| | In the music business these days, it's not about selling the most CDs, it's having the best sponsors. How the Black Eyed Peas became the face of Samsung, Apple, BlackBerry, Bacardi...
 About 30 minutes into every concert on the Black Eyed Peas' current tour, band leader will.i.am performs a freestyle rap, riffing on text messages sent by audience members. It's a flashy solo turn for the musician who has steered the group since 1995. It's also a moment in the spotlight for the tour's primary sponsor, BlackBerry, which delivers the messages scrolling up two huge screens on the stage.
On its path from rootsy L.A. hip-hop troupe to pop juggernaut, the Black Eyed Peas have been escorted by a parade of corporate backers. From Coors to Levi's, Honda to Apple, Verizon to Pepsi, brands have padded the group's video budgets, underwritten its tours and billboarded band members in prominent places. When Apple was preparing the 2003 launch of the iTunes store, The Peas' "Hey Mama" became the first song associated with the iconic campaign's dancing silhouettes, a point of pride for will.i.am, the band's frontman. Marketers love the Black Eyed Peas for the rainbow ethnicity of the band's four members. They like its global fan base, and its fetching party anthems like "Boom Boom Pow" and "Imma Be." They like that the band achieves the near-impossible in these post-Michael Jackson times—making both kids and their parents feel cool. All this has turned the Peas into what seems like the only pop ensemble that a fragmented America can agree on. Though the members rhyme, it's not a rap group. Its chugging dance beats, spacey effects, and repetitive hooks have been engineered as party mixes. Selling records used to be the secret to success. The trajectory of the Black Eyed Peas has been about corporate connections.
Last month, a Peas concert in Times Square to promote Samsung's new line of 3-D televisions led to a link-up with "Avatar" director James Cameron, who was also on hand to endorse the sets. The meeting sparked a conversation about whether Mr. Cameron would direct a feature film the Peas plan to start shooting next month. The 3-D film will incorporate concerts, travel footage and narrative themes about technology, dreams and the brain. Will.i.am says of his potential collaborator, "He's a tomorrow person, too. He's part of the TP crew." Mr. Cameron couldn't be reached.
The Peas are poised to be one of music's top earners this year. Released last June, their album "The E.N.D." has sold 2.3 million copies and spawned three No. 1 singles. A rough estimate of the band's income from U.S. music sales, not including licensing, publishing and other revenues, came to $10.1 million in the last year. Will.i.am says corporate partnerships are equally important. Not long ago, the band was lending its music for relatively paltry fees in exchange for exposure—a common strategy for emerging acts. In the ramp-up to their 2003 breakout album "Elephunk," the Peas made deals with Best Buy, Apple and the NBA, slingshotting their way into households on multimillion-dollar ad campaigns. "It wasn't about the check," says former manager Seth Friedman.
The promotional blitz continues. Within the last year, the Peas' TV performances have included an NFL season-kickoff show, New Year's Eve in Times Square, the Grammys (they've won six), a Victoria's Secret fashion show and the season opener for "The Oprah Winfrey Show," for which they summoned a flash mob of synchronized dancers to downtown Chicago. The group's current tour, for which AEG Live has booked 100 international dates, is a test of whether the band can consistently fill big arenas. It's off to a good start: In 22 U.S. concerts, the band has grossed about $18 million. With their stage show, the Peas seem to have shot for some hybrid of "Mad Max" and "Tron." Taboo rides a glowing motorcycle out over the audience at one point. Later, Will.i.am strides out clad in metallic plating, beaming red lasers out of his face mask. Brand-wise, this is on-message, he says later. "Here's our verbiage: 'Futuristic. Electronic. Mega.' "
Such a pitch helped the musician upgrade his relationship with BlackBerry maker Research In Motion. Last fall, the company struck a marketing deal with will.i.am's Dipdive site, but was reluctant to sponsor a tour, according to Peas co-manager Mr. Derella. He says the band eventually scored the sponsorship in large part by presenting ideas such as the nightly freestyle rap, and a moment when will.i.am works variations of the company's tag line, "Love what you do," into a seemingly spontaneous monologue during one of the show's closing numbers, "Where Is the Love." Such gambits allowed the Peas to get away without putting any BlackBerry banners on the stage.
Of course few of these deals would have come about if the Peas didn't have a flow of accessible hits to support them. The recent single "I Gotta Feeling," with its refrain "tonight's gonna be a good night," has already become a staple of wedding DJs, sports stadiums and YouTube videos. "I'd pay any amount of money for that song," says Marty Bandier, chairman and CEO of music publishing company Sony/ATV. An especially nice touch, Mr. Bandier says: the line "Fill up my cup, mazel tov," which makes the song an instant anthem for bar and bat mitzvahs.
-Credits:John Jurgensen
-Edited: adriph | | | |
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