What brands are looking for in a partnership with artists

Artists within the music industry are constantly exploring new ways to collaborate with people within their niche and beyond. But what are companies looking for when they search for clients to do a “brand deal” with? And what is the process that they tend to go through? That’s what we’re going to cover in this article.

Identify a series of influencers

First of all, a company has to identify a series of influencers that they believe will enhance their current brand image and (often) social media following. In most cases, this decision is based on attention. For example, brands will often collaborate with social media influencers that have several hundred thousand followers simply because they get a lot of engagement on their posts – thus driving attention towards the brand in a sponsored post. A good example is Dwayne Johnson partnering up with Under Armor. Being one of the most followed people on Instagram, and a superstar within the film industry, it was certainly a great idea for the pair to collaborate. Even featuring his own clothing line, The Rock is constantly tagging Under Armor in posts – therefore helping to grow their following.

Is the engagement of the influencer’s social media platforms good?

After speaking to lots of influencers within the fashion industry, most brands expect to pay around $1 per post for every thousand followers. So if you happen to have an active social media following with several thousand followers, it’s obviously a great potential revenue stream. But of course, that price can fluctuate massively on a case-by-case basis depending on the influencer in question. For example, brands may be inclined to spend more on an actor with 500k followers, than a curation account of 500k in the same niche. 

At the forefront of the company’s mind, they’ll regularly be looking at things such as the ratio of likes to followers, the follower count, and even the overall image quality of each post. After all, there’s no point in them investing money towards a client who won’t produce high-quality social media posts on their profile. Although Instagram influencer use is currently one of the most popular ways of social media advertising, there are of course many other platforms that they will be paying attention to. e.g. Brands which have a younger demographic (such as Disney) often run influencer campaigns on Musical.ly due to the young demographic that is active on the platform. By collaborating with influencers that have a similar audience to the target demographic of the company, they can instantly reach their target market on social media. After all, we tend to pay attention to a lot of the content that comes up in our feeds-especially when it’s from a public figure that we admire. Alternatively, they may decide to use artists as icons for a TV commercial or radio ad. eg. Beats By Dre used the likes of Rihanna and DJ Khaled to regularly promote the brand. As those artists have lots of attention within the music industry, the simple fact that they are wearing the product is amazing marketing in itself. And so producers, singers, and other forms of influencers could simply be paid for a photo shoot wearing the brand’s clothing, or interacting with a product.

Referrals and a good portfolio of work are key

Landing referrals with artists is definitely a common way of brands deciding to collaborate with somebody in the entertainment industry. Despite being a great way to save money on paying someone to do A&R of collaborations, it also helps to develop a genuine relationship between brand and client. Having already been referred to the client due to the amazing work that they have done, the brand may be more inclined to pay a higher price or offer even more within the deal than their initial proposal. As the company is often constantly being bombarded by people on social media wanting to be paid, a portfolio of previous work is absolutely key to success. And of course, a few personal connections also goes a long way.
Once a brand has found a potential influencer within the entertainment industry to work with, there are several questions that they will ask to ensure it’s a good fit for both parties:

• Have they done any previous marketing campaigns with brands? If so, how did they perform? This will be an immediate indicator to the brand of how well their sponsored post would perform. Therefore, they would want to ensure that they only partner with influencers that are giving good, consistent results.
• Do they have experience with multiple social platforms? Okay sure, just one post on Instagram or Snapchat can be great. However, it’s always good if there’s a large diversification of platforms that the influencer is familiar with. This opens up loads of opportunities for working on more content for several social media networks (such as Instagram and Facebook), as well as (often) giving the influencer a larger sum of money. As an example, a headphones company (such as Pioneer) may pay a producer with large followings across multiple social media accounts to post different content on each of them. This could include 5 fashion shots on Instagram, videos of them using the product on Snapchat, and updating their Facebook profile picture to them wearing the headphones.

In conclusion, the thought process of what a brand is looking for is fairly simple: somebody that will benefit the overall brand image. With good social media followings, good content, and even a potential value prop (such as photography skills), it should be pretty easy for social media influencers to land their first brand deal.