How Does Your Sponsor Make You Look?

Everyone needs a sponsor for touring, unless you’re driving across country in a beat up van. Even then money is spread so thin, you ask mom and dad to “sponsor” you a few bucks. My point is money is always needed for touring and promoting your music, but what does that sponsor say about your band or music?

Recently, Holy Ghost! had schedule tour dates across the U.S. to spread their joyous sound, only to realize they didn’t know how they were going to make it to each show.  Luckily, Mountain Dew’s in-house record label, Green Label Sound, came to the rescue.

Green Label Sound is known to promote more indie sounding musicians, so it was a match made in musical heaven. Mountain Dew is also linked with extreme sports such as snow boarding and skate boarding, which in a lot of cases seems to go hand and hand with indie electro rock.  Billboard.biz reports that, “Mountain Dew will receive on-site signage and product availability throughout the Holy Ghost - but any other branding opportunities will be strictly improvisational.”

In addition to receiving the money needed to tour, the band was also able to afford opening acts and a promotional tour video, which you can see below. This was obviously a good match up of musicians and tour sponsors, but is it always such a good pairing?

In 2009, Rascal Flatts signed a major tour sponsorship deal with JC Penney to promote the band’s new album ‘Unstoppable’ and JCP’s line ‘American Living.’ Per CMT.com, the sponsorship deal called for the band to agree to the following:

• Wear clothing from Penney's American Living apparel line during concerts. 
• Compose and record a tribute song titled "American Living" (to be available on a special CD sold only through Penney stores with CD proceeds going to the J.C. Penney Afterschool Fund, which funds afterschool programs). 
• Show American Living commercials throughout their concerts on two huge screens on either side of the stage. One of which you can view below.
• Wrap their fleet of tour trucks and buses in American Living commercial signage.
• Make American Living merchandise available for sale at each concert. 

In my mind, that looks a lot like a band selling out. I’m not saying that JCP’s ‘American Living’ brand doesn’t match Rascal Flatt’s brand, but it is a bit excessive to wrap some much of the band’s identity in a JCP package. 

All I am pointing out here is to be smart in your decision of choosing a tour sponsor. I understand every musician wants to promote their music and make a living, but at what cost. Make sure you aren’t selling your soul to get your music out there and that your sponsorship promotes the brand you’ve built.

___

Sources:
http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/industry/touring/how-mountain-dew-saved-holy-ghost-s-tour-1005437152.story
http://www.greenlabelsound.com/
http://www.cmt.com/news/nashville-skyline/1605967/nashville-skyline-is-rascal-flatts-tour-sponsorship-penney-wise.jhtml
http://www.countrystandardtime.com/news/newsitem.asp?xid=2614
http://www.cmt.com/videos/misc/367098/jc-penney-commercial.jhtml