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5 minutes with... in association withAdobe Firefly
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5 Minutes with… Mike Boyd

25/08/2022
Advertising Agency
New York, USA
836
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VaynerX’s head of music on championing emerging artists by bringing them together with top brands and the genius of Public Enemy’s ‘Fear Of A Black Planet’


Mike Boyd, head of music at VaynerX, has been with VaynerMedia for over 13 years and has extensive experience in the music and advertising industry - from his time with Warner Music Group to the numerous musical hobbies and interests he’s maintained since childhood. 

In his current position with VaynerX - the global creative and media agency that houses VaynerMedia, Vayner Commerce, Eva Nosidam and several other media production and communications companies - he oversees music partnership, artist relations, and music rights for the company. This is a job that has only gotten increasingly more important over the years, considering the significant role that music now plays in the overall advertising space.

A multi-instrumentalist and music-in-advertising expert, Mike has made his mark on Vayner’s musical brand partnerships and has shone a spotlight on many up-and-coming artists throughout his career - something he is passionate about. Recently he helped facilitate the viral ‘DraftKings’ inclusion in the track ‘Bet It’ by Dave East and the creation of Fresco Trey’s ‘Draft Kings’ song - part of a VaynerMedia’s hip hop series designed to broaden DraftKings’ appeal among music and sports fans.

He’s also been involved with other viral campaigns of late, including O-I Glass and Chase McDaniel’s collaboration ‘Better in a Glass’, as well as assisting the development of future digital endeavours for Vayner. For example, with Vayner’s new web3 consultancy ‘Vayner3’, he has played a significant part in educating brands, artists, and individuals on how to properly utilise NFTs within the music space.

To discuss all of this and more, LBB’s Ben Conway caught up with Mike and chatted about his time in the industry so far, translating his passion for music into his work and some projects that have changed the trajectory of his career.


LBB> Was music always a passion? Did you learn instruments/sing/perform in bands etc. growing up? When did music first become a career option?


Mike> Music has always been a passion of mine. Whether it was buying CDs on the first day they became available, waiting with my cassette tape recorder to capture my favourite songs off the radio, playing the guitar in high school and the piano in college, learning music theory, or even burning CDs for my friends, I was always the person in my class that knew about the best new music before anyone else.

I served as the Warner Music Group college representative for the city of Boston during my senior year at Boston University, but it wasn’t until I started working at VaynerMedia that I knew I could have a career that allowed me to put my passion for music to work. A passion that I had been fine-tuning for years.



LBB> What are your main responsibilities as head of music? How has music in the industry and your job changed during your 13 years at Vayner?


Mike> As head of music, I bring my team into various campaigns across all divisions of VaynerX to work on the strategy and execution of all musical elements. This often includes helping the musicians that we chose to create the music itself.

In 2009, when I first started working on the music side of the ad agency world, the brands that I met with were very hesitant to give emerging musicians any type of partnership. I remember presenting partnership opportunities with emerging musicians such as Kendrick Lamar and Mac Miller (rest in peace) to major brands over a decade ago, only to be told that they were not interested in taking risks of this kind.

Today I speak to VaynerX’s brand clients about the benefits of championing emerging artists, while my team speaks to our projections for where we expect these artists to be in the coming months and years. I’m very proud to say that my team has brought brand partnerships to promising artists on the rise, such as Fresco Trey, Blu DeTiger, Chase McDaniel, Paopao, Upsahl, Millie Go Lightly, Lil Polo Tee, Lulú, Immasoul and more - all within the last year.



LBB> Is there a brand whose sonic branding makes you jealous?


Mike> There are a few sonic branding examples that inspire my work, but there is only one piece of branded audio that has a special place in my heart. Whenever I hear someone whisper the word ‘Wehrenberg’, I am immediately transported back to my childhood Wehrenberg movie theatre in Saint Louis, Missouri. Although this chain was eventually acquired by Marcus Theatres, it is still a Saint Louis tradition to whisper ‘Wehrenberg’, right before a movie starts, no matter where you are enjoying your feature presentation.




LBB> What was your first professional project and what are your memories of that? Is there a project that really changed your career?


Mike> I still remember the first musicians that I was able to bring into a partnership with a major brand. Members of the ‘Brisk Iced Tea’ company decided to trust my prediction around the largely regional hip hop group, Travis Porter. It feels like just yesterday that Gary Vaynerchuk and myself were sitting across the table from the two representatives of Brisk Iced Tea when they agreed to trust my vision and enter into the partnership with the goal of increasing their sales in the city of Atlanta. A goal that was quickly accomplished with the help of Travis Porter.

