SIDE B
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LOOKING FOR AN ANSWER
Track 4
Analysis
The literature I explored in the archives describes that partnerships need to be more authentic and tap into emotions, but fails to describe what exactly that looks like. With my research, I managed to identify four dimensions that can serve as a roadmap for effective and innovative partnerships. After numerous interviews with industry professionals both on the brand and the band side, as well as 6 music lovers, I was able to identify a few of the key ingredients for great collaboration - escapism, authenticity, emotions, and connection and community.
We will not only look at how we can transfer the feelings music evokes in people onto partnerships, but also explore what effective partnerships look like and on what platforms they can live on.
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So without further ado, I present to you: A new era of brand and band partnerships.
SUBTRACK 1: Escapism
Drift Away
One of the most prominent findings is that people use music as a form of escapism. And before we preach to brands and bands that partnerships need to offer escapism, we first need to find out what that means to listeners nowadays. We can’t project the escapism of 1969, where hippies smoked spliffs at Woodstock, onto people who were forced into their homes because of a pandemic.
Indeed, over the past decade, the meaning of escapism has continuously changed. Especially during lockdown, the term was given an entirely new meaning. We couldn’t escape the confines and monotony of our homes by simply booking a weekend getaway or going on a night out (or sharing a joint while watching Jimi Hendrix live).
Overnight our screens became windows to different environments transporting people into otherworldly escapes. The frustration of being locked inside the same space has made us hungry for a change of scenery that didn’t resemble our own four walls and music has been a great tool to do that. My respondents described these environments as different planets, adventures, and journeys.
“It’s a heightening of senses, an interruption of thoughts, a visitation from another planet. It is like an adventure.”
This shows us that escapism means getting away from boring routines, stressful thoughts, and the same frustrating news articles. The fact that the participants have repeatedly called it an adventure or a journey shows us that they are yearning for change, excitement, and discovery.
Furthermore, escapism is feeding people’s imagination and serves as a tool for stimulus that otherwise would be hard to get from being locked in your home. Another person compared this escape to fireworks, something we know as bright, exciting, and surprising.
“It’s like a stream of consciousness, it is inspiring, I get ideas, I discover more music.”
“When I listen to music, everything else fades away and reality transforms into fireworks so mesmerizing that I completely stop existing.”
Another component that might seem different from the metaphor of fireworks at first, is the comparison of music and meditation, something one respondent mentioned in regards to music.
Meditation implies mindfulness and complete calmness and indeed, a lot of people turned to meditation as a way to cope with the pandemic. And even though the concepts of firework and meditation seem different, they do show links. While staring at fireworks you take in every detail
“It's a type of meditation in itself. I lose my perception of time. It's amazing and I don't think anyone can describe it let alone in a single word.”
around you that you might miss in your daily life, which is the same principle of meditation. Yet where meditation can be seen as a tool to escape, it can also be seen as anti-escape as you practice how to live in the moment and develop complete awareness of your surroundings.
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Respondents have talked about the fact that listening to music has offered them an escape from their daily routines, however, others mentioned that live music can also provide a powerful physical escape. Live gigs were completely wiped out in 2020, however, with lockdown being lifted there is a need to bring back live events, since physical escape is irreplaceable.
While creating the prototype I successfully managed to encode escapism both physically and digitally by creating a new environment, or a room if you will. My goal was to help fans escape from their monochrome homes and stressful routines and bring them into a different environment filled with music, colour, and excitement. I did it by using the power of storytelling.
When telling a story we hook people and take them on a journey into a different world. Furthermore, I intensified the fan involvement by using immersive tools such as sight, sound, and smell to make the experience more real and had them physically and digitally walk through a new world.
I discovered that it was especially easy by using a company and an artist that already offer an element of escapism to the customer or listener.
While building the prototype I was unsuccessful in integrating the element of meditation, since it is hard to understand it in terms of escapism. Indeed, during the testing phase, I found that offering the listener an escape through a change of environment, storytelling and immersive tools was much stronger.
