A Conversation with American Express’ Jessica Igoe, Vice President Global Sponsorship Marketing – HuffPost 3.23.11
Mike Ragogna: Since this is the second year of a partnership with VEVO and YouTube, what is American Express hoping to achieve this year and how will it benefit the music industry?
Jessica Igoe: At American Express, we know that our Cardmembers have a passion for music and we have been creating memorable experiences with their favorite artists for years. With Unstaged, we saw this as an opportunity to not only provide our Cardmembers with a unique in-venue concert experience, but also help music enthusiasts across the country access their favorite artists.
But another goal that we had for Unstaged was to help shape a new distribution model for musical acts. We are helping artists to get broad scale awareness of their new music to both existing and new fans. And an important element of that is helping artists to sell their new music. Fans who tune-in to the live stream are able to download the album on iTunes directly from the YouTube channel. We know from our previous artists that Unstagedplayed an important role in the success of their music. Last year is a great example as ourUnstaged artists combined for eight Grammy nominations and four Grammy wins, and two of the three artists’ albums debuted at #1 on the Billboard albums chart following theirUnstaged performances. This new distribution model is beneficial to both music fans and the music industry.
MR: David Lynch is an interesting choice to direct the live stream. What went into the company’s decision to work with him?
JI: With all of our “Unstaged” music series concerts, we want to create a fusion of artist, venue and director that will allow us to connect our in-venue and online audiences in new and unexpected ways.
From a partnership standpoint, many factors go into which artists we work with, as we are committed to offering an eclectic mix of genres that are relevant, diverse and exciting. We also like to work with artists who see Unstaged as a new model for distributing music, especially as they are getting ready to release new recordings.
For a director, we are looking for someone who is a fan of the band and has a unique perspective on their music. We are especially excited to be including David Lynch into ourUnstaged family. He is putting together an unbelievable visual experience. His vision for the stream is something that we have never done before, and will be a really rich experience for our online viewers.
MR: We’ve seen a variety of digital features incorporated in the Unstaged series from last year with Arcade Fire, John Legend & The Roots and Sugarland. Which digital initiatives can we expect for this concert with Duran Duran and what makes these new ones so special?
JI: Unstaged: An Original Series from American Express is truly designed to bring both the in-concert and at-home viewing experiences to entirely new heights. Similar to our inaugural year last year, we work with each artist and director individually to create a concert and live-stream experience that is highly personalized for the band and engaging for the music fans. The 2011 Unstaged series will undoubtedly continue to use a variety of digital and social media to connect the online audience to the live shows.
As we kick-off the first installment of this year, we’re certainly pleased to offer new and more innovative digital twists, such as “The Now Pulse” crowd visualizer where a special Duran Duran memento will be unlocked based on social chatter online. Additionally, audiences worldwide were able to collaborate with David Lynch in an on-stage and online art installation, by submitting photos as part of our “All Of Us Now” photo project. And of course, the hugely popular “Tweet the Band” feature allows fans to Tweet questions to #amexduranduran for a chance to have them answered by the band in the pre-show.
MR: What advice would you give any artists aspiring to eventually play in Unstaged?
JI: The main thing that we are trying to achieve at American Express with Unstaged, is to use create a new distribution model for music. We want to work with artists who seeUnstaged as a way of connecting with their fans across the world and are looking to be innovative in the digital space. This combination of an in-venue and online concert experience really helps to connect with existing fans and build a new audience.