In an exclusive interview, Jeff Straughn, Chief Brand Officer at Primary Wave, shares insights on authentic brand partnerships, digital-era music campaigns, India’s growing market, and the role of AI in music marketing.
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Jeff Straughn, Senior Partner and Chief Brand Officer at Primary Wave, is a marketing visionary with 35+ years of experience. After leading strategic marketing at Island Records and Def Jam under L.A. Reid and Jay-Z, he has built groundbreaking brand partnerships for icons like Whitney Houston, Prince, Stevie Nicks, and Axl Rose, while also working with stars from Rihanna to Mariah Carey. Today, he continues to bridge music and Fortune 500 brands, shaping cultural moments that resonate worldwide.
In an exclusive interview, Jeff Straughn, Chief Brand Officer at Primary Wave, shares insights on authentic brand partnerships, digital-era music campaigns, India’s growing market, and the role of AI in music marketing.
Here are edited excerpts:
You’ve worked with legendary artists like Prince, Whitney Houston, and Bob Marley. What’s the secret to building brand partnerships that remain authentic to an artist’s legacy?
With every artist, not one is ever the same, they each have their own personality, their own identity and their own uniqueness. We focus on defining the DNA of the artist and seek brands that would have an alignment that match. We look for complete authenticity and which is very critical in how we build the partnership. For example, Whitney loved beauty, she actually loved the wearing MAC RED Lipstick, always had it on her, it’s why we went after MAC, it was real and authentic to who she was.
Primary Wave has been at the forefront of integrating music, culture, and commerce. What’s your framework for identifying the right brand-artist fit in today’s global market?
We work closely with either the artist and/or the family to identify what makes the best sense for the artist. Example, Notorious B.I.G., he was a trendsetter when alive, so we seek fashion and lean into the aesthetics, his Brooklyn roots that he would be wearing and supporting today if he were alive.
How have music-led brand campaigns evolved over the last decade, especially in the digital-first era?
More brands today in the western region have identified with “throw back” familiar sounds more than ever. We are finding strong interest to either reimagine the lyrics to match the campaign while keeping the integrity of the song, OR FLIP the song with a contemporary sound yet using the stems and keeping the familiar sound of the music. Either way, this is becoming a very hot trend currently. Digital and Connect TV are becoming extremely popular. Brands are looking to use more music as it’s more cost effective online and Connective TV gives brands same creative impact but at less cost per thousand.
India’s music market is rapidly growing, with regional and independent music gaining momentum. What untapped opportunities do you see for global brands to engage here?
There is tremendous excitement for various reasons. One, we believe the India market, while advance among many others regional markets, has only scratched the surface and can set trends that many other markets may follows as it pertains working with music and legendary artist. Many brands today look for the hottest trends to chase. Working with an iconic artist with a strong historic past is not as common and thus can ‘cut through’ the clutter that most brands are not thinking about. I’m most excited to bring Western marketing culture from a music perspective into the India market that can set new trends for the future. I believe there is tremendous upside that is ‘safer’ for brands to explore legendary artist with strong familiar sounds of HIT music into a modern world in India.
You’ve worked extensively with estates of legendary artists. How do you balance heritage preservation with modern monetization strategies?
It all returns to authenticity. Unfortunately, sometimes in order to maintain credibility for the artist, we need to decline some amazing opportunities as the results may look too commercial to the fanbase. Negative impact on our fans will have stronger impact on the longevity of an artist and us as a company than the short gain may generate. So there is a fine line that we must evaluate each and every time. Preserving the artist and the art of their music will always remain our biggest priority and we must always think of the consequences if we fail to do this.
In an era where short-form content dominates, how can brands still create meaningful, long-term music collaborations?
Short answer and its happening as we speak: Technology, specifically Artificial Intelligence. AI today is what the Internet and Digital became to music over 30 years ago. At first the music industry was afraid of embracing technology and feared it’s loss of control of its content. Today, we’re seeing a bit of repeat in this with AI. However, as it pertains to brands and how we at Primary Wave are seeing the future, we believe there are creative ways to enhance the art while maintain the integrity. And working with a brand can enable this in campaigns. For example, last year we developed a new AI using Bing Crosby’s voice for a greeting card company known as “American Greetings”. They recreating Bing’s voice and offered fans the ability to send digital greetings cards during the holiday where Bing’s voice and visual was used to personalized the actual card. The results were strong, ROI was 10X on sales than expected. As a result, we are not only repeating campaign, but exploring other artist to join.
How do you foresee AI, streaming algorithms, and data-driven insights shaping the future of music marketing?
Technology advancements is critical to the next innovation. AI is only the beginning. What comes out of AI will be the next big thing, for example Robotics. This is no longer Science Fiction, robotic development is here now and at its infamously level. This market will mature with new innovation and music will only complement its development. I’m excited to see how brands embrace this through use of music and not just limited to modern day artist, but where legacy artist become the real opportunity to leverage.