Blending Music and Authenticity to Create Successful Brand Partnerships
Jennifer Frommer, SVP of Creative Content and Licensing at Columbia Records, reflects on her distinguished career while highlighting how brands can foster authentic collaborations and draw inspiration from today’s top musicians.
Jennifer Frommer is SVP of Creative Content and Licensing at Columbia Records. She’s a branded content expert who has engineered award-winning campaigns that combine entertainment, fashion, art, and technology with some of the world’s biggest artists and brands. Jennifer is an expert in creating visual storytelling programs, advertising campaigns, and events with brands including Jaguar, Pepsi, Samsung, Microsoft, Chevy, and many others. She has also created immersive experiences with global superstars, including John Legend, The Chainsmokers, Lady Gaga, Eminem, and U2.
Jennifer is a frequent speaker at top creative industry functions, including Cannes Lions, One Show, and Advertising Week. Her work has been recognized by leading industry and consumer publications, from Billboard to Ad Week to the NY Times.
The Continuum sat down with Jennifer to talk about her impressive career in publishing and music and how brands and artists can best work together.
You’re at Sony Music, which is a dream job for many people. Did you always want to work in the music industry?
I did. I'm a musician. It was always my dream to do something in music, whether performing or working in the industry in some other way. After college, I walked the streets of New York looking for a music job. I put on a suit that 21-year-old me thought looked sophisticated and literally walked into record companies looking for a job. People said I had to start as an assistant. At the time, I thought I was too good for that because I was a college graduate. Clearly, I didn’t yet know how the world of business worked.
I ended up taking a job in advertising, which I loved. It was the early days of the internet, and I was doing a lot of multimedia and technology work, like making websites and editing videos. I was essentially doing digital media work though we didn’t call it that yet. I got a lot of production experience at the agency and then decided to try the music industry again.
This time, I called instead of actually pounding the pavement. I said that I was a multimedia executive, which I wasn't. I was just a kid, but I said I was a multimedia executive looking to make a change from advertising and asked to set up a meeting. A couple of people said yes, and from that, I got my first job at Sony.
It was a great job. I started the first digital division at Sony Music, and my role was to educate artists on how to use the Internet. I traveled all over the world and sat down with artists like Michael Jackson, Celine Dion, and Pearl Jam. I taught them how to use the Internet and oversaw the building of their websites. The artists really gravitated toward the Internet and loved creating their own websites.
That sounds like so much fun. Why did you leave?
I realized I needed to learn how to do business. I didn't know anything about any business at all; I only knew how to build things. So, I left and went into media. From there, I worked at various publications and websites, such as Spin and Seventeen, and then I ended up at Condé Nast. I was starting to understand how to do proper, fully integrated deals. I worked in the luxury sector, creating partnerships across GQ, Vanity Fair, Wired, and Vogue. I was doing 360 campaigns with large corporations and really learned how to package ideas for brands.
“Like anything in life, the more planned out you are, the more you know what you want to manifest, the more likely you are to get there.”
You went back to the music industry after that with a job at Interscope. How did that happen, and what was that role?
When I was at Condé Nast, I worked on a project called Fashion Rocks. We put on a big concert at Radio City Music Hall, which was really cool, especially when you realize a publishing company created their own IP and turned it into a concert with all of these incredible artists and brands working together. Jimmy Iovine, who is a legend and was still the head of Interscope at the time, heard of my work on that project and asked me to interview for a position heading up strategic marketing. I wasn’t looking at the time and didn’t want to move to L.A. I also thought that I was done with music, that I’d exploited it for everything it would teach me. But this was a great opportunity to work with artists like Eminem, Lady Gaga, Dr. De, and 50 Cent, and my late husband encouraged me to take it. He said you can’t pass up an opportunity to be in the same room and learn from such talent and told me it could be my swan song in the music industry.
I learned a lot about working with artists. I’d met superstars before when I taught them about the internet, but this was different. I was in an executive role working with them on marketing campaigns and strategies. I had to deliver on deals for these artists and make money. I’d done some of that at Condé Nast, but it’s different when working with artists because they’re people.
That’s a good point. What are the differences when you're working for a brand versus when you're working for an artist or an individual?
There are a lot of people who are constantly around artists, which can make the music industry seem very confusing. There are so many players at the table that you must learn how to make everyone happy and who can get the deal done. Working with a brand is more clear-cut. For one thing, brands usually come with a brief on brand attributes and a list of all the deliverables they want. The basic structure is locked and loaded, and things rarely change too much. In contrast, an artist may change their mind any second of any day. I had one do it just the other day while we were making a music video. Changing their mind on the creative anytime they want is their prerogative; it’s why they’re artists, but it can certainly be a challenge.