In conclusion, escapism in a post-pandemic world embodies a change of environments (physically and digitally), excitement to experience something new, an immersive journey through storytelling, and an element of surprise. Encoding this theme into a partnership can make it more desirable, exciting, and effective as we move from involving fans through a hashtag to involving them immersively in the centre of the partnership on different kinds of platforms.
However, partnerships need to be grounded in more than just pure escapism to resonate, they also need to be authentic.
To get the best result, I created a collaboration between the travel brand Airbnb, which embodies escapism, adventure, and discovery, and Mahogany Sessions, a channel known for filming acoustic songs in remote and hidden locations around London. Furthermore, Mahogany is known for its platform to discover new music and secluded places in London.
To tell a story I want to enable artists to pick a house or location they connect with and which embodies the vibe of their songs. Not only do we learn about the story of the house, but also about what connects the artist to that location. By enabling people to book a stay in the house or explore it in an activation and online I offer both physical and online escapes.
While exploring the house, the listeners would be fully immersed in the music with 3D or 8D audio (please wear headphones to try 3D/8D audio, it will change your life) and those visiting the physical locations will be able to experience different smells encountered around the home, such as the fireplace, fresh flowers, or linen.
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Music at the Core
Another key element that describes authenticity is the fact that people prefer to have the music at the front and center of the partnership.
"Brands should be in the background and not distract the music."
And since brands are interested in the listener as a potential customer, they need to find a genuine role to play in music and support the overarching culture of the artists and their music, because that is what the listeners care about.
Listeners prefer to notice the brand without having it distract from the content they love. By saying that the brand should be in the background, one respondent used a visual metaphor of depth. This means that authenticity can be seen multi-dimensional and shows that it matters where you present different branding elements such as banners or posters. While some can be closer to the reader, others should be further away in the background and if the artist is closer to the viewer, it is more authentic.
Cause over Profit
Nowadays consumers are taking a strong stance in terms of their values and want brands to do the same, especially with movements for climate, inclusivity and diversity. Indeed, four participants mentioned that they would support partnerships that support a cause they care about and believe that partnerships are more authentic when they are grounded in a good cause.
“If it’s about a good cause I would always support it.”
Furthermore, some of my interviewees said that they are immediately supportive of brands that harness the power of inclusivity and diversity. Two respondents specifically mentioned that they are bothered by the fact that brands rarely support new talent, especially females.
“I never really see big brands with emerging talent. Especially new female talent. I’d be there for that.”
As we have seen in the literature review, there is a painful abundance of branding experts telling brands to be authentic. Something my tutor Paul Caplan would describe as “generalized bollocks”.
Indeed, my respondents feel that partnerships should be authentic and preferably support a good cause. So let’s dig deeper to understand what exactly authenticity encompasses.
Trust and Believability
Four of my interviewees said that they understand why artists partner with brands but feel that the majority of partnerships are unbelievable and therefore inauthentic.
“Big artists often do multiple brand deals at a time and then it’s unbelievable. I doubt they use all those products on a regular basis.”
Believability is the main keyword here since it is important for fans that artists only promote products they passionately stand behind and products that align with their values. One respondent believed that once an artist continuously agrees to brand deals they just want to keep earning more and more money which makes it unbelievable and also untrustworthy.
“When it’s bigger artists or brands I often think it’s just about money. And then I think it’s annoying, because I feel like they are trying to fool me and I lose trust.”
Indeed, we often feel fooled or annoyed when a brand or an influencer keeps telling us to buy a product. Not just because it’s unbelievable but because it becomes clear that the main goal is sales and profit of the company. There is no story, no emotion, no connection, and therefore no trust.
We trust people we can relate to, people who are vulnerable, and show their true selves. And what better way to do than by telling a story and creating a world or a context for the partnership to exist in, that shows how the artist connects to the brand.
SUBTRACK 2: Authenticity
You've Got to Stand For Something
While thinking about authenticity in a 3-dimensional way, I encoded the element into my prototype by making sure that the artist is in the centre of the partnership. I tried to encode the brand as the backdrop for the artists and their music. While this was easy to do physically, it turned out that the digital version was harder, since you are only looking at a screen. Yet by using AR, or combining physical and digital, it is possible to project an artist into your surroundings, which again creates that multidimensional perspective that simultaneously respects the mindset of the viewer when listening to music.
