell compared Alex Da Kid, who runs the Interscope Records label KIDinaKORNER and has worked with successful artists like Eminem and Nicki Minaj, to a modern-day Rick Rubin, the famed music producer behind Def Jam Records.
Alex Da Kid said working with WPP would allow him to extend the work he has already done with big brands, including Jeep, Target and Budweiser, on marketing campaigns.
He said he wanted to turn music into more of a direct branding tool for advertisers that would shape the creative strategy for campaigns.
“I kind of wanted to change the model a little bit and make music higher up on the food chain,” he said.
“I don’t want to be an afterthought,” he added. “With Martin, it helps to be in that conversation earlier.”
WPP’s bet on music is not without risks.
More consumers are watching videos online and on mobile devices, where video advertisements often run automatically without sound, particularly on platforms like Facebook. And consumers often mute ads on television that run in real time or skip them altogether if they are watching on-demand or recorded shows.
There is also the matter of persuading artists and bands, who have historically shunned corporate cash, to link up so directly with a brand. But for many musicians these days, the opportunity to jump-start or bolster a career mitigates the appearance of selling out.
Virgin Money, for instance, recently announced it would use the Sex Pistols’ name and artwork on a series of credit cards. And U2 teamed with Apple last year, releasing a new album, “Songs of Innocence,” free through iTunes as part of the company’s product announcement last September.
Young musical artists, faced with a struggling record industry, have rushed to connect with marketers in the hopes of gaining exposure early in their careers.
Brands, in turn, want to align themselves with emerging artists for the lift their products might enjoy if the artists succeed.
For his part, Alex Da Kid said connecting music with brands was a mutually beneficial relationship.
“I found working with brands is very advantageous to developing an artist,” he said. “Ultimately, what I do and what brands do are very similar.”
As for selling out by commercializing music?
No way, he said, “Selling in.”
“In this new world, we both have the same goals,” he said, adding, “If you make great content, I think people will want to be engaged.” [New York Times]
