Ben Sisario Archives - Reputation Communications

At midnight last Thursday, Beyoncé put her own stamp on social media marketing. She bypassed the traditional music industry marketing machine and released a brand new album directly to her fans — on Instagram. Her team was so successful in avoiding leaks that it was a complete surprise.

Ben Sisario reported the unexpected release in The New York Times:

“The release of a blockbuster album has historically come with a few standard marketing moves. Flood the radio with an early single. Book as many TV appearances as possible. Line up partnerships with big retailers and consumer brands.

But at midnight on Thursday, when Beyoncé released her latest album, she did none of those things. Instead, she merely wrote, “Surprise!” to her more than eight million Instagram followers, and the full album — all 14 songs and 17 videos of it — appeared for sale on iTunes.

The stealth rollout of the album, “Beyoncé,” upended the music industry’s conventional wisdom, and was a smashing success.”

The Take Away for Traditional Business Leaders

What can more traditional C.E.O.’s and other business leaders take away from Beyoncé’s successful stealth move? The most important is that social media is a tool that enables users to take ownership of their message.

In online reputation management, the more control you have over the information about your brand online, the more well-balanced your online image is. If it is authentic, interesting and informative, it will have credibility.

Using social media to communicate directly to the public, with no filter of spokesperson or other third parties, enables your message to be viewed exactly as you intend it to be. You still can’t change how the media, critics and consumers respond, but you have complete management over what, how and when you introduce what you want them to know. That results in a more authentic picture of your point of view – one that is less easily skewed by others. It also enables a message that the media can use — including national news outlets.

In more traditional corporate cultures, doing this requires the participation of a lot of team members – including risk, compliance and legal officers. So planning such strategies and having them in your playbook before you need them, is a good strategy for 2014.

Above: Beyonce, Montreal 2013, by Nat Ch Villa

Pepsi’s Beyonce Deal: Reputation-Building with a Star

Pepsi has announced a trail-blazing, $50 million collaboration with superstar Beyonce. The deal combines Pepsi advertising and marketing with an estimated $25 million-dollar creative content development fund to support the singer’s own conceptual projects. That’s the interesting part. “For Pepsi, the goal is to enhance its reputation with consumers by acting as something of an artistic patron instead of simply paying for celebrity endorsements,” reports Ben Sinsario.

Affiliating with Beyonce as an artistic patron will align Pepsi with far more benefits than a standard commercial endorsement. Pepsi will attain luster from the sheen reflected by Beyonce’s creativity, blue-chip image and relationships with the biggest names in entertainment. Her husband Jay-Z is a powerhouse on all levels. It is a brilliant relationship for Pepsi.

Arts Patronage Has Always Been the Ticket to Superstar Prestige

The patronage aspect of the deal revisits corporate support of the arts campaigns during the ‘70s and ‘80s. American Express, Exxon and other major companies underwrote national tours of blockbuster art exhibitions and dance companies. Such sponsorships aligned them with wealthy, educated cultural audiences. Many corporations replaced arts sponsorships with sports underwriting.

Arts patronage has always been a conduit to status. But affiliating with contemporary culture – art, film, literature, music – confers a cool factor like no other. (The star-studded Miami Art Basel fair, which closed yesterday, attests to that. So do the dozens of private jets that flood Miami’s airports just before it opens each year.) In supporting Beyonce’s creative projects, Pepsi is enabling her with a bigger platform for her creative ideas. We trust it isn’t just another a commercial deal.

Consumers’ Desire for Authenticity Influenced the Concept

Brad Jakeman, president of PepsiCo’s global beverage group, attributed their decision to authenticity.

“Consumers are seeking a much greater authenticity in marketing from the brands they love,” he told Ben Sisario. “It’s caused a shift in the way we think about deals with artists, from a transactional deal to a mutually beneficial collaboration.”

In other words: consumers are tired of being sold to. Pepsi and Beyonce’s management and marketing teams have responded using the key principles of reputation management: authenticity and trust. We anticipate they’ll deliver the goods, too.