The Brand Master

Steve Stoute lives the life. He is a bridge between the corporate world while still keeping abreast of the latest "urban" trends, and getting businessmen to wheel off millions of dollars to spew ideas off the top of his head about how to sell things to teenagers.


He has started an ad agency called Translation Advertising. His partner is no other than Shawn Carter. The task at hand is to offer creative and entrepreneurial ideas. Simply sitting in a meeting room with business executives and making them feel cool enough to hand over hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Steve Stoute has managed to bring the hustle of a music manager into the corporate boardroom.

Translation has paired the likes of Gwen Stefani with Hewlett-Packard, Justin Timberlake with McDonalds, Beyonce Knowles with Tommy Hilfiger, and Jay-Z with Reebok. The Wrigley campaign has received the most attention. With remakes of the company jingle using R&B stars Chris Brown and Ne-Yo. The jingles were released as full songs amongst the public. It wasn't until a press release announced the ads featuring the songs that people became aware. Chris Brown rendition became a Top 10 hit and was nominated for MTV Video Music Awards Music Video of the Year. Unfortunately with Brown's situation the ads have been pulled.

In a interview with Billboard.biz, Stoute stated "I can identify what the artists' needs are, what the consumer groups are who buy the material and how the brand seeking to tap into the audience can use that partnership to create consideration for the product. The company's not driven by hooking up artists with brands. We're in the artist brand management business. It's about finding corporate partners and matching them with artists to tell their brand story. There has to be some mutual benefit. So it just can't be all about the brand saying, "I'm going to put artists with my brands and not care about the artist's pre-existing brand value."

Yes Steve Stoute is a branding expert. The next record you create could be the theme for a Fortune 500 Company. Think Big, Get Big.


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