• by Steve McClellan , January 5, 2015

Havas Group, the France-based advertising and marketing firm and Universal Music Group (UMG), have formed a venture  they’re calling the Global Music Data Alliance (GMDA).

The companies announced the agreement at the CES show and said that it would utilize data to better understand the correlation among artists, music fans and brands.

That, in turn, is expected to generate new marketing and advertising opportunities for brands with UMG artists and labels.

As part of the initiative, UMG’s proprietary data across multiple artists and genres will be layered with Havas’ behavioral data and analyzed to detect new insights. The data includes music and video sales, as well as streaming and social media data and airplay statistics. Merchandising will be contributed by Bravado, UMG’s merchandising division, while ticket sales data will be added by Vivendi Ticketing, which provides ticketing services for select UMG artists and events.

The result will be a comprehensive view of music and music related consumption across a range of platforms, the firms said. Advertisers will be better able to identify which genres and which specific artists appeal to their consumer bases as well as the music-related opportunities that will attract those consumers, they added.

“This first Global Music Data Alliance will allow our clients and other brands to further expand the common passion they share about music with fans and create more meaningful experiences for them,” said Yannick Bollore, CEO Havas Group.

The launch of GMDA follows a 14-month research program overseen by Havas' specialist sports and entertainment network, Havas Sports & Entertainment (HS&E), in collaboration with the University of Southern California's Annenberg Innovation Lab (USC). The first part of that study focused on sports — identifying an array of fan profiles based on interest and engagement levels among other metrics. A second wave of the research will focus on music.

Lucian Grainge, Chairman and CEO of UMG said: "We want to continue to find new revenue and marketing opportunities for all of our artists around the world by leveraging our … big data tools and working with forward-thinking companies such as Havas to supercharge our efforts to realize previously untapped revenues from consumer brands and other new business partners.”

Havas and Universal, which have a corporate tie—Bollore Groupe has a controlling stake in Havas and a minority stake in UMG parent Vivendi—are ongoing partners in other initiatives. In the fall of last year, the two firms enlisted Mirriad to bake brand messages directly into music videos.

Havas’ venture Siliwood, a research center launched in collaboration with Orange Silicon Valley, has also incorporated Mirriad technology and UMG content in ongoing research it is conducting in media, content, technology and data science.