Ad firm in tie-up with indie rock group

By Katie Hasty

NEW YORK (Billboard) - At first glance, an indie rock band and a prominent advertising agency might seem to make for odd bedfellows.

But Los Angeles country-rock act Miss Derringer and ad firm Deutsch have joined hands in an unusual strategic partnership under which the agency will help in the launch and marketing of the band's forthcoming album, "Winter Hill."

Deutsch will construct a new Web site and online store for Miss Derringer and assist in the design of the CD packaging and related merchandise and promotional materials. Perhaps most importantly, the agency will also pitch Miss Derringer's music for placement in ads for its clients, a roster that includes big consumer brands like IKEA, Sony PlayStation and Saturn.

For the band, the partnership opens doors to potentially lucrative revenue streams and the marketing savvy of a leading player on Madison Avenue. For Deutsch, working with Miss Derringer gives it a chance to demonstrate to potential ad clients that it has the expertise they need to reach younger demographics.

Big clients "want to see that we have a proven track record with youth culture," Deutsch New York chief creative officer Peter Nicholson says. "When we support and develop an act like Miss Derringer . . . that's a genuine mark for our street-level credibility."

Deutsch VP/account director Tim Rivera pitched the idea of a partnership to the unsigned Miss Derringer and its manager David Bason earlier this year. While the group isn't signed to a label, it has released two albums on its own, supported Blondie on tour, appeared on the cover of L.A. Weekly and had one of its songs featured last year in an episode of the CBS comedy "How I Met Your Mother."

Rivera says Miss Derringer fits the profile of the type of music act that Deutsch is interested in working with -- "bands who already know who they are, where they want to go" and appear to be on the verge of breaking out to a larger audience, he says.

"They understand what they need in order to get more exposure as a band without a record deal," Rivera says. "You don't need to be on the radio. You need eyeballs; quicker, faster word-of-mouth. We're not music experts. We're not the radio or a label. (But) we know audiences and the media landscape."

Bason, who describes Miss Derringer as a "goth-country-art-noir band," says the group is interested in reaching nonexclusive licensing deals and partnerships with the right brands.

Working directly with an ad agency wouldn't work for just any act, says Bason. It's important for the act in question to own its own masters and publishing, he adds. That enables it to enter into any number of nonexclusive agreements and everyone can walk away with bigger percentages.

Deutsch will earn a percentage of each successful revenue stream it has a role in securing, whether it be a music licensing deal or album and merchandise sales. The two sides declined to reveal the exact terms of the deal.

The firm's partnership with Miss Derringer isn't the first time it has dabbled in this sort of scheme. In 2006, Deutsch offered Australian rock act Sick Puppies free labor on its CD packaging, logo, merchandise design, Web site and MySpace page design for the album "Dressed Up for Life." Deutsch farmed out the project to students at New York's Fashion Institute of Technology and the band chose a winner out of six submissions.

Reuters/Billboard