One under-recognized aspect of a music agency’s services is hooking up their clients with all manner of brand partnerships.
UTA’s Music Brand Partnerships group, headed by Toni Wallace, has been an industry leader in that category. The division, which Wallace says is by far the largest among its competitors, saw a 40% growth in revenue last year, thanks in part to high-profile deals starring Bad Bunny (Adidas, Pepsi, Jacquemus) and Cardi B (NYX Cosmetics, McDonald’s).
Meanwhile, in the company’s Nashville office, Emily Wright counts Rauw Alejandro, Brittney Spencer, Carin León, Megan Moroney, Midland and Tyler Hubbard among her clients, and as country music has expanded both its audience and its sound in the past year, Wright has been on the forefront of creating new opportunities for her artists.
We somehow managed to figure out how to use Zoom and spoke to Wallace and Wright about the explosive growth of their business, and why top-tier brands continue to ignore us.
Tell me about UTA’s Music Brand Partnership division. What does it do, and how many people work in it?
Toni Wallace: We started the group about eight years ago. It was just me and an assistant. Today, we’ve grown to a team of 23 people globally, in L.A., New York, Nashville and London. We’re actually three times larger than any of the other agencies in terms of our brand partnership groups.
The team is focused on building brand partnerships and strategies for our UTA roster of over a thousand musicians globally. Those could be endorsements, sponsorships, equity-based deals, licensing deals, the gamut.
We want to really understand what our clients are looking for in terms of brand partnerships. What are they really passionate about? Do they love fashion? If so, who are their favorite designers? So on and so forth. And the only way you can really know that is if you’re really close with them.
We want to build partnerships that last. If an artist has a 30-year career, we want them to work with that brand partner over and over again. And you really find that when there’s true love and passion for one another.
What’s a good example of that kind of true, simpatico connection between artist and brand?
Wallace: Bad Bunny and Adidas are a great example. When he signed with us, he really wanted to work with a footwear partner. He viewed the shoes that he wore as an important part of his lifestyle. And so we put together a partnership between him and Adidas. It’s not just a traditional endorsement, it’s actually a joint business. They’ve released a number of collaborations together. We just released an indoor Gazelle sneaker that is doing incredibly well.
Emily, tell me about what’s going on in Nashville these days. Must be exciting times, as country grows and broadens its audience.
Emily Wright: It’s great to see artists blending genres. It’s opening up new audiences. It’s great to see Kane Brown collaborating with a Regional Mexican musician like Carin León, or Beyoncé working with emerging artists like our client, Brittney Spencer. It’s growing the audience and reshaping the way people are thinking about country. I mean, even just last night, our client Machine Gun Kelly won two People’s Choice Country Awards for his projects in the country space. So it’s great to see new voices being welcomed.
And that expands into brand business as well. Recently we put Carin in a deal with Boot Barn alongside Miranda Lambert, Riley Green, Ian Munsick and Elle King. We think it puts him in the right positioning of where he wants to take this new genre that he’s spearheading.
Brittney Spencer wanted to be in mass fashion. We worked really intentionally with her publicist and her management team to help build her credibility in that category. Eventually, we put her in a Victoria’s Secret campaign. To this day, it’s the only time they’ve ever featured a country musician, let alone Black woman who represents extended sizing. It was a huge win and really created a lot of momentum for her.
Brands have always been a part of the country community, and country fans have always been fiercely loyal and such strong audiences. But what’s been fun to see is country grow beyond the standards of trucks, beer and boots. They’re always going to be an instrumental part of the genre. But now there are lot more brand categories —beauty, say, or athleisure—taking a more serious look at country.
Do you find that there are some genres of music in which artists are more amenable to striking brand deals?
Wallace: To be honest, no. Regardless of genre, everybody’s looking to partner with brands that make sense and are authentic to them. Those dollars are important to unlock and can help support a lot of different tours and endeavors, creative projects, music releases that need financing in new and interesting ways. And on the flip side, brands need new ways to reach audiences because younger consumers are just not watching television the the way they used to. The way we look at it, an artist’s Instagram or TikTok channel functions the same way that Cartoon Network or the Disney Channel do. That’s where audiences are going.
How did the Megan Moroney/Charlotte Tillbury deal come about?
Wright: Megan is very intentional with everything that she’s doing and she knows what’s going to make sense. And we’re very protective of how that needs to happen for her, particularly in the brand space, because she brings a lot of value into a relationship. Charlotte Tillbury is one of Megan’s favorite beauty brands, something she wears rather consistently. Anna Gregorek in our London office knew them pretty well, and when Megan was in London, she made the initial intro. Then we had their team come out and see Megan on the first headline show she did for the Lucky tour at Bowery Ballroom. Ultimately the timing was right and we were able to put together a partnership.
Wallace: We don’t view successful partnerships as transactions. We’re not just getting an offer, reviewing it and sending it to a client. It’s much deeper than that. We’re very thoughtful in having a point of view, what’s happening in the category, how does that dovetail into what the artist is doing, where they’re looking to go, how they’re looking to build. Does it make sense to do this right now? It really is a very deep and thoughtful strategic approach to every partnership and conversation.
Categories like soft drinks and fashion have long been traditional partners with artists. What’s a brand category that hasn’t traditionally worked with musicians where you think there’s room for growth?
Wallace: That’s a great question. If you’d asked me a couple of years ago, I would have said we hadn’t seen much innovation in the QSR (Quick-Service Restaurant) space. But we’ve recently seen some really innovative partnerships. I think one of the best is Post Malone and Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers. It’s one of his favorite foods. He’s had it on every set I’ve been on with him since 2016. Now they’ve built two restaurants together and Post co-designed those. We also put together the Cardi B-Offset partnership with McDonald’s, which was the first time McDonald’s had ever done a couple’s meal.
I also think there’s room for growth with financial services. They’ve always been part of tours and pre-sales, but there’s a lot of opportunities to think about: co-branded cards, special VIP access for fans in new and interesting ways. You’ve sort of seen that with the likes of Cash App. We did partnerships with them and Karol G and Lil Nas X.
Finally, I’d love to see hotels and airlines do more in music. A lot of those programs went away post-COVID. Artists fly everywhere, they stay in hotels when they’re on the road, they stay in Airbnbs. There’s a lot of opportunity there. A lot of those programs went away post-COVID.
Is there a non-UTA artist-brand partnership that you particularly admire?
Wallace: I loved the Chappell Roan-MAC partnership. I thought that was really organic, authentic, no-brainer, made complete sense. I thought it was very, very well done. I also think the Feid-Salomon partnership was incredible. He’s helped completely rejuvenate the popularity of that brand.
Wright: I like the Kacey Musgraves x Reformation collaboration. I thought it was an authentic pairing that showcased their shared values of sustainability, creativity and just being cool.
