Bands and brands fine-tune their creative links

The appearance of artists in ads grates less with the public if the product is relevant to the band or its audience. Recently, bands have been entering into increasingly complicated partnerships in an attempt to engage consumers in a more meaningful way. The choice of Take That to front Marks & Spencer's menswear campaign as the band made a recent comeback made sense because the demographic of the audience both sides wanted to reach was similar. One of the most successful and longest tie-ups to date is the 12-month Groove Armada-Bacardi deal that ended in April. To date, it is heralded as the benchmark band-brand tie-up because of its longevity and the number of layers involved.