It would potentially even be possible to add more brands in the background that further support the environment, however, these would also have to be authentic in a sense that they support the context and do not seem like they are intruding on the space.
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By keeping the artist in the centre I was also able to encode trust by including the element of storytelling, especially by using immersive tools such as sight, sound, and smell. As soon as you let the artist tell a story and have the brand support that narrative, you build trust and gain loyal customers.
I also discovered that believability is deeply connected by what brand and band you choose for the partnership, so it is important to make sure that the values of both entities are aligned.
Surprisingly I found it hard to include a good cause in the prototype without disturbing the other elements that make partnerships effective, such as escapism. The moment you put a cause at the heart of the partnership, you place the music and the artist in the background. And even though a good cause is important, I found that it would take away a special part of listening to music. However regarding inclusivity and diversity, again it depends on what brand and band you match up with each other.
In conclusion, to build authenticity in a partnership the listener has to believe the artist and trust that they are partnering with a brand they repeatedly use, which can be done through storytelling. Furthermore, the listener wants the music and the artist at the core of the partnership and prefers the brand to be in the background.
This theme is one of the most crucial findings for effective brand and band partnerships. Partnerships can have brilliant creative ideas and offer amazing escapes for the consumer, however without value-alignment and a believable narrative, the partnership will fail.
To create an authentic collaboration I made sure to keep Airbnb in the background. Since we have talked about the 3-dimensional nature of authenticity it was perfect to have the Airbnb location, or the house, act as the backdrop for the performance of the artist, both online and physically. This was easiest by creating an activation people could walk through. While adding the possibility of AR when people rent the Airbnb, I added a new dimension where you can project the artist into the Airbnb backdrop via your phone. Again, the storytelling was enabled by placing the artist and his music in the centre, either with surround sound, as a hologram or projection, or as a digital avatar.
I further explored the possibility of including more brands in the background. In this prototype, it would make sense to look at homeware brands that match the style of the house and can stand in the background without taking away the attention from the music.
SUBTRACK 3: Emotions
In My Life
The moment we were forced into our homes and isolated from our loved ones, we wanted to create our spaces with substances that generate stronger feelings, whether they excite or calm us. Indeed, as the interview stage revealed, music is one of those substances that have the ability to evoke all kinds of emotions. Depending on the genre, music can arouse feelings ranging from happiness to sadness and even anger. Indeed, one respondent mentioned that music has the ability to touch more than one emotion at once.
“I feel euphoric, heartbroken, and happy. It touches every emotional place in my mind. I couldn’t live in a silent world.”
However, telling brands and bands to simply “tap into the consumer’s emotions” won’t be enough, because there are so many different ones. Therefore I dug deeper to identify more complex emotions and new dimensions that don’t necessarily depend on the genre we are listening to. And I found that Nostalgia and Intimacy are two emotional states tightly connected to music and should therefore be integrated into partnerships.
Nostalgia
During the interviews, all respondents mentioned that music evokes nostalgia. Especially during the pandemic, we used nostalgia as a coping mechanism to deal with the brutal realities of COVID. So let’s take a closer look at what nostalgia means.
One interviewee compared it to a warm blanket of the old days when everything was better. The use of a blanket as a metaphor suggests that nostalgia is connected to the feelings of comfort, warmth, and safety. Indeed, a lot of us have been seeking comfort in throwback and the past, especially in connection with places we have been to, people we have spent time with, and the feelings we felt.
One participant can link music back to different chapters of his life. By using the metaphor of a book and chapters, he implies that music can tell the story of his life and nostalgia is like going back to specific chapters of that story.
“It gives me all sorts of highs and it helps me remember the feelings I had in every chapter of my life.”
Furthermore, the respondent describes the feeling of a high when music transports him into the past. The comparison between nostalgia and a high shows us that thinking of the past can make us ecstatic, elated and happy.
Similarly, other interviewees have hinted that nostalgia is like a journey. One has described music as a portal to the past. Indeed, a portal implies the meaning of a journey or entering a gateway into a different dimension, which ties back to the theme of escapism.
