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Friday, November 7, 2008 | 3:55am
Marketing Matters: Mary J. Blige, Face of Citi/ Live Nation Integrated Ad Campaign
At this advanced stage in her career she’s solidifying her status as an entertainment power broker.
Back in February, Citi (the parent company to Citibank) signed a marketing alliance with Live Nation. To kick the partnership into high gear, Citi will launch an integrated advertising campaign with Mary J. Blige to promote its credit cards. According to Billboard, the campaign is said to feature national print, online and television components.
Although MJB isn’t under contract with Live Nation, she does have history with the performing powerhouse including most recently her highly successful Heart of the City tour with Jay-Z.
“We were looking for artists that gave us a wide appeal and we were able to span a large group with both of these artists,” said Debra Coughlin, executive VP of Citi Cards. “We also wanted artists that are good to work with.”
Next week you can log onto stories.citicards.com to play games with Mary’s lyrics, hear song snippets and peep behind the scenes interviews. I SAID NEXT WEEK!
FILED IN Business & Marketing, Honeys, Music
With the economy being the way it is, and with every pundit declaring CD sales as beyond dead, it’s really cool that artists like Mary, promoters such as Live Nation, and bailout-rescued institutions like Citigroup are finding ways to market music. I think that the fact that all these different industries are pairing up to save each other (and in the process saving their own hides) is very predictive of what’s going to happen in future campaigns. Some observers might note that the lyric game is kinda gimmicky, but I think that innovators like Live Nation realize that they already are dealing with a distracted, ADD consumer, so if they can do a little to bring fan involvement, the better.
You raise an important point. But my question to you hissip is at what cost. Do you honor these artists sacrifice of quality and controversy to meet the parameters set forth by their sponsors?