Not Your Grandfather's Fiddle: Country Music's Fresh Face & Broad Appeal

“It’s not your Grandfather’s fiddle! Today’s country music fan is an affluent educated middle to upper class individual. Their interests range from international travel to a good old fashioned rodeo.” - Kathy Wright, producer of Country Jam  music festivals in Wisconsin and Colorado.

Today, country music has the broadest appeal of any genre in the US. Its rise in popularity spans age and income brackets -- giving associated brands the opportunity to connect with younger consumers in a meaningful way while re-energizing their older fanbase. 

Brands who are looking to reach a broad market of consumers with real buying power are taking note.  

Contemporary country stars include glamorous Hollywood A-listers, youthful pop-crossover artists, and classic singer-songwriters with all American values. With this shift toward the mainstream, the average country music fan has changed as well. 

According to the Country Music Association’s survey of 13,000 people, 42% of the US population is a country music fan, totaling a whopping 92 million adult fans. Here are a few key numbers: 

• 40% fall in the 18-to-39 age group
• 55% fall in the 25-to-54 age group
• Average income: $75,392 (average U.S. household income in 2010 was $49,445)
• 89% are on Facebook, 58% are on Twitter

For brands from a wide range of sectors, country music has become an exciting and strategic platform for sponsorships and partnerships.

Here are a few examples of the range and variety:

• Garnier Fructis found a beauty-conscious match with the Country Music Television Awards
• Elizabeth Arden saw huge success selling Taylor Swift fragrance
• State Farm Insurance partnered with Jason Aldean for a month on tour
• Brita filters brought filtered water and environmental awareness to country festivals
• Jack in the Box rolled their Jack Burger Truck to festivals across the southeast
• Velveeta Shells & Cheese pinged singer Rodney Atkins as a fresh faced ambassador
• Clorox brands and Keith Urban gave fans a shot at an exclusive backyard BBQ

With an image that is increasingly glamorous with an all-American spirit and fans who are tech-savvy and fashionable, a country music focused campaign is a great match for brands looking for freshness, fun, and values with roots.

Imaginative Activation at SXSW: Entertaining or Overdone?

South by Southwest (SXSW) is all about the future in music, film, technology, and now -- more this year than ever before -- in interactive marketing. What began in 1987 as a small gathering of independent musicians now hosts more than 2000 performers and 40,000 attendees over three weeks of festivals and conferences.

There has been growing talk of concern among festival veterans over South By’s increasing commercialization in recent years. Marketers, therefore, had to be especially creative in order to engage this hip and savvy crowd.

Let’s just say -- this opened the doors for brands to have a lot of fun. Virgin Mobile rented a local house and invited festival attendees “to come on over to their place” for intimate backyard concerts. Skype sent out a town crier, dressed in colonial garb, to dramatically announce tweets with the “#skype” hashtag. Foursquare hosted a playground court and foursquare competition, while Warby Parker, the trendy eyewear brand, opened a three day 1920s style carnival. Each of these activations added to the fun of the festival, and were generally well-received.

Doritos took activation to a new level, though, by building a 56 foot tall, fully functioning vending machine to promote a new line of chips, Doritos Jacked. The structure rose four stories above a stage where bands performed across the week.

Enthusiastic fans rolled foot-wide quarters into a payment slot and pressed giant buttons to receive prizes or bags of the new over-sized snack. Doritos increased the fun, and the social media engagement, by hiding these quarters around town. Show-goers tweeted or “liked” the page on Facebook to receive clues to the tokens’ whereabouts.

The innovative installation wowed audiences at the festival and generated press coverage across the digital world, while showcasing new talent on the stage. It’ll be talked about for weeks to come and remembered as part of the 2012 SXSW experience.

Is over-sized activation a good thing? It depends on who you ask, but as brands are pushed to higher and higher levels of imaginative activation (pun not intended!), will they be able to keep the focus on the fun, rather than overpower the spirit of the festival?

Fashion Week Supporting Sponsors: Diet Pepsi, DHL, Maybelline, TRESemmé, & American Express

As official hair and make-up sponsors of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, TRESemmé and Maybelline activated on-site, just outside the runway tents, with plenty of product samples to share with beauty-conscious show goers.

Maybelline's activation area included a comfortable relaxation lounge, while TRESemmé's featured a second story hairsalon. The hair salon gave TRESemmé a film set overlooking the FW scene from which to shoot promotional video segments. For now, hair-related how-to videos are being posted online, but perhaps we'll see a commercial or even a segment for a TV show come out of the activation down the line.

While the beauty brands' connection to Fashion Week is obvious, what does a shipping company like DHL have to gain in such a sponsorship? As it turns out, plenty.

Numerous businesses leverage FW as chance to host clients and vendors, so DHL's presence kept their brand top of mind for the many business men and women in attendance. For their activation, DHL's marketing team enlisted budding designers at LIM's school of fashion to create evening gowns -- that were made entirely of DHL packaging. The fun designs, displayed both on mannequins and live models, definitely caught the attention of passers-by.

Soft drink brand Diet Pepsi faced a similar challenge to DHL, in determining how to link its product to attributes of Fashion Week. Last year, Diet Pepsi took on the challenge indirectly by unveiling a new can design. Slender and sexy, fashionistas throughout the tents sipped Diet Pepsis and kept the brand in the eyesight of everyone present.

