The Business of Music

Business Outsider

Tunji Adegbite

“Music – what a powerful Instrument, what a mighty weapon” – Maria Augusta Von Trapp

In times past, and to a degree today, musicians sometimes have knowingly (albeit often unconsciously) infused their lyrics with subtle references to brands, products, companies, and even individuals. For example, “Alhaji Rasak Akanni Okoya (Eleganza)”, “Biri ka mbiri”, and “Pass the Courvoisier” are a few of the many songs that strategically placed brands, Eleganza Group, Tura Soap, and Courvoisier Cognac respectively, in what turned out to be commercially successful songs whose rhythm and lyrics are in the hearts of minds of people till today. Utilising music in brand awareness is what is referred today in business-speak as ‘Audio product placement’. Brands such as Jobitex Foods, Ciroc, Hennessy, among others, in the past and today, have enjoyed some commercial popularity correlated with product placements and this is because of the intriguing power of music on the human mind.

Product placement is a marketing technique that involves strategic brand placements either unobtrusively or prominently in a body of work (music, video, books, etc.) intending to generate sales. It is a common brand positioning and advertisement strategy albeit more popular in audio-visual works. For example, the Nigerian music video scenes are replete with embedded marketing through subtle visuals depicting brands; Korede Bello’s ‘Godwin’ cleverly advertised Access Bank and Lekki Gardens in its music video. Another visual product placement example is the unobtrusive placement of the Nokia Lumia series in the hands of some artists in the “Dorobucci” music video, during Nokia’s first stint with Android. It would not really come as a surprise if viewers missed these subtle product placements.

While the tact towards brand sensitisation and awareness using music videos is applaudable, they do not have nearly as much verve as embedding them via the medium that has been established to be more powerful – music i.e., audio product placement. Commercially successful books and movies like the James Bond series, year-on-year placed some brands of automobile, luxury watches, vodka, etc. giving the brands significant visibility, even many music videos do that but the ‘conversion rate’, or recall rate is likely not as significant when this product placement is not accompanied by verbal/musical exposure.

Musical art and performances in the past especially the more indigenous genres like Fuji, Juju, Highlife, Ogene, among others have been a viable medium of product placements. Ebenezer Obey, King Sunny Ade, Oliver de Coque, Osadebe, Okonkwo Asah, and other notable Nigerian musicians mastered these audio/verbal product placements. Although it could be argued that some were unintentional or with brand placements in mind, the success of many of these songs and the corresponding effect on brands they marketed sheds light on the potency of consciously targeting brands via this medium.

“To ba fe lowo, to ba fe ta pools, Face to Face ni o lo… Eni nla ni se ohun nla, Adebutu Kessington pelu Ayoku mi” – Ebenezer Obey

The above line is from a 1967 Ebenezer Obey song (record), which gave significant exposure to Premier Lotto’s business. The impact of the record on the business was quite significant that Adebutu Kessington (Chairman of Premier Lotto) testified it made not just him and his name popular, but the business boomed by over 100 per cent. In a similar vein, Alhaji Razaq Okoya also mentioned in an interview he granted while celebrating his 80th birthday how the subtle placement of the Eleganza Group in a record by Ebenezer Obey massively brought attention to his store, which laid the foundation for the success of the group today.

This form of product placement has been used to a large degree in the entertainment space (music) to significant success not just in Nigeria. “Pass the Courvoisier”, a hip-hop song by Busta Rhymes and P.Diddy, after becoming a massive hit significantly boosted the sales of the Courvoisier cognac. ‘’Pass the Courvoisier Part Two’’ helped increase the sales of the liquor by 4.5 per cent in the first quarter of 2002 and into the double digits in subsequent months, said Jack Shea, a spokesman for Allied Domecq Wine and Spirits, an American arm of the British drinks company that owns Courvoisier. The influence of the music on sales was eye-opening to the industry and marketers as Courvoisier sales eventually doubled in 2002 after the 2002 remix of the same song by Busta Rhymes, P.Diddy, and Pharrel.

Today, however, influencer marketing and other forms of marketing are the more common methods that brands use to create awareness, stay relevant, and drive sales, relegating the significantly effective product placement strategy via music or movies to the shadows. Brands across different sectors from Alcoholic, Energy Drinks and Beverages to telecommunications, to fast-moving consumer goods, endorse musicians and music producers nowadays and the musicians, in turn, offer largely just static-visual product placement. Oftentimes, the music artist who is the brand ambassador just offers his or her or its physical appearance for the product or brand or subtly placing the products they are advertising in music videos not taking advantage of the strong connection between music and memory for these brands.

The potential for proper brand placement via music i.e., audio product placement or a mix of audio-visual product placement is quite huge especially in a digitally connected world taking into consideration the proliferation of digital distribution platforms and how prominent music is in the lives of people globally. Looking at the numbers, Burna Boy’s “Twice as Tall” album has well over 175 million streams across all digital platforms (and is still growing). This means the number of times a product mentioned there would have been heard, consciously by fans and unconsciously by those who hear the songs in passing, is significantly high. Recalling the effect music has on memory, it could be argued that the numbers this could pull for a mentioned brand would be significantly higher compared to just having his face on a billboard or having a product sitting idly in a music video.

The argument for music as a product placement medium holds significantly, given how it could be listened to at almost any time even in passing, unlike visuals which require significant concentration from viewers and fans, which even most times they still miss. Brands should begin to realize that the popularity of a musician could fade over time, but the music would always evoke memory, and would always stay.

This is an avenue brands and artists should consider generating revenue from while ensuring they leave a mark on the hearts of listeners and prospective customers via music.