What did you do in your Interscope role, and do you have a favorite project from that time?
My role at Interscope was interesting because I didn't really have a department, so I built it from scratch. We did a lot of product placement in videos and music rights for commercials. One of my favorite campaigns I've ever done was with LMFAO, Kia, and dancing hamsters.
That campaign came about while I was meeting with a friend who worked in advertising. He was a creative director, started telling me about how they were working on a campaign for Kia that was all about bright colors. He didn’t know what they were going to do yet; he just knew that it was going to be fun and light and in dayglo colors. A few weeks later, I’m back at work, and this new artist, LMFAO, comes in all decked out in bright, dayglo colors. They had a song called “Party Rock Anthem,” which was the most incredible upbeat song, and I knew it would be great in a commercial. I brought the music to my friend, and an amazing partnership was born.
We created a commercial and did an integration with MTV at the VMAs, where the Kia Soul was brought out on stage, and the hamsters, who were dressed in the same style as LMFAO, performed the same dance that the artists did in the music video. People still talk about that work, and it all started because of a conversation about colors.
“If a brand wants to take a page out of an artist-marketing strategy, I would say define its core values and stay true to them.”
Do you think your background in advertising helped you with projects like this?
Oh, 100 percent. I was at DDB for five years. I was a junior art director, so I was always with creatives. I speak their language. I don’t think someone without a background in advertising would have put the conversation about colors together with LMFAO just because of what they were wearing. I understand how to put two and two together.
You’ve been back at Sony Music for seven years as the SVP of Creative Content and Licensing at Columbia Records. It feels like the concept of an artist as a brand has become more prominent in that time. Do you think it’s a model that works?
I think it can. Something that I learned from Jimmy a long time ago is that an artist has to know who they are. Look at Lady Gaga, right? She completely knew who she was from the start. She had a vision. She had a plan. Like anything in life, the more planned out you are, the more you know what you want to manifest, the more likely you are to get there. Typically, the most successful artists are the ones who don’t vacillate or veer off from who they were.
Can other brands learn something from this?
Sure. A brand has to know who it is and where it’s playing. It shouldn’t appeal to Gen Z one day and then decide the next day to play it safe and not take any chances. If a brand wants to take a page out of an artist-marketing strategy, I would say define its core values and stay true to them. If consumers get confused about what it stands for or if you change its brand values, you’re going to see decay in brand loyalty.
We’ve come a long way since you designed those initial websites for artists. Now, we’re all almost drowning in content. What kind of content can break through all that clutter?
That's a question we ask ourselves here every day. I think timing is really important. Take Mariah Carey. She basically owns Christmas, so she’s out there the day after Halloween with her message. If you remember, last year, she broke out of a box on November 1st, and it worked to get a lot of attention. Of course, not every cultural touchpoint happens on the same day each year, so brands have to keep their ear to the ground. They need to do a lot of social listening, stay abreast of what’s happening in culture, and be ready to pivot quickly.
A couple of weeks ago, I was talking to a brand about working with one of our artists, and they said they were planning for 2026. That may be great in the business world, but it doesn’t work in the creative world. No artist knows what they’ll be doing in two years. And culture moves too fast for that; anything that’s hitting now will be over by 2026. Brands have to work on being nimble to create timely content if they want to break through the noise.
“Brands have to work on being nimble to create timely content if they want to break through the noise.”
What would you say to a brand looking to partner with a musician?
It’s similar to what I would say to artists: it’s great as long as it’s authentic. We did this one partnership with Lil Nas X and Taco Bell. As a kid, he’d worked at Taco Bell, and he remains loyal to the brand. We started with product placement for Taco Bell in a video. We actually filmed the whole thing at a Taco Bell. The brand named him their Chief Impact Officer, and together, they launched Taco Bell's newest menu innovations around the launch of his album Montero. He also started working with the Taco Bell Foundation and helped hand out their Live Más Scholarships, which are awarded to kids who want to break into the art. That was an authentic partnership that worked for both the artist and the brand.
Artists can certainly help a brand be heard. But first, the brand needs to zero in on artists who have the right sensibility; once you do that, I highly recommend letting the artists come to the table with their ideas and collaborate from the beginning. Artists are the ultimate creatives.
Before we go, do you have a favorite artist?
Eminem. I love his music, and I love working with him.
And do you still want to be a musician?
I still sing and play the guitar, but I don’t think I have dreams of being a rock star anymore. I might like to be someone’s backup singer. Seriously, if anyone needs a backup singer, I’d love that.
August 20, 2024
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