“For me, music is nostalgic. It’s like a portal to the past, since you connect specific music to special parts of your life”
To sum up, nostalgia reminds us of certain places of our past. It can give us feelings of warmth, comfort, and safety, like a blanket. It can make us feel ecstatic, elated, and happy, like a high. It exists as chapters of our lives and therefore tells a story. And it acts as a portal, which gives us the opportunity to escape on a journey through the past.
As I discovered that music is important to remind us of certain places, I encoded nostalgia into my prototype by intersecting music with a place or a new environment. Just like I did with escapism.
Furthermore, I was able to encode the feelings of warmth, comfort, and safety, by creating an enclosed physical and virtual space for a selected number of people who belong to a fan community. Since nostalgia is also connected to the element of a journey, storytelling and immersive tools helped intensify the feeling of nostalgia. The immersive tools also worked well in incorporating the feeling of a high. Because we are immersed through different senses it elevates our experience.
Generally, it is possible to encode nostalgia both physically and digitally and it can be stronger and weaker depending on the brand and the band. Integrating artists that play acoustic music and sing about the past can evoke incredibly strong nostalgia. Regarding the brand, I found that using a brand people couldn’t use during the pandemic, such as a travel brand, also managed to intensify this emotion.
Intimacy
An emotion that ties closely to the feeling of nostalgia is intimacy. As a matter of fact, all six respondents mentioned that music can be intimate. However, two of them pointed out that feeling has been somewhat lost during the streaming boom.
"I wish I was closer to the artist. Streaming can get impersonal.
This insight shows us that intimacy is created through closeness to others and adding a personal element.
Furthermore, I discovered that intimacy can exist on different levels and settings. One participant felt the intimacy by listening to music by herself, the other one while being in a living room with 50 people at a party and the third felt that even a concert with 1000 people can be intimate.
While experimenting with the prototype I observed that it doesn't matter exactly how many people you include on which platforms. The most important thing is that the partnership conveys a sense of community by involving fans personally.
Additionally, I discovered that intimacy can be encoded by using the tool of storytelling. It is one of the best tools for creating closeness to the artist and adding a personal touch. By having the artist tell a story, the lister automatically feels closer to them, which then creates the overarching feeling of intimacy.
Circling back to the topic of affective economics, Henry Jenkins, the founder of this theory, argues that a brand must try to create a deeper emotional connection with the consumer to gain long-term loyalty. With music and the emotional response it evokes, brands can reinvent their product as something bigger and create a deeper and more emotional connection with the consumer. It would indeed be possible to use emotional strategies such as Nostalgia and Intimacy to make the product more desirable.
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As we know, travel and music are two elements deeply connected to nostalgia. Therefore I chose Airbnb for the brand side, as it taps into consumers’ nostalgic feelings. This allowed me to connect the music with a place and new environments, both online and offline. Furthermore, I discovered that using acoustic music is more of a nostalgic trigger. Mahogany Sessions were a perfect choice, as they transport the viewer into these old hidden places in London to listen to old-school unplugged music.
Regarding intimacy, again Airbnb and Mahogany Sessions were a perfect choice. Airbnb allows the traveller an intimate experience in a private home while Mahogany always films their sessions in intimate locations only a few people can have access to. There is also a big interest on the listener’s side for acoustic versions that focus more on raw emotions as well as the voice and feelings of the songs.
By allowing the musician to occupy the intimate space of Airbnb and playing acoustic songs I created an intimate feeling intensified by the feelings conveyed through the songs.
I encoded a sense of community by allowing only a limited number of 50 listeners to attend the online concert. The listeners are able to create an avatar and explore the online world of Mahogany and Airbnb. With the physical activation, like-minded people are occupying the same physical space, which also allows an element of exchange amongst each other.
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Another emotion I identified was love. Some respondents said that they feel love when listening to music, both for themselves and for others. However, it is a very abstract concept that was too large for this project. First, I feel understood and like I am part of more than just myself. Then I am filled with an emotion the song evokes. I then close my eyes, hold my breath and stop moving, only experiencing the music. It feels like love, but where love impedes your mind, music enhances your thoughts.
