Billabong and Universal Music: surfing to music
by Chris Reed
The world’s leading music company, Universal, and Billabong, the world’s leading outdoor sports lifestyle company, have formed a strategic, global brand partnership that will bring together music and action sports through a broad range of innovative products and new services. It’s a brave, creative and highly innovative brand partnership where both brands have taken a leap of faith in working with another market leading brand. Universal and Billabong will collaborate on the development of a broad range of services and products. Among these initiatives will be co produced premium audio/visual content, live events, music compilations, sports and music merchandise, digital download offers, preloaded audio/visual hardware, streaming radio and TV, and a dedicated music service. This works as long as the Universal artists match the lifestyle and aspirations of the average Billabong customer. A tie up with Adele would not make them want to buy Billabong ever again! The partnership signals a need for even the largest of companies to work together to form brand partnerships to tap into changing youth culture appetites for entertainment and action sports. Together brands are stronger, especially when they are highly synergistic which these two brands very much are.
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