LOS ANGELES — When it comes to the synergy of advertising and music, streaming services don’t have a monopoly.
Labels, too, are getting in on the act.
In this video interview with Howard Shimmel for Beet.TV’s Beet Retreat Santa Monica, Erin Moran, the just-in Global Chief Revenue Officer of Warner Music Group’s new WMX division, explains the opportunities.
Rebooting the offering
WMG launched WMX in November, transforming the former WEA (Warner, Elektra, Atlantic) division as a services unit, describing it as “a next generation services division that will connect artists with fans and amplify brands in creative, immersive, and engaging ways”.
Part of the idea is to bolster WMG’s offering to artists, including a creative agency, merchandise, D2C sales, plus traditional streaming, vinyl, ticketing, fashion collaboration, gaming, social, experiential, and other fan experiences.
But it is also about creating, for artists, connections with advertising brands.
The label that owns its media
To deploy such partnerships, WMG doesn’t have to rely on partner publishers; it runs owned channels of its own:
- UPROXX, the Gen-Z youth culture and music site.
- Songkick, the live music discovery app.
- HipHopDX, the hip-hop media brand.
- Cover Nation, the largest community of cover song creators and fans.
- Premium artist YouTube inventory.
So much so that Moran noted Warner is “a top-five video media company for 18 to 34”.
“Music really is culture,” she says. “So it’s adaptable to all ages, with the ability to target.”
Rocking the data
Still, WMX’s offering is about more than just offering up inventory. It is going deeper, offering brands direct collaborations with artists.
WMX’s new CONNEX is a data storefront tool that brands can tap into.
“We’re sitting on top of massive fan data, audience data,” Moran says. “What we did was organize this, made it accessible to advertisers.
“For example, if you’re looking to reach females 18 to 34 who are in-market for luxury goods, you can go in, see what our reach is against that [demo] and also align that with the right types of artists and environments.”
Artist partnerships
Beyond advertising, Moran also touched on how brands can work directly with artists on marketing campaigns.
General Mills
“General Mills came to us and they were looking to ‘hack tween boredom’. They wanted to do this on behalf of Cinnamon Toast Crunch.
“We went to our portfolio of artists to really align them properly with the right band.
“We partnered with Meet Me At the Altar, a pop punk band. We built out an interactive music video with them, which had nearly 30 million impressions and tremendous engagement.”
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Intel
“Intel came to us with the question ‘how do we really put Intel at the forefront of creativity?”
“(We) hosted an event called Cre8Con. We invited creators in to really showcase how they were leveraging Intel to power their creativity.
“That event was a huge success. In addition to that, we actually made a horror film with them, which was showcased at Art Walk in LA. It was a physical, experiential activation and Intel was thrilled with the results and the outcomes.”
You are watching coverage from Beet Retreat Santa Monica 2021, presented by FreeWheel, IRIS.TV, Samba TV, TransUnion & Warner Music Group. For more videos, please visit this page.