SUBTRACK 4: Connection & Community
You'll Never Walk Alone
The last theme I want to bring to your attention is the topic of connection and community. All my interviewees mentioned that listening to music makes them connect, either to their own feelings, to god, to strangers, to their past, or their surroundings. The nature of the connection is different for everyone. And indeed, connection is a core human need. Especially with being in lockdown, we have lost the ability to physically connect to other people. We have been isolated and had to rely on other forms of connection. So let’s take a closer look at what kind of connection partnerships need to include.
As previously mentioned, when listening to music, all interviewees connected to different things. One said that they feel a closeness to artists and their songs.
“I feel closer to the artist and connect with the songs they are singing.”
The respondent points to the fact that listening to music brings them closer to the artist and they do not mean physically. In this context, they mean the emotional connection, maybe even a spiritual one. The listener connects to the songs the musician is singing, the emotions conveyed, and the story being told through the lyrics. The listener is learning more about the musician, which creates this relatedness, closeness, and emotional connection. Furthermore, connection implies a change of situations, there is a need for more. Again, it is about the journey and getting out of the normal, flat everyday predictability.
Other participants mentioned how music can connect people from all around the world and at the same time can be intimate.
"Music can be really intimate but also globally connecting."
Considering that music has the power to connect us globally, we do not need to occupy the same physical space to build a community and a connection to each other. This means that connection exists beyond the physical space. Additionally, it is interesting that the participants use both the words “intimate” and “global” since those words seem to contradict each other at first sight. However, as previously established, intimacy can be created on all different kinds of platforms whereas the number of people doesn't matter. Intimacy can be created by involving people who belong to a specific community, here fan communities.
Community
Communities are groups of people who all share the same interest. When it comes to music they all share an interest in a specific artist or genre. For us, communities convey a sense of support, security, comfort, and togetherness. Especially during lockdown, people wanted to be part of something bigger than their bubble or household, they wanted to know that there was a support system that provided comfort and a sense of belonging.
Over the past years, fandoms have been moving from simply consuming music to becoming amplifiers and content creators. Indeed, music fans want to be involved, as two of my respondents confirmed.
“I want an experience, I want to be involved and maybe even create something”
While experimenting and testing my prototype I encoded connection by involving the fan on multiple platforms. Not only did I use immersive tools such as sight, sound, and smell, but I created closeness through storytelling, which closely ties to intimacy. Indeed, emotional experiences that involve intimacy and nostalgia not only allow the listener to be closer and more intimate with the artist and other people but also connect us to our past selves and past feelings.
Since I found that a connection does not need to exist in a physical space, I used both online and offline platforms. By building both a virtual and physical environment for the community I added the element of safety, closeness, and togetherness. However, to encode the sense of community needed to form a connection, I didn't just want to involve the fans through a hashtag. I created a platform that allows them to communicate with other people in the same fan community. The hands-on experience creates a much better connection than just passive involvement.
I discovered that brands who tap into these fan communities and align with their values, their wants, and their needs, gain more loyal customers. Indeed, as we have previously mentioned while talking about authenticity, brands need to respect the mindset of the listener and support the culture of the artist. The same is confirmed by the theory of affective economics. There is a new era of fan involvement that prioritizes experience and immersion across multiple physical and digital platforms.
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As previously mentioned I was able to include the aspect of connection and community by allowing fans to be part of something bigger.
Airbnb can connect people with different communities and cultures around the world and allows you to stay in local homes. Similarly, Mahogany Sessions has a very big fan community around the world that also connects you, as the listener, to new and upcoming talent and their songs.
In the prototype, the people who attended the online concert in the virtual Airbnb were able to talk to each other, which formed a global connection to other fans. The people who attended the physical activation were able to talk to other people in real life and those who stayed in the Airbnb were able to connect to a different culture and explore a new community.
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I want to note that the participant aged 57 did not love the idea of being fully involved and prefers to just listen to the music on his record player or at concerts. In his words, he “did not grow up in a world of images” and prefers to concentrate only on the audio. More research would be necessary here to evaluate if the need for more interesting and creative partnerships is more directed towards younger generations
Final Words
CHANGE IS GONNA COME
Track 5
Conclusion
To help the listener escape, create authenticity, tap into emotions and establish a connection, I identified four tools that stretched across every single theme.
