Sound Of Music: Havas' HS&E Partners With Music Dealers

Music has played an integral part in advertising for the better part of a century. Now agencies are starting to view it as a specialty content area they can leverage into an extension of their service offering.

Earlier this year, Omnicom media shop OMD created OMD Sound to help clients exploit the power of musical connections with consumers to their fullest potential.

Now Havas, through its Havas Sports & Entertainment division has entered into a global strategic partnership with licensing agency Music Dealers also to help brands integrate music optimally into their communications.

The firms share a key client—The Coca-Cola Co.—and are already at work on several big projects for the beverage giant. The company’s sponsorship of the Olympic Torch Relay for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics is being organized through HS&E’s Ignition unit and Music Dealers is working with the firm and supervising the creation  of the official Coca-Cola Olympic Anthem, billed as the “strategic music lead” for the relay event, which will bring the Olympic flame to 2,900 cities and towns across Russia in the 123 days leading up to the games. The firms are also working jointly on a FIFA 2014 World Cup event for the client.

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Chicago-based Music Dealers, which also has offices in Mexico City and London, will help provide HS&E’s clients in 20 countries with music-related services including content creation, strategic music programs with a roster of contemporary artists, and live music events.

Lucien Boyer, president and global CEO, HS&E, said “brands are looking for content that creates conversations and connections with people,” and that the alliance with Music Dealers would help accelerate those efforts by “helping them leverage music in innovative and locally-relevant ways.”

OMD Sound, formed earlier this year is an in-house unit at the agency with operations in New York and Los Angeles. Alan Cohen, former OMD U.S. CEO told Billboard last month that “We believe anything that touches a consumer is media …anything that touches music could be content” for any number of channels. Cohen described OMD Sound as a music marketing strategy group.  

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