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FOREWORD
You are probably already aware that the social media network
platforms will be of greater importance in your brand communicationin the future. The questions are: How do you enter into this market ofdialogue? How do you market in a digital culture where traditional
advertising doesn’t work? How do you engage your customers andtransform this engagement into business for your brand? Could music
branding be the key to unlocking the potential of these platforms?
This white paper focuses on the role of music in social media
networks and how brands can utilise its power to reach audiencesthat are avoiding traditional advertising. It argues for a model of fourEs, where emotions, engagement, experiences and exclusivity are
becoming the important ingredients to catch and keep customers’
attention. It also presents a case study of how Intel successfully usedmusic to generate brand awareness and turned customers into fans.

Jakob Lusensky
CEO & Founder, Heartbeats International
jakob@heartbeats.fm
www.heartbeats.fm

This is an extract from the book ‘Sounds Like Branding’ by Heartbeats Internationalfounder, Jakob Lusensky.

www.soundslikebranding.com3

INTRODUCTION: THE FOUR Es

4Heartbeats International

INTRODUCTION:THE FOUR Es
The same digital technology that changed the music industry is changing
advertising as we know it. In a world where everyone is connected all
the time and customers are in charge of the remote control, the rules ofcommunication have transformed. When research reveals that as manyas 75% actively avoid advertising, whether on TV, radio, billboards orbanners (SIFO Institute), a new approach is needed.
In a marketplace where people are paying
less attention, whilst more than 20 000 brands
are launched every year, old truths die hard.
The old marketing mix of the four Ps of price,product, placement and promotion is becoming
outdated. In the marketplace of today there isneed for a new model.

MUSICBRANDING

In a world of branding, Ps must become Es. In
today’s market the new words to look out forare emotions, experiences, engagement andexclusivity, ingredients that make up the very
essence of music branding.
Music branding is communication throughemotions. Music engages people in conversation
and when providing exclusive content creates
memorable experiences. Music branding assuch offers a strategic way to reach consumers
in ways that traditional advertising can’t.

MUSIC BRANDING AS SUCH
OFFERS A STRATEGIC WAY
TO REACH CONSUMERS IN
WAYS THAT TRADITIONAL
ADVERTISING CAN’T

Maybe this is why brands are looking into music branding. The ‘Sounds Like Branding’survey presented earlier this year revealed that 7 out of 10 brands say music will
become more important in their brand communication in the future.

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MARKETING IN A SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

MARKETING IN A
SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD
If Facebook was a country it would be the fourth largest in the world.
With more than 300 million users, Facebook is the giant among socialnetworks. Add the 125 million Myspace users and services like Twitterand Last.fm, and you have a global market that makes most marketers
ache with longing. Combined with the fact that people are spending
more time on-line and less time watching TV, it’s no wonder that brands
want to get into the social media world.
Social networks aren’t only growing in size, they are growing in importance. A study
by Beresford Research showed that when asked to compare online social networkingwith ofﬂine activities, social network users only found going out with friends more
important. And 50% said they considered
50% SAID THEY CONSIDERED
information shared on their networks
INFORMATION SHARED ON THEIR
before making a purchase decision.
NETWORKS BEFORE MAKING A
Clearly consumers are doing more then
PURCHASE DECISION
just playing around.
Social networks are the promised lands for brands. But companies trying to get in thedoor soon notice that the traditional rules of communication don’t apply. On social
media networks brands and consumers are equals. Social media networks are all about
dialogue, conversation and interaction. This means that you cannot buy attention.
For brands to be successful they have to have to join the conversation and behave likefriends. Friends are honest and talk to each other as equals. They offer each other thingsof value and they cannot be bought. These are the key elements for brands in the social
media sphere. To be successful you need to give people value whilst being authentic
and open.

6Heartbeats International

5 RULES FOR COMMUNICATING ON
SOCIAL MEDIA

VALUE
What value do you create by taking part in the dialogue?
Why is your brand interesting?