This year the brand went for direct alignment - saying, in effect, "we support fashion just like you." Their set, created by Jonathan Adler, featured a display of four outfits by up-and-coming American designers. The full collections had been unveiled at a Diet Pepsi-sponsored fashion show on FW's opening night. Both the show and the support of young designers created a press-worthy narrative for the brand.

Surrounded by the nods to fashion in each of the other sponsorship activations, American Express' lounge simply gave show goers a comfortable place to rest while recharging iPads and cameras between shows. A FW sponsorship reminded show goers of the brand's positioning as the card of the wealthy and well-connected while highlighting the elevated service it provides its customers.

In the end, a visit to Fashion Week isn't just about the scene and the shows. If sponsors have activated effectively, visitors will go forward touting the brands just as much as the looks that flowed down the runway.





Title Sponsor: Mercedes-Benz

As title sponsor, Mercedes-Benz had a very visible presence, but kept their staging classy and demure. Producers set the stage for brand interaction with three different activation areas, including two auto displays and an exclusive lounge.

Mercedes integrated their current ad campaign, Icons of Style, into an auto display set as a Hollywood photo shoot. The campaign itself features photographs of supermodel Lara Stone in a vast, barren landscape alongside her get-away car, the SL Roadster. The activation, then, included the actual car set against a similar backdrop and created a chic photo op for show goers. The wild landscape let viewers sense the freedom of a ride in a Roadster while linking the brand to the high style of Fashion Week.

A second auto display featured a Mercedes SUV against a backdrop of a designer boutique turned fine art gallery. Here, Mercedes displayed their paints and wood interiors using a series of multihued stilettos and chic wooden handbags. A finely etched placard directed visitors to a website where they could enter a sweepstakes after creating a Mercedes-themed Polyvore set. This was a great way to carry the activation beyond the event itself, as it engaged consumers in a design experience involving both FW Collections and Mercedes branding.

In addition to the auto displays, Mercedes welcomed fashion's elite into their intimate bar and lounge. The subtly marked entrance created an air of exclusivity that smoothly aligned with their brand positioning. This was the place to be and be seen, alongside celebrities like Kristin Chenoweth and Vera Wang. The space felt intimate and elegant, easily creating positive brand association for visitors who sipped Moet champagne and wooed over cupcakes featuring the Benz logo. Interiors created by a team of renowned designers and contemporary artist Stephanie Hirsch left visitors with the feeling that high fashion and the Mercedes-Benz brand go hand in hand.

2012 Fashion Week (Fall/Winter Collections): The Rundown

The pinnacle of chic design and savvy culture, New York's Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week has been on the minds of many a trendsetter over the past month. For FW's official sponsors, this is a prime opportunity to build brand image and awareness. Brands who utilize this partnership effectively can powerfully augment their image. From sexy stilettos to salon services, here's a run-down of how brands activated this year under the big white tents.

Dior leverages Art Basel traffic and coverage for first pop-up

Sometimes you get just as much press and coverage by NOT being a sponsor but activating around an event! Christian Dior launched its first ever pop-up in Miami, in the heart of the design district and in conjunction with Art Basel (December 1-4).

The 3,100 square foot shop will be open November 28th through December 12th,

highlighting the brand to an art savvy crowd. The pop-up is a collaboration between the brand and German artist Anselm Reyle.

The beautiful space features gigantic video screens, vibrant colors, vintage Louis XVI chairs covered in colorful prints, all created by Reyle.

And the bonus... a food truck outside will serve French pastries from 11am to 1pm every day. A great first pop-up leveraging a densely

populated artsy crowd!

Coca-Cola Reinvents back to its Core

A lot of times huge brands rely on their name and branding to stay relevant and keep the brand on top. Knowing that by building a lifetime consumer you will keep them interested in you by just your product.

In today's fast paced, “need the next best thing” society, holding on to consumers takes more then delivering a good

product. Case in point - Coca-Cola.

The brand has been around for 125 years and has built a reputation for their classic look, ad campaigns and family friendly marketing. While they have loyal consumers they still wander to the other side to try the sexy new look of a competitor.

After doing some soul searching the company realized they "lost their way through arrogance and hubris" (according to Joe Tripodi, chief marketing and commercial officer for the brand). So in 2011 they decided to reinvent themselves with some very good results.

This year the 125 year old brand enlisted in a new marketing campaign that instead of using the old mass-marketed, big brand model on every product, they have broken up their products and given the smaller ones their own identity as well as adding new outlets under the Coca-cola umbrella.

By using the brand's name they were able to land strategic partnerships like with the World Wildlife Funds polar-bear conservation efforts (remember the cute holiday Coke polar bears… genius!). Through the partnership, the brand will turn 1.4 billion Coke cans white to help raise awareness of the cause.

They also have been pulling some creative stunts to get the most out of all of their campaigns. This year, Coca-Cola Freestyle, their touch screen soda fountain that holds up to 125 different flavored beverages, launched a teen-focused campaign with Maroon 5, who hosted a "24 Hour Jam Session," which followed the band while creating an original song for the campaign.

With these new approaches Coca-cola has seen a 3% increase in growth this year to date, in a mature category with heavy competition. Just goes to show, sometimes you have to think outside of the [Coke] can.