Sponsors Align Their Brands with Music Artists...

In recent months, a large number of corporate sponsors have begun to expand their sponsorship portfolios, reaching out to the entertainment world to seek new target audiences and messaging avenues. While partnering with artists may carry an elevated level of risk, they in turn offer corporate sponsors a new medium for finding true solutions to meet their set objectives. 

IEG recently profiled a number of new corporate-entertainment partnerships:

• Absolut's recently announced a collaboration with Kanye West as a sponsor of the artist's Glow in the Dark Tour. To activate, Kanye West will share online testimonials on the Absolut website and VIP ticket package experiences will be offered.  Absolut will sponsor the official concert after parties and will feature Kanye's aesthetic looks in its retail displays across the country (Absolut, Official Press Release). 

• Southwest Airlines signed on as the title sponsor of Lenny Kravitz's "Love Revolution" Tour to drive awareness for its brand and affiliation with Chase credit cards, acquire new cardholders, and reward existing members. The Kravitz "Love Revolution" tour perfectly aligned with Southwest's motto as "The Love" airline, as its stock is publicly traded as LUV on the NYSE. To activate, Southwest is offering concert-related perks and sweepstakes for cardholders (for merchandise, meet-n-greets, and ticket exclusives). The airline also offers an elite lounge on-site at Kravitz concerts where free airline tickets are offered through a select sweepstakes (IEG, 2.18.08).

• Lexus chose to target African-American women by signing on as a presenting sponsor of Alicia Keys' upcoming 36-city tour. To activate, Lexus is posting webisodes of Keys and the tour on Lexus.com and will use videos and other types of messaging to promote its brand. Lexus is also planning to work with the singer on a philanthropic effort (IEG, 2.18.08).

While the three (3) aforementioned companies developed well-executed programs, Nike seems to have taken the idea of aligning with entertainment to a whole new level. The innovative shoe company adorned limited edition album covers of six (6) popular Japanese artists. Each of the select cd's featured specially designed cardboard cases with the popular artists sporting Nike shoes (Wall Street Journal, 2.22.08).

Could this be a new wave for sponsor integration in the entertainment world? Will we see sponsors begin to shift more dollars from the sports world to music and fashion? As sports organization begin to seek new opportunities to offer fans enhanced entertainment value, we may begin to see companies focus more of their sponsorship dollars on artists and niche markets (i.e. Indie rock).