Brands are facing the music. And they want you to dance.<\/p>\n
In the last few years, Gap<\/a> has revived its \u201990s advertising strategy of creating branded, choreographed music videos with celebrities and artists ranging from Parker Posey to KATSEYE. But it\u2019s not alone: Other brands including Hollister, Cheetos, KFC, and Hawaiian Tropic have joined in on the trend this year, promoting their products in the form of song and dance.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not exactly a new concept\u2014music videos have long been vehicles for brand messaging. But while product placements<\/a> in artists\u2019 music videos were big in the 2010s, it seems brand-created music videos are making a comeback as marketers are increasingly feeling pressure to create organic, original content<\/a> to break through on social, particularly with younger audiences.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re an attention economy, and I\u2019m a firm believer that people hate advertising,\u201d Chris Bellinger, chief creative officer at Cheetos\u2019s parent company, PepsiCo, told us. \u201cEveryone pays for ad blockers, so in order for me to get your attention, it has to be worth your attention\u2026We want to make something that\u2019s worth your time and worth that share.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBringin\u2019 back the Flamin\u2019 Pickle, Cheetos really wanna let the world know,\u201d Chad Kroeger, lead singer for the band Nickelback, sings in Cheetos\u2019 four-minute-long music video released in March. \u201cThat\u2019s why they paid us for a huge commercial.\u201d<\/p>\n The song \u201cPickle\u2019s Back\u201d is a play on the band\u2019s 2001 song \u201cHow You Remind Me\u201d and features rapper Megan Thee Stallion, who helps promote the return of Cheetos\u2019s Flamin\u2019 Hot Dill Pickle flavor. It\u2019s not PepsiCo\u2019s first rodeo when it comes to music videos\u2014remember the 2004 Pepsi video set to \u201cWe Will Rock You,\u201d featuring gladiators Britney Spears, Pink, and Beyonc\u00e9? The company has also done branded music videos with stars like Anna Kendrick and Jimmy Fallon over the years.<\/p>\n Bellinger told us that this music video was inspired not only by the rhyme of \u201cnickel\u201d and \u201cpickle,\u201d but the unexpectedness of the Meg x Nickelback collab. The hope was to go viral and make waves on music-centric platforms like TikTok; so far, the brand has received an \u201cinsane\u201d amount of comments and shares in addition to millions of organic social views, he said.<\/p>\n In Bellinger\u2019s experience, the key to a successful brand music video is to treat a product like a character, not the main focal point. It\u2019s something that Joanna Ewing, SVP of creative marketing at Abercrombie & Fitch Co., also emphasized when we spoke with her<\/a> last month about Hollister\u2019s latest music video with Gigi Perez, which features people wearing Hollister clothes but isn\u2019t overtly branded.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople forget that we\u2019re supposed to be entertaining people, and the product, while [the brand] can be front and center, it\u2019s not the star of the show,\u201d Bellinger said. \u201cIf you open with \u2018presented to you by Cheetos,\u2019 everyone\u2019s gonna scroll away. So figure out how you can authentically integrate yourself into the story, but let the story be the driver, and you\u2019re along for the ride.\u201d<\/p>\nGuess who\u2019s back?<\/strong><\/h2>\n