Flavor Flav famously screamed out, “Don’t believe the hype!” Despite being recently and repeatedly referred to as the Jewish, marketing version of Flava Flav by some of your favorite stars and editors, I’d have to disagree with him here.
The job of the artist is not just to create the work, but to position it for the world to see. People need to be able to experience your output. You are a vessel for your art. After you create it, you need to ship it.
The same goes for brands. It’s not just a brand’s job to make products, but to market them, too.
In a changing landscape where people are dealing with a down economy, tariffs, inflation, and vast uncertainty, we need new music to uplift and help us cope. In many cases, the same goes for new products.
Artists need to think like brands and brand marketers need to think like artists. But how?
Well, the core of the endeavor is to find your consumers, find your tribe, and give your people what they want. They will remember you this way and your market will grow. The only way to build your brand is to put your work out.
Anonymity feels like a hip trend right now, but as an artist or brand, you need to get your work in front of folks, and it’s tough to do that behind an iron curtain of coyness and cool.
There are seasoned tricks of the trade when it comes to making deep connections with your consumers at scale, and I’m not saying that content marketing is easy, either on the brand or the artist side. But there are experts sharing gratuitously on the daily who you can tap in with, and there are agents you can bring in to help you. The methodologies for breaking artists and brands are similar. Hype men and women can help set the stage and accentuate your points.
They say it’s the author’s job to sell the first 10,000 books, and it’s the book’s job to sell the rest. Artists need to think the same way. Getting from 0 to 1 is tough in a market saturated with synthetic content. But authenticity is the frequency that will cut through the noise.
As we head into Memorial Day weekend with the whole summer in front of us, I ask: What do you want to create? Who do you want to receive it? You must be prepared to ship, because it’s go time!
Astronomer was smart to capitalize on the attention and use this moment to tell their story and build their brand. We’ll see if it works. But who’s really laughing to the bank? Coldplay. The band hasn’t been this relevant since they made that Apple Commercial for “Viva La Vida” 17 years ago.
Their tour has become a cultural phenomenon and has everyone talking again. Their streams are also feeling a major bump, up 25% and even more in sales since the Kiss Cam incident that Chris Martin called out himself when he saw it.
Perhaps a more genuinely exciting story is unfolding for music lovers, though. Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks surprised fans with news of the reissue of their 1973 debut, “Buckingham Nicks,” half a century after its original release.
Fleetwood Mac has had a resurgence since the Doggface Cranberry drinking video blew up on TikTok. A whole new generation discovered the band’s music before the beautifully done Broadway show, Stereophonic, gave us a peek into the studio lore behind the making of their classic, “Rumours.”
The timing is great for Stevie Nicks, who has been capitalizing on the renewed energy of Fleetwood Mac for a while. Her dates with Billy Joel have been canceled but she’s moving to arenas on her own, a long awaited moment for many.
The reunion with Buckingham wasn’t with a press release, it was teased by social media chatter. In a deliberate move, the music is only available via physical release; no streaming, turning nostalgia into a cultural, collectible event, not just a playlist addition. This is a great reminder for fans that, in our world of instant everything, sometimes the stuff that really matters is what we have to wait for, talk about, and experience together. Fans old and new are lining up, swapping stories, and making this music part of their lives all over again.
Certainly an on stage cameo is in the works. Maybe this will lead to the creation of some new music (fingers crossed) or a hologram show of Fleetwood Mac then and now. They are one of the only living acts that could pull off what ABBA has with their hit hologram residency in the UK. It has been a technological marvel and monetization at its finest, as ABBA makes money playing shows while they are home in their PJs. It’s all on the table for FM, since the roll-out was so enticing, even the install of the new big fat billboard on Sunset has us looking.
This begs the question: what is marketing genius? As marketers, we love the shiny new playbooks but sometimes it comes down to timing, capturing moments, being impromptu, and acting fast. Sometimes, anticipation and community matter more than instant access. And what works always has: love stories, breakups, beefs…and rumours.