You know that music is a powerful route to passionate audiences. In the 21st century, connecting brands with music is one of the fastest growing and most successful ways to tap into key demographics and emerging audiences.

However, most brands play it safe and connect with famous artists with established audiences. It may seem counter-intuitive – but this is perhaps the worst strategy you could adopt.

The audience for your brand already exists in the fan base of artists you’ve never heard of – and those audiences are not just people who quite like the music of that artist – but they are die-hard fans.

Rather than spend single, large sums on individual artists, your marketing budget is better spent in a portfolio of small amounts with independent artists, across diverse musical scenes, providing massive loyalty and a direct route to connectors, opinion leaders and tastemakers.

And best of all, small amounts spent on small bands gives them the springboard to become big bands. An extra £1000 on a finished recording, a new bass amp, the chance to work with a name producer, fixing the tour van – these small investments provide massive leverage to reach new audiences, new heights and exponential returns on investment.

We know those bands. They’re the next Arctic Monkeys. 2010’s Lady Gaga. The underground act about to break. Or they may simply be ready to go from 1,000 fans to 100,000 fans. And you can help make that story real for them.

Not every small amount invested with every small act will reap massive marketing rewards – but each one that does will provide a return on investment far beyond anything you can expect with a large, undifferentiated audience.

Your brand on an entire subgenre of album artwork. Sponsorship of small music events across the nation. Direct targeting of clubs, scenes, youth cultures and emerging musical movements. And with specific feedback and monitoring about placement, secondary PR and the direct consequences for the artists of your investment, it’s easy to track the success of a distributed campaign.

Talk to us about independent artist portfolio marketing.