AUTHENTICITY
People are smart (just like yourself). You cannot fool them, so be honest
and authentic.

DIALOGUE
You participate in a dialogue and you should communicate
accordingly - more like a friend talking to a friend than a company toa consumer.

ENGAGEMENT
Make your ‘story’ interesting, interactive and easy to spread.

MEASURE
It’s never been easier. Set clear campaign goals and milestones in orderto clearly measure the effect of your campaign.

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SOCIAL MUSIC REVOLUTIONSOCIAL MUSICREVOLUTIONIN RECENT YEARS TECHNOLOGY HAS CHANGED HOW PEOPLE CONSUME
MUSIC AND THIS HAS CREATED A LOT OF NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR US,ESPECIALLY WORKING WITH SOCIAL MEDIA AND LEARNING FROM HOWOUR CUSTOMERS INTERACT WITH MUSIC ON THESE PLATFORMS.
- Umut Ozaydinli, Global Music Marketing Manager at Coca-Cola

Music moves us. So much that research from Millward Brown andBrandamp shows it’s the media that people would least like to live without.
The same research shows that, on average, people listen to music onmore than ﬁve different platforms and for a growing number of hours
per day. The younger they are, the longer they listen.
The explosion of ‘free’ and accessible music has had a huge effect on social media
networks. Some of the most talked about and popular services that have appeared in
the last ten years, such as Napster, iTunes, MySpace, Last.fm, Pandora and Spotify,
all revolve around music. The rapidly growing social media service Twitter has morethan ten different music add-on services (suchas Blip.fm, Imeem, Tweetmusic and Twitty Tunes
AFTER TV, MUSIC IS THE
just to name a few). More than half of those who
MEDIUM OF CHOICE FOR
surf social network sites do so in order to ﬁnd
MOST KIDS, ESPECIALLYor socialise around music, and the Entertainment
OLDER TEENSMedia Research reports show that two out of- Donald F. Roberts, Jr., Ph.D.,
ﬁve social networkers have music embedded in
Professor of Communication attheir personal proﬁle. Without a doubt, music is
Stanford University
an engine that helps to facilitate the exponential
growth of online social networks.

8Heartbeats International

STRATEGIES FOR WORKING WITH MUSIC ONSOCIAL MEDIA NETWORKS
In music branding, as in all communication,
deﬁning clear and measurable objectives
should form the basis of any activity.
What do you want to achieve by working
with music? Is it about generating brandawareness, increasing brand equity
or building loyalty? Based on a clear
understanding of your objectives, youcan begin to establish the strategy and/or creative concept that will help you toachieve your overall goals.
In order to follow the four Es of emotionallyengaging with the target group and creatingexclusive experiences, it’s no longer
enough to offer just music. You have to offer
music that both connects with your brandand creates true value for your customers.
In order to ﬁnd the right solution for yourbrand there are some basic strategies
to keep in mind. In order to understandwhich strategy works best for your brand,
the target group demographics, online
behaviour and brand values need to beanalysed ﬁrst.

- Sarah Tinsley,
Heartbeats International Network(former Global Experiential
Marketing Manager at Bacardi)

Three examples of strategies:

1CONSUMER INSIGHT ISCRITICAL TO SUCCESS; THEIRBEHAVIOURS AND MOTIVATIONSSHOULD BE CONSIDERED AN
IMPERATIVE. UNDERSTANDING
AND HARNESSING HOW FANSCONSUME AND INTERACTWITH MUSIC WILL ULTIMATELYDETERMINE THE SUCCESS OF
A CAMPAIGN.

