Advertisers Making More Visits to the Country

Sponsorship of Country Music Association Fest Grows 15%

Posted by Charlie Moran on 06.02.08 @ 12:28 PM

We've been writing a lot about country music lately, and it's not really because it's experiencing some sort of creative renaissance or that we've been eating too much Tim McGraw Fritos; marketers are suddenly very interested in partnering with Carrie Underwood and Rascal Flatts.

If you still think that a. country fans are bumpkins without spending power, b. we're nuts, c. a lot of a and a little bit of b or d. all of the above, consider that the CMA Music Festival is having its best year ever. According to the Tennesseean, the fest, starting this Thursday in Nashville, has had a 15% upswing in sponsors, particularly big guns like Coca-Cola and People Magazine.

From The Tennessean:

Some analysts said corporations are starting to tap into country music, as country artists such as Faith Hill continue to command great concert ticket sales and as artists gain more national exposure, such as Trace Adkins' appearance on The Celebrity Apprentice.

"Once upon a time, the demographic or the earnings potential of the country fan might have been underestimated, (but) now that we've seen the growth spurts country has enjoyed in the past two decades those assumptions have been put aside," said Geoff Mayfield, director of charts and senior analyst for Billboard.

In addition, the success of up-and-coming country music stars such as Underwood and Taylor Swift also may appeal to marketers, Mayfield said.

"One of the assumptions for a while is that country skews older and the success that Taylor and Carrie have enjoyed is another one of those things that argue against the assumption about who the country fan is," Mayfield said.

There's a record 68 companies sponsoring the four-day event this year, where Faith Hill, Dwight Yoakam, Miranda Lambert and Kellie Pickler are set to perform in downtown Nashville. As with Austin's SXSW, who knows how many of these brands will actually get any positive vibes from fans, but, because the festival is so large (190,000 attendees last year) and those attendees spend so much money all over Nashville ($21 million last year ) some of the impressions/associations have to stick.

And they're fighting for a sizable pie. Sure, country CD sales may have fallen even further than the market average, but cross-over country artists like Carrie Underwood (featured in the recent Nintendo ad) and Tim McGraw have been some of the top-selling of any genre in recent years. And this year's Academy of Country Music awards show scored 26% higher than last year and raked in 11.7 million viewers, within 6 million of the Grammys, which covers everything from alternative rock to polka.

[Via The Tennessean:]

1 Comment

By kohanmusic | Lake Success, NY June 2, 2008 10:57:38 pm:

You also have to look at the actual craft of Country music and the artists themselves. They radiate authenticity. Country artists don't sing to track like Pop stars or Hip-Hop stars do. They perform FOR an audience - to entertain them, not TO an audience for ego gratification (can you imagine a GRAMMY for "entertainer of the Year?"). Remember, country music success is still tied to building one-on-one relationships with fans, with radio programmers and video outlets (yes, there is still a genre that has cable music video outlets - shocker!), and that is tested on every single that artist releases. Nothing is a gimme. That work ethic exists in up-and-comming artists and in the genre's biggest stars as well.

Most Country artists realize the corporate brands seeking to tie in with them do so because they share a common goal: filling a need in that fan's/consumer's life. The artist wants to be able to break out of the box with a campaign allowing them to get exposure outside of that narrow Country marketing/promotion "box" while still maintaining credibility. The brand seeks to play upon the incredible loyalty of the Country fan to the artist and the Country music lifestyle.

Country music itself is very basic in that it talks about subjects so many of us deal with every day: faith, love, redemption, perserverance, work, and pain. How many songs in Pop or Rock do you hear about one's work, or the need to stop working and start relaxing. That's most people's everyday existence. Country music also talks about family. You just don't find too many hit songs in other popular genres that even mention the family, much less talk about its complexity. The Nashville tradition of employing professional songwriters (for the most part, although some name artists are also accomplished writers) also means songs are usually not built around an artist's personal experience. If you listen to an Emo band you get the sense theirs songs revolve solely about them; life is lived in a bubble. In Country songs, you know the experiences conveyed in those lyrics are more universal by design. Also, "Country" is not a monolithic genre. There are many variants, some leaning more rock, more indie, more regional, more adult contemporary, etc... Country music is not just a guy in a big cowboy hat and an acoustic guitar (not that there's anything wrong with that!).

Lastly, as noted above, anyone aiming a product at consumers in the Midwest and the Sun Belt know there are many attractive demographics to target products and services towards. this is where Country music, and Country radio, are strongest.

Why wouldn't a corporate brand want to latch onto that in their marketing?

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