K'naan & Coca-Cola

More than ever, recording artists’ careers are being buoyed and invigorated by brand partnerships. An excellent example of this is K'naan and Coca-Cola®. K’naan is Coca-Cola’s brand ambassador, and his song Wavin’ Flag was their multimedia advertising campaign anthem during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. I was fortunate to attend an event where the architects of the deal, K’naan’s manager, Sol Guy, and Chief of Possibilities of Deviant Ventures, Umut Ozaydinli who represented The Coca-Cola Company discussed what is required to create an unparalleled global World Cup campaign for a market leading brand like Coca-Cola®. Below is some of what they shared.

Who is K’naan?

Sol Guy: K’naan is a Somali-Canadian poet, rapper, singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist from Mogadishu, Somalia.

Who is Sol Guy?

Sol Guy: I am K’naan’s manager. I started working with him several years ago in Canada.

Which label is he signed to and why?

Sol Guy: We were approached by many labels with deals. Some wanted to market him as a hard core refugee war rapper, but that’s not him. He’s about real inspirational music, and his content is people friendly. He signed with A&M/Octone Records, distributed by Universal Music Group (UMG) because they develop artists.

Who is UmutOzaydinli?

Umut: I’m an untalented musician who used to organize concerts. I joined The Coca-Cola Company after finishing university and worked there for 10 years in various countries and roles. I headed Music Partnerships in the Worldwide Sports and Entertainment team before starting my own company, Deviant Ventures, a boutique culture and entertainment marketing company that creates campaigns that deviate from the marketing norm, using music, art and technology for brands like MTV, Coca-Cola® and Diesel Jeans.

Explain Coca-Cola’s marketing process.

Umut: The Coca-Cola Company creates campaigns around a Core Creative Idea (CCI) which is the brand’s ultimate message to be communicated. They then translate the CCI into specific campaigns called Campaign Expressions. This process is called Integrated Marketing Campaign (IMC), which is crafting a campaign with a multi-disciplinary work force and developing subcomponents to cover all facets, including digital, design, promotions, advertisements and internal communications. The global team develops campaigns and local teams execute campaign manifestations. For the FIFA World Cup, The Coca-Cola Company wanted to invite the world to the celebration and providing amazing music was essential.

Explain the Coca-Cola® /FIFA World Cup collaboration and your involvement in it.

Umut: The FIFA World Cup is one of the world’s most watched sports events, and Coca-Cola® is an old partner. This collaboration started in the 1950’s with stadium advertisements and evolved into an official partnership in 1974. Last year’s World Cup was very special to The Coca-Cola Company, being the first time it took place in Africa, a continent that’s very dear to The Coca-Cola Company, but whose negative facets are often only depicted in western media. The Coca-Cola Company used this opportunity to show the real face of Africa, a continent with challenges, but filled with passion, art and celebration. This was The Coca-Cola Company's biggest football campaign and arguably the biggest ever brand marketing campaign. It cost $300 million and reached over 150 countries. The Coca-Cola Company commissioned Deviant Ventures, which is my company, to find the artist and music for the campaign, and lead the deployment internationally.

Explain the artist search process.

Umut: The campaign was based on legendary Cameroonian former football forward, Roger Milla, who celebrated scoring goals by dancing. So we started our search by reaching out to labels, publishers and music placement experts to:

1. Find an authentic African artist who is a “Roger Milla” musical equivalent, meaning a recording artist not necessarily legendry yet, but credible, and whose music isn’t over produced or auto-tuned.

2. Create a contemporary inspirational and celebratory stadium anthem of world relevance to broaden its appeal, to be a global chart hit with African spice, to invite spectators of the World Cup to join in the world’s biggest celebration, which was Coca-Cola’s World Cup campaign theme.

How did K’naan emerge as Coca-Cola’s choice?

Umut: We evaluated 40 different artists, and five were short listed including K’naan, who was submitted by Brand Asset group. I was in Los Angeles when I first heard his unique and moving music. He was not the “obvious” choice, but he had great buzz, was touring and had performed on high profile platforms like the late night talk show, Jimmy Kimmel Live. I wanted to place a talented but unknown artist in the campaign, rather than using an obvious high profile artist. The Coca-Cola Company wasn’t initially receptive to K’naan, but ultimately his music captivated them and won their support.

Describe the contractual negotiations.

Umut: We first met at the South by South West Conference in early 2009. After that it took about 7-8 months to get all contracts signed, because The Coca-Cola Company has a rich basket of rights, and A&M/Octone/UMG had many opportunities to introduce K’naan internationally, so neither was vulnerable. Both companies are big, can do without each other, and have very set processes.

However, all stake holders made compromises, and we shook hands as business partners in the end, not as parties with binding contracts. What we accomplished would’ve been impossible without Emmanuel Segue, The Coca-Cola Company's head of Worldwide Sports and Entertainment, and James Deiner, president of A&M/Octone Records taking risks. It wasn’t easy because it wasn’t a sponsorship, branding or synchronization deal. It was a pioneering partnership between the artist, the label and The Coca-Cola Company. We discussed and outlined all possible scenarios, and The Coca-Cola Company was also a stake holder in the master recording.