2
ASSOCIATIONSTRATEGY

3
INVOLVEMENTSTRATEGYEXPLORATIONSTRATEGY

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SOCIAL MUSIC REVOLUTION

1ASSOCIATIONCONNECTING TO ARTISTS THAT CONNECT TO AUDIENCES

Associating with a speciﬁc artist or taking a unique position within a genre of music
can be a great way for a brand to enhance brand equity and build a more emotional
connection to consumers. A good example is the case of Groove Armada andBacardi. As a record label, Bacardi signed the club act Groove Armada and offered
their customers exclusive recordings available through an online media platform.
The campaign made full use of the power of social media by offering free exclusive
digital recordings on the premise that consumers would spread the music to theirfriends. With an association strategy, the Bacardi campaign resulted not only in positive
brand afﬁnity and extensive press coverage but also created a snowball effect wherecustomers spread the music and engaged actively with the brand. In this way, Bacardi
made friends and fans of the brand where before there had been only consumers.

The Groove Armada B-Live campaign from Bacardi

2INVOLVEMENTCROWD SURFING IN A DIGITAL WORLDMusic works as an engine for interaction on social media networks because of its
engaging content. Music motivates people to engage with each other. This is why
music is a great way for brands to interact with consumers. One way to do this isthrough co-creation, or what is sometimes called ‘crowd-surﬁng’.

10Heartbeats International

Crowd-surﬁng can be done indifferent ways. A popular method has
been initiating remix competitions
on social media networks such as
MySpace or Soundcloud. Customers
are invited to remix music fromparticular artists and to share theirresults with each other. This typeof strategy naturally works bestwhen the target group is either anartist community or more hard-corefollowers. But it can also be used forengaging with wider audiences.
Other examples of ‘crowd-surﬁng’ are the many different campaigns that are launchedon the music service Spotify. With Spotify, brands give customers the opportunity toupload music mixes and share playlists with each other around a theme connected tothe brand campaign. For a deeper look into a successful involvement strategy we will
present a case study from Intel (see page 13).

3EXPLORATION
THE ROAD TO NEW MUSIC EXPERIENCES

An exploration strategy means guiding people to new music and artists that they haven’t
heard before. This could be done through launching new artists in afﬁliation with thebrand or by organising talent scout competitions. A good example of a brand utilising
a successful exploration strategy is the ‘Ramp Music’ project initiated by the Proctor& Gamble brand Duracell in Scandinavia. Creating an online campaign platform,
Duracell organised unsigned artists to compete against each other in a talentquest. The winner was decided by the audience through anonline voting procedure and received marketing
funds through the brand’s marketing channels tothe value of around €100 000. The campaign
was an overall success. It helped to position
the brand in the artist community and at thesame time increase brand awareness within thetarget audience.

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THE KEY TO SUCCESSTHE KEYS TO SUCCESS
We have learnt that music is a powerful tool for brands aiming to getcloser to consumers. Music is a natural and integral part of the social
media landscape and when used the right way it is an effective strategy
for reaching the target audience.
As presented earlier, music can be used in a variety of ways by utilising a number ofdifferent strategies. No matter which strategy you choose, you should be aware that intoday’s marketplace it takes more than just music to create attention. At a time when music
is available and is free of charge everywhere, brands need to realise the importance ofexclusivity. Brands need to offer music that consumers can’t ﬁnd anywhere else. This may
involve offering exclusive songs before their ofﬁcial release, exclusive interviews with theartist, unique recordings, or live shows speciﬁcally for the brand.
Another factor to take into account is the importance of making music free and easy tospread. This means avoiding so-called DMR copy protection as much as possible because
this limits the word-of-mouth and viral effects that you often want to achieve. Of course thismeans that you need to get record companies, artists and rights holders on board.

THE FIVE KEYS TO SUCCESS
1 ADD VALUE Adding music does not necessarily mean adding value. Be clear
about which strategic pathway offers extra value to your brand and target group.
2 MATCH BAND & BRAND Hitching a brand name to an artist is all about credibility.
The link needs to be trustworthy to the consumers. To be successful, consumers needto believe that the brand and the band could be friends in real life. The music concept
has to clearly drive brand recognition and match with your overall objectives.
3 OFFER EXCLUSIVE CONTENT To just offer music is not enough. You need to offer
something new and exclusive that cannot be found anywhere else.
4 MAKE IT FREE To ensure a ‘word-of-mouth’ effect, the music should be ‘free’. It
needs to be easy to share and easy to pass on to others.
5 ANALYSE IT The campaign activity should have a clear analysis of the target
group, which platforms they prefer and the type of dialogue that they engage in,before the concept and choice of artist is decided. Lack of homework will ultimately
cause even the best concepts to fall short of their aim.

