Amp Up Your Marketing Initiatives With Music

Experience is everything. It’s how we form relationships, memories and our own identities. Therefore, when customers experience a brand, they’re connecting to that brand on a personal level. Music is an experiential enhancement that can launch your brand firmly into the hearts and minds of your customers. Providing a soundtrack for your messaging — e.g., as customers browse online or in-store — fortifies emotional connections, helping them see your brand as a lifestyle.

An astonishingly low number of millennials (1 percent) claim to be influenced by advertising at all. What grabs the attention of the other 99 percent? They crave authentic experiences. They want brands to become experiences in themselves — no ads required. And with 48 percent of millennials feeling more connected to brands with a pop-culture bent, music holds major sway.

Here are four unique ways the coolest e-commerce retailers are using music to galvanize marketing initiatives (and how you can join them):

1. Host live music sessions. Turn your brand into a concert venue that supports local or up-and-coming artists to create an emotional connection with your customers. Pick musicians that align with your brand’s values and aesthetic, shoot video with cool lighting and a homespun set, and then post on your platform.

Burberry is known for its fashion, but it created a buzz recently when it started hosting live music sessions at its London headquarters. Live music and moody filters are compelling modern additions for this already well-established brand, and can also help new brands develop strong aesthetics and fan bases.

2. Drive online experiences through on-site activations. Fuel your online marketing initiatives with on-site engagement. With nine out of 10 millennials favoring brands that sponsor live music events, festivals, shows and digital media, events are prime venues for activating brand engagement. Sponsoring live events provides great exposure, higher traffic and improved sales.

The first step is to connect with brand relations directors or project managers representing festivals, big or small. Building these relationships is key to quick integration.

3. Create a playlist for your e-commerce platform. A carefully chosen tune can amplify a particular message or product, giving shoppers a memorable online experience. You could create a playlist in-house or, if you don’t have access to your own producers, explore music agencies representing catalogs that fit the genre you’re seeking.

Frank + Oak, a retailer in the fashion space seeking to be viewed as a lifestyle rather than just a brand, uses music expertly to boost content. The company has an entire team dedicated to creating editorial content. Frank + Oak initiated a feature using SoundCloud, where each piece of editorial content is accompanied by a unique, themed playlist created by an up-and-coming musician. Each receives thousands of plays.

4. Host a radio show. If you're really into the music scene, you could create your own branded digital broadcast station, or go the extra mile and host a live show. Cross-promotion through digital radio is a huge marketing tool that connects your brand to musicians, artists and influencers, creating buzz and kudos for your platform.

Tons of new shows are popping up on Dash Radio, DJ Skee’s new digital broadcast platform. Your brand can interact with this platform in a few ways. You could sponsor a music channel, or you could create your own and embed it into your own website.

If your marketing initiatives don’t immerse consumers in a total experience, you’re almost certainly missing out on opportunities to build loyalty. As many great companies have discovered, music is an experiential elixir that makes people feel more deeply connected emotionally.

How will you use music to create the soundtrack to your brand’s unique story?

Nick Gross is the vice president and COO of Milky Agency, a full-service creative, branding and business development company.