The Power of Music: Turning it up to 11

Steve Biondolillo, Silicon Valley

Music evokes passion. That comment shouldn’t surprise anyone.

Music is with us everywhere—at home, in our cars, walking down the street, in the office, or out at night. While our tastes vary, it’s music, in a lot of ways, that connects us all together. We share our playlists, our concert photos and don’t hesitate to recommend a song or band to our friends. (The Black Keys, Vampire Weekend and Keane are top my playlist these days).

Because it’s universal, there is power in music and those who create it. As marketers, we look for ways to ignite the passion and emotion that music can evoke to inspire consumers to take action. The right music can make a campaign. The right song can set the tone for the creative. The right artist or band can even move consumers to consider a brand or product.

Selecting the right artist or band to partner with and, more importantly, determining what value the partnership will bring to consumers are the most critical elements to a successful campaign. The right partnership can bring a campaign to life and deliver the desired outcomes—whether it’s to raise awareness, deepen ties within a community or change behavior.

For example, we just wrapped up a program with HP that followed three indie bands on their road to South by Southwest (SXSW) Music Festival. Here’s what we created with the band, Young the Giant (great up-and-coming band to watch):

This partnership worked because it provided indie music fans unique content and insights into Young the Giant that they wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. It also opened up the door for HP to have an authentic conversation with young people at SXSW about music quality. By creating compelling, exclusive content, HP inspired consumers to share and comment on the videos, publicly state their gratitude to HP for creating the videos, and even recommend the product to their networks.

Music can be an extremely powerful tool to inspire consumers. The next time you set out to create a program around music, consider the value that you’re delivering to consumers through the campaign. Are you giving music fans an exclusive behind-the-scenes look? Are you providing them with music that no one else has? How does your product enable their passions?  Can anyone else deliver the same experience?

Find that sweet spot where music and your product intersect and then, turn it up to 11.