Another major moment in my career took place only last year, as my team was able to pair our ‘DraftKings’ client with the emerging artist Fresco Trey. Not only did our ad agency help Trey come up with the theme for the song, Trey went ahead and decided to name the song ‘Draft Kings’. As if that wasn’t enough, Trey then worked the brand name into the song’s catchy hook: ‘Hit up DraftKings, I bet a hundred on myself.’ Recently, Fresco Trey went on tour and performed the song to a very receptive audience. At a show in Texas, one of the fans in the front row had the words ‘Draft Kings’ written in marker across their arms. Due to the song’s success, VaynerX's Eva Nosidam Productions decided to film the music video in Trey’s hometown of Memphis. As the buzz around the song increased even more, our DraftKings client brought Trey with them to this year’s NBA All-Star Weekend in Cleveland Ohio. The ‘Draft Kings’ song was even added to the video game soundtrack for NBA 2k22.




LBB> What is the ad, music video or piece of art that made you want to get into the industry? And what is the creative work that you keep revisiting?


Mike> The ‘Pepsi Stuff’ campaign had me collecting and cashing in ‘Pepsi Points’ at a young age. This campaign had such a lasting effect on me, that I still remember mailing in my Pepsi Points to receive the Pepsi Stuff CD which I then played non-stop on my personal boombox.

Currently, I get a good deal of inspiration from Seth Godin’s books and email newsletter. I find myself revisiting Seth’s classic publications from time to time and then applying his wisdom to whatever situation I find myself in at that time.




LBB> If you had to recommend one album to someone on a similar path to the one you took, what would it be and why?


Mike> I only had a handful of CDs to listen to while growing up and they were all handed down to me by my older brother. Public Enemy’s ‘Fear Of A Black Planet’ was one of the CDs that I listened to regularly and it is the CD that I would recommend to someone on a similar path to the one I took. I would ask that person to not only enjoy the music, but to also study the album's genius nuances and sounds used to create this widely appreciated piece of art.



LBB> You’re involved with VaynerMedia’s web3 consultancy, Vayner3. Why are NFTs an interesting development for the industry? Have you worked on an NFT project recently?


Mike> I am most excited about the amount of access that both individuals and major companies can bring to the public through their use of utility-based NFT projects.

The Budweiser Royalty NFT Project posed an interesting challenge as my team worked with the twenty-two emerging artists from around the world that I chose for the campaign. For example, something as simple as getting a ‘quick answer’ around all the artist’s shoe sizes to photo approvals to contract updates before EOD NYC time included sending emails, texts, and WhatsApp messages across the time zones ranging from California to Australia.


 

LBB> Can you tell us a bit about your work with O-I Glass?


Mike> O-I Glass came to VaynerMedia with the goal of getting Middle America to buy more beer in glass bottles. This goal turned into searching for the right country music artist from Nashville who could create a catchy song around drinking beer from a glass. I found several artists I believed the brand would enjoy working with to achieve this goal. One of the artists stood out to me, for both his understanding of how to create well-performing TikTok videos and his pop-country style which I believed would appeal to people that normally wouldn’t choose to listen to country music.

This was another situation where the client had to trust my guidance, as the artist I was pushing for them to consider only had two songs on the DSP streaming sites at the time - and only 300 Spotify streams per month. However, deciding to work with Chase McDaniel ended up paying off for O-I Glass in major ways. Chase ended up creating ‘Better In a Glass’, which was so catchy it currently has over 380,000 plays on Spotify alone.

Most recently, Chase’s growing buzz presented him with the opportunity to perform ‘Better In a Glass’ at an official Atlanta Braves pre-game event alongside ‘God Bless America’.




LBB> Besides music, what do you do to decompress or stay fresh? And what motivates you in life generally?


Mike> My morning meditation guides my daily tasks, while mindfulness breathing exercises keep me fresh throughout the day. 

I often have the privilege of bringing emerging musicians of various genres together with their favourite brands to create a mutually beneficial piece of art. The north star that my team always follows is authenticity.

In my personal life, I am driven by the love and respect that my wife and I share for each other. Also, my wife will be giving birth to our first child at the end of this year, so knowing that I will soon become a father gives me the strength to go out and conquer the world.



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