Storytelling has the power to take us on a journey and escape our daily routines. At the same time, it creates a context around the partnership that helps us understand why the artist partnered with this brand, which makes it more authentic. A story communicates emotions and can help us learn more about the artist and the brand. And lastly, storytelling connects us, not only to the artist but to an overarching culture and community.
Immersive tools can intensify the experience and make it more real. They assist the element of escape by immersing the listener into a new environment, dominated by sight, sound, and smell. Furthermore, these tools can activate senses that can then bring up feelings of nostalgia. Yet, caution is advised when using immersive tools, as they can also be distracting from the music. In general, adding visual and immersive elements always means that the tension and attention will be taken away from the music itself.
Presence on multiple channels is incredibly important. Especially after the pandemic, it has become crucial to make use of virtual platforms. However, with the pandemic almost behind us, it is also important to return to physical events, as they will exist alongside virtual events. Indeed, escapism can exist on any platform and is probably stronger physically. Furthermore, to form a connection, we do not need to occupy a physical space alone. Even though a personal and physical connection is powerful, it can also be encoded on online platforms.
Lastly, I found that fan involvement has become incredibly important for partnerships. By involving fans hands-on it allows escapism through engagement. Also, the involvement channels connection to other people and the artist, as fans can interact with each other.
Due to increased competition, both in the music industry and in the world of brands, the demand for partnerships will continue to grow, as it offers access to different groups of people. Because of the oversaturated market for partnerships, it is essential for brands and bands to understand how they can use these tools and guidelines to make more creative and effective partnerships.
In this project, I discovered how the dimensions of escapism, emotions, connection, and authenticity can be used as a roadmap to create better brand and band partnerships in a post-pandemic world. To encode these different elements into a partnership, I identified four tools that can help, namely storytelling, immersive tools, such as sight, sound and smell, multi-channel presence, and fan involvement.
When incorporating all four principles, I found that partnerships have the ability to provide exciting immersive experiences across multiple platforms that communicate brand values while creating a mutually beneficial agreement. Indeed, future partnerships should attempt to include artists in creative processes and give them more leverage. This includes better remuneration and fairer terms on the agreements.
Yet, I want to note that these dimensions serve as a roadmap for partnerships in a
post-pandemic world and will likely change every other year. Furthermore, they are dependent
on which bands and brands are involved in the partnership - you might not be able to use all elements every
single time. Indeed, according to partnership expert Nikki Hirsch, “some partnerships look great on paper, but are not successful”. This can have many reasons, such a bad execution, bad marketing, or simply a lack of research into the target audience.
I established that a partnership can, and often should, live on multiple types of platforms. However, experiential
events or festival activations are one-off events and therefore limited to their reach. While they might be
immediately successful, it might be difficult to build lasting customer loyalty. This is why it is important to
also include online platforms and encourage fan involvement as a means to build a long-term relationship
instead of short-term success. However, when focusing on online platforms it is crucial to offer more than
just streaming, as we now learned that people can find it impersonal.
Looking into the future there is a massive potential to include Artificial Reality or Mixed Reality to enhance digital experiences and combine both online and physical elements. However, considering that technology is present everywhere, audiences will seek out real experiences to escape both their stressful routines and digital devices. Especially after lockdown offline experiences will be highly sought after for the audience to physically connect with a brand and a band.
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Indeed, we are seeing a lot more talent taking bigger role in the company like Pharrel Williams who is a chief creative with Gstar and Amex and Lady Gaga with Polaroid
This field of research is dynamic and never-ending. With this industry evolving at a record level, brands and bands have to constantly evolve with the trends and new consumer insights. Indeed, as we have seen, there is more than just aligning brands with artists. However, no matter how far technology advances, the way we feel about music won’t change. It will always be a tool that connects and puts us in touch with our emotions. But it will always be a challenge to figure out how exactly to do that with partnerships.
Hidden Track: The Catalogue
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