How To Get Your Brand In A Music Video

Chelsea Collins | October 25, 2022 at 12:42 PM

A Million Eyeballs In A Heartbeat

We always talk about music videos being one of the most effective platforms for brands. Why? Because these videos live forever online and are replayed for years after their debut. The brand exposure just never dies. But how actually does the brand ultimately get the exposure?

There are a ton of questions: How do these partnerships come about? Do the brands approach the artist? Does the record label approach the brand? Is it done through the artist’s management? And what happens after the initial interest is confirmed by both parties? In this blog, Hollywood Branded provides an inside look into how to get your brand in a music video from one of our own music video campaigns.

Initial Conversations On Getting Your Brand Into A Music Video

So back to those initial questions:

How do these partnerships come about?
Do the brands approach the artist?
Does the record label approach the brand?
Is it done through the artist’s management?
What happens after the initial interest is confirmed by both parties?

The answer is that music video partnerships can come about in a variety of ways.

One way is to put the cart before the horse and have a list of artists you want to target, reach out to those artists’ teams and get your brand on their radar. Then when those artists have a music video coming up, their team knows of your interest and will reach out. There is also the option of working with the label to brainstorm on the artist partner fits.

Music labels have hundreds of artists on their roster, with new music videos going into production weekly, so given a brand’s desired demo, they’re quick to come up with some options. This particular partnership we secured came about because of the relationship we had with the video’s producer.

Check out the blog we wrote on How Brand Partnerships Increase Product Placement In Music Video Lyrics.

Evaluating The Music Video Concept

Here is an inside look into a Hollywood Branded music video campaign from 2016. Check out the entire process from beginning to end:

The producer, Jon, had reached out to gauge our clients’ interest in his latest (at the time) project – the music video for R&B star Mario’s single, “Let Me Help You.” On this initial call he was able to walk us through the concept of the video, the fees they were looking for, and the exposure they could offer brands.

After the call, our team brainstormed client ideas and decided that one of the clients, Vaportini, would be an ideal fit. Between the demographic of Mario’s fan base and the club-vibe of the video, the alcohol-inhaling product was a natural and organic partner, which would allow it to realistically appear in the scene without feeling contrived. This is one of the benefits of being a client on our roster. This partnership was able to begin immediately because we knew Vaportini would have interest, and we were able to jump-start logistics right away, which was crucial because we only had one week before the video shoot. This tight timeline is the norm with music videos -- so brands have to be prepared to act fast.

Working With Our Client To Confirm It’s A Fit

We quickly alerted Vaportini to the opportunity to gauge their interest, determine a fee that they were comfortable with, and discuss with them exactly what they would find valuable out of such a partnership.

We let them know that the exposure could extend outside of just placement in the music video with the opportunity for social media exposure, celebrity endorsements, etc. It’s always helpful to give a placement additional legs, so it’s accessible to as many people as possible -– whether you’re at home watching MTV, scrolling through YouTube, or passing time on Instagram. Vaportini especially loved the idea of social media playing a role in this deal, so we made sure this was the first topic of conversation in our next chat with the producer.

Negotiation With The Production Team

Within hours of our initial conversation with Mario’s team, we had a follow-up call to let them know that Vaportini was interested and began fee negotiations. We also let them know that the crucial component for this deal would be confirmation that Mario himself would post about the product and include a coupon code to help boost sales.

Many times, artists are funding their music videos themselves, so in order to help get their videos shot, they’re more flexible with their social media fees. In years past, record labels provided massive funding for music videos. Those days are now long gone, and brands often are one of the ways music videos are still able to be produced. The artist and their team's priority is to find additional funds in a timely fashion (timely meaning super last minute), so it’s a great way to discuss options to get that social influencer post at a much lower rate than what might be secured as a one-off deal.

Once Mario’s team was able to confirm the social media component, we began to discuss exactly how Vaportini would be incorporated into the video. The producer walked us through the treatment scene by scene, and we figured out exactly how many different scenes we could incorporate the product into. We also negotiated the number of seconds the brand’s logo would clearly be shown.

It's important to know that Vevo now is restricting the length of time a brand's logo (not the brand itself) is shown in a music video—typically around 6 seconds or less. However, the most important aspect for this brand is demonstrating the usage of the product because it’s a new concept, and its purpose is not necessarily clear by just seeing it on a table. And when we say negotiate, we mean negotiate. What is offered at first is not necessarily what the end result will be. That's why working with a team who has experience in the music video space is important.

The end result for Vaportini was 13 seconds of guaranteed exposure, including 4 seconds of clear logo exposure. And because of our experience and relationship with the production team, we were able to strongly negotiate the fee as well.

Here’s the video… You’ll spot Vaportini starting around 2:35.

And here’s a screen grab of Mario’s social post we contracted:

Mario Instagram Vaportini - Case Study-1.png

Photo Credit: Instagram | @marioworldwide

Those Additional 'Icing On The Cake' Assets

The icing on the cake was the Behind the Scenes video we worked with the production team to let us shoot. This granted us permission to be on set during the taping of the Vaportini scenes and get cool content that Vaportini was able to repurpose not only on their social accounts but on their landing page so that the minute people visited their website, they knew that this was the product used in Mario’s latest music video. We were able to chat with Mario and the rest of the cast about the product in use as well. It truly allowed the process to come full circle.

Here’s a screen grab of Vaportini’s social push of the partnership with Mario:

Vaportini Instagram - Mario.png

Photo Credit: Instagram | @vaportini

And here’s our exclusive behind-the-scenes video.

Ready, Set, Shoot!

Music videos have a lot of benefits - they are affordable, they are lightning fast, and they are incredibly engaging. There are countless case studies of brand sales being triggered by music videos.

If you're interested in learning more about branding and the music industry, check out the blogs we wrote on:

And be sure to check out our Product Placement and Promotions 101 Guide, which provides even more insight on how to position your brand with content producers to gain incredible consumer engagement and increase sales!