On June 2nd, artists, brand representatives, and media flocked to Sydney’s Overseas Passenger Terminal in Circular Quay for the 2022 Bring Artist & Brand Summit at Vivid.
Opening the day was Adam Ireland, general manager at Bring agency, who joked that he’d ticked off a bucket list moment after walking out to Eminem’s The Real Slim Shady. After welcoming the crowd, winner of The Voice, Lachie Gill, took to the stage to perform his sone Wasted Time.
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Lachie Gill
The first session of the day was called Soundtracking a New Era of Football, and saw Young Franco, Ant Hearne (CCO, A-League), Vic Curro (managing director, R/GA Sydney), and James Griffith (executive creative director, Bring agency) discuss the makings of the new anthem written especially for the A-League: Real Nice by Young Franco, Tkay Maidza, and Nerve.
The keynote speaker for the day was Sean Warner, SVP commercial of Universal Music Group. As the second session of the day (and the only solo speaker), Warner covered the history of the music industry at breakneck speed before speaking about what current trends are emerging. For example: in 2022, hip hop is the genre to beat, taking over from rock in previous years.
Off the back of the discussion about the prevalence of hip hop, New Zealand artist Melodownz took to the stage.
Melodownz
The third session was titled Under The Influence. After needing to pull out at the last minute, Doggface appeared via a video he had recorded earlier, detailing how his famous skateboarding video came to be and what life has been like for him since he went viral. Afterwards, DJ Tigerlily and girl group H3rizon took to the stage and joined Ash London to speak about interacting with the music industry as influencers and why they’ve worked with the brands that they have (and why they turned some down).
Ahead of the break, H3rizon performed a medley of tracks by women in the music industry who inspired them: Alicia Keys, Ariana Grande, and Miley Cyrus.
H3rizon
After refreshments (and some Four&Twenty pies), the second half of the day kicked off with Evolving Your Voice In Music. The panel featured Naysla Edwards (vice president brand, charge cards & member experience, American Express ANZ), James Griffiths, and KLP speaking to News Corp’s national music writer Kathy McCabe. The panel covered how brands can help artists find their voices, particularly through the American Express Music Backers Fund, which has helped create events like KLP’s Ricochet Songs Workshop and American Express’s Back The Night.
In Stop, Innovate & Listen, Edwina Floch (founder, Environmental Music Prize) Luke Girgis (CEO, The Brag Media), and Hayley Treasure (ANZ agency lead, Spotify), the panel tackled what advancements in technology meant for the music industry. In a word association game to close the session, the audience learned that Girgis thought that live-streamed concerts were boring but Treasure would love to see them on Spotify one day.
The Sync or Swim session saw Drax Project, Hauskey, and Dean Norbiato (general manager marketing, Kia) joined Vivienne Kelly to discuss the dos and don’ts of syncing a song into an ad. With Drax Project having provided the soundtrack for Air New Zealand, Hauskey working with Belong, and Norbiato being on the other side of the equation when it came to choosing tracks for ads, one word stood out: authenticity.
After discussing the process behind his song written for Belong’s carbon-neutral internet campaign Hauskey then gave a performance of the track.
Hauskey
The penultimate session of the day was Nothing Killed The Video Star, a discussion about what goes into creating a successful music video. The panel was made up of Steve Sos (managing director ANZ, Vevo), Baker Boy, and freelance director Alan Bibby. After covering the role of music videos and how platforms like YouTube have changed the game, the session ended with a quiz for the panellists and a fun fact for the audience – what is the most expensive music video ever made? The answer is Scream, in which Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson jet off to space for a video that cost $7 million at the time, or $12 million today.
Closing out the day was a one on one session that saw Ash London interview Meg Mac about what she’s been up to for the last couple of years and why she’s feeling so confident in the new music she has coming out. As the chat wrapped up, Meg Mac performed two songs to end the night.
Meg Mac