There’s a new CMO in town—the chief music officer.

In 2020, Headspace appointed John Legend as chief music officer, while Orangetheory named Steve Aoki to the role in March.

Zoom out: Of course, celebrities have been joining the C-suite in…unconventional roles for years. But as brands across industries pay increasing attention to audio channels and even their own sonic identities, more companies could start investing in music internally—all the way up to the C-level.

“There is no doubt that this is going to continue to gain traction,” Joe Belliotti, CEO of creative music agency MassiveMusic North America, told Marketing Brew. “No one doubts the importance of music to consumers. No one doubts the importance of sound and the value of sound to build brand equity.”

Who wants to be a CMO?

Orangetheory and Headspace both turned to celebrities to serve as their chief music officers. Musicians like Legend and DJs like Aoki, as well as A&R professionals, are in fact “well positioned to be successful CMOs,” said Garrett Crosby, a sonic branding expert and owner of We Time Audio House.

• “For companies like Orangetheory and Headspace, it makes a lot of sense that they went with a high-profile DJ and a songwriter, respectively,” Crosby said. “Here, it’s more about reaffirming each company’s culture and curating music for endurance or mindfulness,” he explained, as opposed to dealing with something like music-licensing rights.
• As a DJ, Aoki pays attention to aspects of music like beats per minute, which also ties into heart rate during a workout class, Orangetheory senior director of global marketing Tammie DeGrasse-Cabrera explained. Additionally, Orangetheory bet Aoki’s celebrity status would help drive signups, she said.
• Aoki has curated the setlist for four “All Out with Aoki” classes so far. Orangetheory plans to release a series of 10 workouts DJed by Aoki.

The trailblazers: A few types of companies in particular could be best suited to usher in the era of the chief music officer, predicted Lauren McGuire, president at sonic branding agency Made Music Studio.

The first already has the ball rolling: companies that are “music dependent,” McGuire said, like health and fitness brands. Retailers such as Abercrombie & Fitch and restaurants like Starbucks also fit that bill, according to McGuire, given the prevalence of music in their retail locations.

Read the full story here.—AM

Okay—we get it. We are Cannes-pilled. It’s only been two days (and I’ve sweated through, like, three shirts already), but I get it. Is Cannes Lions an over-the-top excuse for the industry to expense yacht excursions and steak dinners? Certainly. But everyone (and by everyone, I mean mostly C-suite executives) is incredibly accessible—you’ll bump into your LinkedIn feed along La Croisette, the walkway that splits the town from the beach.

FWIW: Our objectives here lean more toward “meet as many people as possible” versus actually attending a lot of the scheduled panels, which, like any industry event, can be a bit milquetoast. (But not ours. We’re cool.)

The rundown: Yesterday, we kicked off the week speaking with Spotify’s Lee Brown, who gave us a brief tour of the platform’s beach. We then hit Amazon’s port (some brands do yachts, some do beaches, Amazon did an entire freaking port) to hear from Jeffrey Cohen, an advertising “evangelist” at the company, where he pitched Amazon Ads’s Partner Network.

We stopped by the Twitch apartment to chat with Sarah Iooss, its head of sales for the Americas, about balancing programmatic advertising and direct, creator-led brand integrations, then bounced from a Google happy hour to a MediaLink x Criteo party (if you don’t know what MediaLink does, join the party. Literally).

We ended the night with Kendrick Lamar, who headlined Spotify’s first concert of the week, wrapping up around 1am.

Bites: The lightest hors d’oeuvres possible. I almost ate my Nikes.

To short or not to short: Last week, I asked Twitter what the dress code is like for a festival in the middle of summer on the Mediterranean. I stuck to slacks the first day, but the general consensus seems to be that shorts are fine in the morning, but not at dinner. Fine.—RB

Each Tuesday, we spotlight Marketing Brew readers in our Coworking series. If you’d like to be featured, introduce yourself here.

Courtney Harwood is CMO at Everside Health. Throughout her career, she’s held marketing roles at companies including Xerox, Clear, the Financial Times, and FreshDirect.

Favorite project you’ve worked on? Bringing our voice to life by letting our people tell and capture stories. One of the first projects I worked on when I joined Everside was creating stories via interviews with our leadership team, clients, our providers, and patients because no one can tell our story better.

What’s your favorite ad campaign? I’m a huge fan of Patagonia; the brand’s purpose and core values permeate their creative work and their products. They ran a print ad a while back that really stopped me in my tracks: Over eight lines, they outlined the commonplace pessimism around how to approach climate change—but when read from the bottom up, it told a different story on how we need to demand a livable planet and [that] it isn’t too late. It was exactly what great creative should do. You don’t need million-dollar production budgets. Sometimes it just takes super clever writing or a very catchy, simple visual to break through. And as always, this is true to Patagonia’s mission and values.

One thing we can’t guess from your LinkedIn profile? Apparently, I get really fired up on Fridays (according to my marketing team). Bring me a problem or idea on Friday and I’m going to get fired up about it, in a good way. Fired-up Fridays: it’s a new trend.

What marketing trend are you most optimistic about? Least? I’m most optimistic about TikTok as a powerful channel for brands. It’s a significant marketing development in the last two years and requires native, clever execution to be successful, not just money. It’s really helping small businesses break through the noise and be successful. I’m least excited about the overuse of stock photography. It serves a great purpose, but make it authentic, and your own, when and as soon as you can.

What’s one marketing-related podcast, social account, or series you’d recommend? Pivot with Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway. It’s the right mix of news, the latest tech trends, marketing insights and more. Fun fact: Galloway was my professor at business school, and he was as entertaining and engaging as he is on the show.

There are a lot of bad marketing tips out there. These aren’t those.

Do it live: LinkedIn has made a few updates to engagement within LinkedIn Events, including commenting options and in-stream comment replies.

Shop signs: Snapchat released a guide showing the ways AR can boost engagement, ad recall, and purchases.

Inspo: Watch this year’s winners from Cannes Lions so far, including Adidas’s “Liquid Billboard” from Havas Middle East.

Social status: the Brew’s social media guru, Jack Appleby, just launched Future Social: a weekly newsletter that covers social media strategy, the creator economy & more. Don’t miss it.

Mingle with marketing masters: Join Activate Summit ’22 for 3 days in San Fran to network with industry experts and gain insight into creating effective marketing moments and meaningful customer connections. Snag early-bird ticket pricing here.*

^{*This is sponsored advertising content.}

Trying to break into the marketing industry? Check out these junior positions on the Marketing Brew Job Board!

Today’s featured openings:

• Associate Brand Partner, Finance at Morning Brew
• Marketing Specialist at INTEX Recreation Corp.
• Demand Generation Specialist at Big Nerd Ranch

See more jobs or post your job opportunities here.

Catch up on a few Marketing Brew stories you might have missed.

• A Q&A with Lee Brown, Spotify’s head of advertising
• IAB updates ad measurement standards for video games
• Yes, advertising students are working on Web3

It feels like the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity has always been an industry mainstay. When was the first year that the festival was held?

1. 1946
2. 1954
3. 1978
4. 1984

Keep scrolling for the answer.

::drumroll:: Introducing The Brief: A Summit Presented by Marketing Brew

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You’ll hear from a powerhouse panel of speakers that will spotlight innovations, highlight strategies, and provide solutions to the modern marketer’s biggest challenges. Sounds good, right? Dust off your work pants and join us.

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