12Heartbeats InternationalCASE STUDY: INTELCASE STUDYINTEL POWERS MUSICBACKGROUNDIntel was quick to establish a strategic
approach to music. The key factor
was that many artists make use of theirtechnology when writing and creatingmusic. With more than 1.8 million
people in Europe creating music insome capacity, who often act as opinion
leaders, Intel rightly identiﬁed themas a key target group for inﬂuencing
consumer patterns. Intel identiﬁed that bycommunicating and engaging with thisaudience they could increase demand
for their products.
OBJECTIVES To position Intel’s brand and its
values in the mind of the target group
 To establish a closer tie andrelationship between musicians andartists and Intel’s technology, products
and the brand.

 To reach out with the message
that professional music-making
requires high quality technology andequipment.
 To create a ‘cool factor’ around thebrand in the mind of opinion makers,
in this case musicians and artists,getting them to stand behind Inteland communicate these values totheir fans.
SOLUTION
In order to achieve these objectives,Intel launched the digital platform ‘IntelPowers Music’ as a community on thesocial networking site MySpace. Every
member on MySpace has their own
music player that allows them to present
four songs. With ‘Intel Powers Music’,Intel wanted to offer artists something
more, something that both adds value
on MySpace whilst at the same timewww.soundslikebranding.com

13CASE STUDY: INTEL

demonstrating how technology canboth simplify and improve the artists’creative process.
For all members of Intel’s community,
Intel developed an add-on that allowed
members to upload a ﬁfth track to their
proﬁle. Intel also offered members
advice from professionals in the musicindustry. By doing so they provided
members with true value, deepening therelationship with their core audience andIntel’s message was communicated in acreative way.
Having reached artists, Intel also wanted
to reach the artists’ fans. Therefore Intel
launched ‘Intel Super Group’, which
is an open section of MySpace. HereIntel invited everyone to design record
covers and suggest band names. This
was a crowd-surﬁng activity that inspired
members to interact with Intel andthat increased the engaging aspect of
the campaign.
RESULTThe campaign resulted in massive
attention in both digital as well as intraditional media. The website had
6 million page views and more than
42 000 people from 46 countries joined
their ‘community’. At the same time, morethan 19 000 bands and artists addedIntel as a friend on their MySpace page.
The campaign clearly demonstrates how14Heartbeats Internationala brand can use music to offer real value
to its customers by using an effective andcredible strategy. With the campaign,Intel created friends and fans of thebrand, not just consumers.

RESULT OVERVIEW Over 6 million page views More than 19 000 bands andperformers added Intel as a friend
on MySpace 42 000 people became friends withthe brand via ‘Intel Powers Music’ More than 33.5% recognised
and remembered Intel’s activity
on MySpace Close to 70% ranked the ‘IntelPowers Music’ Initiative as“Excellent / quite good”

HEARTBEATSINTERNATIONAL
This is an extract taken from the book ‘Sounds Like Branding’ that is to bereleased in 2010. It is written by Jakob Lusensky, founder and CEO ofthe brand communication agency Heartbeats International. Heartbeats
International is specialised in helping brands to connect with audiences
through music. From their ofﬁces in Stockholm, Tokyo and New York they
are on a mission to make hearts beat everywhere.
For more cases and work from Heartbeats visit:www.heartbeats.fm
To learn more about music’s role in branding visit:www.soundslikebranding.com
For business enquiries and more information
please contact lukas@heartbeats.fm
or call +46 (0)8 501 189 90

CLIENT LIST:

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Heartbeats International AB
Phone +46 (0)8 501 189 90
e-mail info@heartbeats.fm
www.heartbeats.fm
www.heartbeatsmovement.com
www.soundslikebranding.com
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