"Here’s how the music business used to
work.” This was Jimmy Iovine, in mirrored
sunglasses and baseball cap, leaning into a
microphone in a hotel ballroom hard by the
Pacific Ocean. “The label was run by an
entrepreneur. And his friend, who knew
nothing about business but liked music, was
the marketing guy.”
This
was as true in the music biz five years ago
as it was 50. It could accurately be said of
Hollywood overall,
from labels to film studios to TV networks.
The folks who held marketing titles at those
places typically had
exactly nothing in common with a marketing
director at, say, Procter & Gamble.
No
longer true
That it’s no longer true -- or no longer as
true -- is in part due to Iovine, who runs
Interscope/Geffen/A&M. He recognized early
that music marketing needed to be more
sophisticated and that partnerships with the
ad industry, done right, could benefit both
sides. Iovine saw
marketing as a tool to combat piracy and
overcome some of the built-in idiocies of
the recording industry’s business model.
Iovine
is a leader. He was an engineer, age 21, on
Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run
album. In the 30 years since (yes, 30; makes
you feel old, no?) he has been one of the
most successful producers in the business,
advancing the careers of artists from U2 to
Eminem. So it’s no surprise that other
labels take their cue from him.
This
newfound marketing savvy is apparent in
every Hollywood corridor. Even TV studio and
network marketing departments are run --
gasp! -- by people with marketing
backgrounds who have no need to convince
themselves that their business is entirely
unique from the marketing of toothbrushes or
automobiles or french fries.
Branded-entertainment alliances
These execs have become a lot more
sophisticated about how they go to market
with their own products (summer box-office
slump aside).
And they’ve become a lot more open to
branded-entertainment alliances --what Ad
Age calls Madison & Vine.
There
are a handful of unsavory L.A. con artists
-- er, middlemen -- for whom this is bad
news. They exploited the language barrier
between East and West coast, positioning
themselves as trusted guides to help
marketers negotiate the dark alleys of
Hollywood without getting their pockets
picked by ruthless entertainment executives.
Sorry,
guys, services no longer needed. Go back to
peddling maps to the stars’ homes on Beverly
Hills street corners.
Speaking the same language
Madison and Vine speak the same language,
and it’s not just the suits. The talent
side, long painted as resistant to such
collaborations, accepts branded
entertainment, seeing a way to offset
production costs, extend marketing budgets
and tap new distribution and audiences.
Such
L.A. kings as Iovine, Jeff Katzenberg and
Ben Silverman insist that writers,
directors, recording artists and actors get
it. Although no one yet can give me a good
answer as to why it hasn’t yet come to
scripted TV in a significant way or when it
will.
(Leslie Moonves of CBS told me more than a
year ago that it was inevitable: “The
creative people are finally coming around
that it’s not sacrilegious ... that a can of
Coke on the table [is] not destroying their
artistic integrity.” “Artistic integrity”
being the most hollow two words in
Hollywood, in any case. After “Paris
Hilton.” But I digress.)
Hollywood envy
Mad Ave.’s Hollywood envy has always been
apparent, and its embrace of branded
entertainment is real. Big brands are
setting aside up
to 5% of ad budgets to play in the space and
are developing sophisticated ways to measure
return on those investments.
Vine
had been the reluctant dance partner. But
the support of Iovine and other Hollywood
royalty speaks to the entertainment
industry’s willingness (eagerness, even?) to
make the marriage work.
