Every brand needs to think like an artist and every artist needs to think like a brand.
With a background as a talent agent, I’m quite familiar with what it takes to find, develop, and nurture artists early on in their careers. And breaking brands is similar: very complicated!
We all understand the power of having a good brand (everyone’s a brand nowadays), but starting one? That’s different. With the times changing so fast, the rules and formulas are a moving target.
One of the most creative and successful brand builders of our time is Emily Heyward, founder and Chief Brand Officer of Red Antler. Emily fully understands the power of building lovable brands and has been behind success stories such as All Birds and Casper. Red Antler is truly the brand creation darling of New York’s tech & D2C scene.
Six years ago when Nue decided to transition from representing talent to working on behalf of brands, we called Emily first thing. Her team helped orchestrate the rebrand of Nue. Even though Emily and I have been friends for decades, I had never had the chance to see her professional genius in action up close. The results came straightaway.
Now we’ve hit another sea-change moment. The live experience is off the table for the time being. The shift from phigital to fully digital is real. Artists are being forced to look inward at what they stand for as a brand. How can they make up lost tour revenue? What resonates with their fanbase?
Some artists and labels are using mood boards and such around album rollouts, but that’s just a fraction of the holistic pie. Emily, on the other hand, has brand building down to a science and now she’s taking her brand and philosophies to new heights with her first book, Obsessed: Building A Brand People Love From Day One. You can pick up your copy here.
On this week’s Beats & Bytes Live, we’re going to talk about brand building and all of its nuances. It’s going to be a passionate, informative, insider conversation on building & breaking brands in the Covid-19 era and beyond.
Tune in at 5pm EST tonight on my LinkedIn page!