Sol Guy: When we received the contract, The Coca-Cola Company wanted all rights including the right to use the song in perpetuity, but UMG didn’t agree to that. Also, K’naan is his own brand manager. He’d rather walk away from a deal than be forced into a compromise, but with good intentions and communication, you can always work things out. Negotiations took months and I almost gave up several times, but you learn as you go. Attorneys and business affairs executives were all involved. We had to share publishing, Television and Vending Machine rights. We were also paid an advance, and licensing and appearance fees.

How did the song emerge?

Sol Guy: After our first meeting with Umut, K’naan tried to create a song, but nothing came up. After brainstorming, we realized we had the perfect song in Wavin’ Flag all along. We then contacted Umut stating that we wanted to use it.

Umut: I had thought about it, because people wave flags in stadiums during games, but I wanted to see what they could create. I also didn’t want to be accused of asking an artist to commercialize a personal song like Wavin’ Flag, but when they called with their decision, I was happy.

Was the song modified?

Sol Guy: Some of the lyrics and music composition of the song was revised from the original version, but the chorus of the song is basically the same in all versions. The initial song had a melancholy theme, but we tweaked it into a celebration theme. We worked with The Coca-Cola Company on the song, which was new for us. There were requests to add “football” in the lyrics, which didn’t fit, but we used “the beautiful game” instead. At some locations, we created consumer familiarity by re-recording it in the local language, so the people felt solidarity with it.

Umut: K’Naan also integrated The Coca-Cola Comapany's 5 note audio imprint signature into it.

How was the partnership executed locally?

Umut: The Coca-Cola Company localized the song in several countries in the form of duets with local artists, and The Coca-Cola Company and UMG’s local teams partnered together and jointly determined the best way to introduce the song locally.

Sol Guy: We worked closely with Coca-Cola and cleared our schedule to join the FIFA World Cup Trophy Tour presented by Coca-Cola. We performed several concerts worldwide. Don Robinson from UMG/Interscope worked hard with us to launch the single in all territories. We had some challenging situations at some concerts, but the partnership ultimately worked for all stake holders.

Describe the mutual benefits derived from the partnership?

Umut: Everything starts with great music, and Wavin’ Flag is an amazing song that captivated millions of people worldwide. K’naan is also an amazing talent. He always made himself available, and let us schedule him, even on last minute opportunities. If it was a bigger artist, that wouldn’t have been possible. It was also a true partnership. Neither I nor The Coca-Cola Company ever felt we were being milked or positioned as a sponsor.

Sol Guy: Brands help artists get exposure. He now has massive exposure in India, China, Africa, US and Europe, which upgraded his profile. His song was number one in many countries and got millions of You Tube views. He received top line media around the World Cup, which increased his following. He performed with local artists in places such as China and Vietnam, and performed at many concerts worldwide.

What is your advice for artists working with brands?

Umut: Artist brand partnerships are like the perfect storm, all the right elements must come together to make it work. K’naan was ready to break as an artist. They had made all the right moves by creating amazing music, generating buzz and creating a following. He also has an amazing team in Sol Guy, James Diener and Don Robinson. They were ready to work as fast as or sometimes faster than The Coca-Cola Company. Music placement is sometimes considered a lottery for artists, but if K’naan and his team weren’t prepared for the opportunity, the partnership wouldn’t have worked, and his song wouldn’t have been number one in so many countries.

Artists must start with good music that move people, and focus on creating and grooming their fan base. Generate a buzz and a following, then brands will follow you. Brand partnerships aren’t the objective. A brand’s objective is to reach broader audiences. Brands are not charity organizations, their goal is to reach their consumers hearts, so artists must think, what’s in it for the brand? If an artist can help brands reach broader audiences by reaching people’s hearts, the artist will be in business with them.

Sol Guy: Get your reasons right. In an artist-brand relationship, an artist’s role is to bring out the brand’s message with their art. K’naan is Coca-Cola’s brand ambassador, so artists must make up their minds to work aggressively to promote the brand they represent. Artist's must understand the brand, the relationship, and the good and the bad that accompanies it. We worked for 18 months on it, got it done and have no regrets.

Sol Guy and Umut Ozaydinli are two experienced men who are both doing remarkably well in the somewhat unstable music business. They have shared from their wealth of knowledge about what really transpires behind the scenes in such partnerships. In addition to learning from what they shared above, artists must also realize that a career as a recording artist is a marathon, not a sprint. They must focus on keeping their profiles up by creating good music, developing their fan base and staying visible by working and touring. Companies don't want to partner with a one hit wonder who is here today and gone tomorrow.

Although things aren’t the way they used to be in the music industry, it’s still an amazing time to be in it because there are still many opportunities including brand/artist partnerships to be successful in the business. However, artists and their managers need to like and appreciate the brand they partner with, so they can be effective promoters of the brand. They also need to understand the brand’s needs and figure out how they can make the partnership work for all parties involved. With that in mind, everyone can smile all the way to the bank.