The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

-d -h -min -sec

Music Marketing Brand Purpose Brand Strategy

Vevo creates tool letting advertisers specifically support Black artists

Author

By Hannah Bowler, Senior Reporter

November 5, 2021 | 4 min read

Music publisher platform Vevo has introduced a suite of tools to enable brands to meet their diversity pledges, but says more work is needed to translate words into action.

Vevo addresses advertiser diversity pledges but says more needs to be done

Mooski: Vevo addresses advertiser diversity pledges but says more needs to be done

According to Vevo, brands have often struggled to come up with a solution that moves beyond performative pledges to long-term allyship. Vevo’s vice-president of international sales James Cornish told The Drum: “We need better solutions and investment in place to support Black artists’ contribution to the music industry.”

In the wake of George Floyd’s killing, the ad industry made a series of promises including an open letter from UK ad agencies coordinated by Creative Equals and the ‘Call for Change’ 12-step plan signed by 6000 Black ad professionals.

Cornish said the pledges demonstrated a “willingness” to change and invest in Black artists, but that the industry is only just “scratching the surface of how to put this into play.”

“It’s really important that these efforts translate into real action and meaningful and lasting change,” he said. Based on demand from advertisers to “think more clearly and deliberately” on their diversity strategy, Vevo launched Afro Pulse, which creates inventory sets around Black artists.

The tool enables advertisers both to invest in Black musicians and gives advertisers access to diverse audiences. Instead of only targeting household artist names or a specific genre, brands can advertise within music video programming that features Black artists of various musical styles and levels of popularity.

“We hope Vevo’s products can stimulate brands to back up what they are publicly saying,” Cornish said. “This is the first foray into this marketplace, we are actively looking at building additional products for different audiences. There is much more to be done to create more opportunity in this space.”

He said progress regarding measurement and how that relates back to ad spend is also needed. “This is the starting point for a broader product set,” he says.

The next step for Vevo is to expand the products to other diverse characteristics. Latin American artists are one such demographic Vevo is planning to focus on.

Vevo research reveals purchasing power of music videos

Elsewhere, Vevo-commissioned research has revealed four in 10 gen Zers (42%) have been inspired to buy a product seen in a music video.

Further findings from the OnePoll report revealed 60% of all age groups had changed their behavior based on a music video – recreating a trend or changing a hairstyle were listed as examples.

Of the 2,000 respondents, 71% said music videos impacted culture through changing fashion trends, influencing political thought or mental health awareness – 52% in the gen Z demo.

Vevo said the data showed the purchasing power music videos have on gen Z consumers. Cornish added: “The emotional connection generated by music videos, coupled with their cultural relevance, can significantly impact buyer behavior and help drive sales.”

Music Marketing Brand Purpose Brand Strategy

More from Music Marketing

View all

Trending

Industry insights

View all
Add your own content +