Our work extends support to agencies. We are not competitors but catalysts of opportunities
Advertiser Joo Paulo Affonseca migrated to the entertainment market in 2001. He founded Mondo, in partnership with William Crunfli, and helped launch Bon Jovi, Black Eyed Peas, Shakira, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Maroon 5, Iron Maiden and Kate Perry on international stages, in addition to holding the Natura Ns Festival and Natura Musical, Planeta Terra and TIM Festival, Live Earth, and the opening and closing ceremonies of the Rio 2007 Pan and Parapan American Games. Creator of Livepass and XYZ Live, he was a partner from Dueto, where Free Jazz Festival and TIM Festival came from. In 2016, Musicalize emerged, with the mission of bringing brands and music closer together, followed by the consolidation of Holding Joy, in 2019. CEO of Musicalize, Affonseca spares no breath in talking about the relaunch of the business music company that now belongs to the Dreamers Group. With a line-up of projects already carried out for Vivo, TikTok, Porto Sade and Elo, the operation is preparing the opening of a new office in the Vila Madalena neighborhood, in So Paulo, this October.
international debut
I received a briefing saying that Ambev needed an international show. I had only done one until then, and I figured out how I would do it, within a list whose first name was the Black Eyed Peas. They had just launched on the market in 2004. We did the band’s show in Brazil at Via Funchal, as well as Skol Stage, in Rio de Janeiro, in partnership with William Crunfli. At that moment, we realized that we had complementary faculties, because I came from advertising, brand communication, and Crunfli had knowledge of show business, working with international agencies, knew how to hire, and all the mechanics of ticket sales, which It’s not easy. We also did the Chimera Music Festival, bringing together great monsters from Greek mythology and music, which brought Linkin Park for the first time to Latin America, the biggest band at the time, with Charlie Brown Jr. opening, a show for 70 thousand people, in Morumbi stadium, in So Paulo. Later, we launched Mondo, specialized in show business, which helped to rescue the entertainment sector on the South American continent with a focus on Brazil. We started to create rhythm in this market. Mondo debuted in 2005, and achieved milestones such as the arrival of Jack Johnson, in 2006, for the first time in Brazil, as well as Black Eyed Peas, Beyoncé, Metallica, Iron Maiden, Eric Clapton, Justin Bieber and Amy Winehouse. We also launched Rdio Oi FM, in Rio de Janeiro. That’s when I met Rodolfo Medina.
Differential
Communicate a product divided into two weekends, but in a single festival. This was already a thought I had, of incorporating brands and adding value to the relationship instead of simply sponsoring a show.
Turn
Everything we have done so far has relied on a promotional marketing area, partnering with Petrobras, Claro, Motorola, Sony. We had the tours, shows and festivals arm, we did Planeta Terra, Natura Ns, Natura Musical, TIM Festival, and also some live marketing accounts, with promotional actions, events, etc. Mondo aroused the market’s interest. In 2008, we began negotiations with the ABC group, which purchased a minority part of the business. We then created XYZ Live, which gained importance precisely at a time when the market was very heated. That was when, in 2010, Geo Eventos, from Globo, appeared and there was Time For Fun. These were the three exponents, who made the main entertainment products. In 2012, I left. Monique Gardenberg invited me to be a partner at Dueto, where I stayed for a year. I tested skills in other areas and, in 2015, Rodolfo Medina called me. We changed the entire international artistic curation operation and created Musicalize, which was initially a company dedicated to bringing brands a platform for music and shows, allowing us to control the relationship with the festival market. In 2017, the operation took shape, and we started working for companies like Grupo Petrpolis. For the first time, we placed Itaipava beer on the international music scene, at the time taken over by Budweiser and Heineken. We open the breach. We also work for Black Princess. We stayed in this process until the Covid-19 pandemic, when we got a scare.
Invigorated breath
The lives held during the quarantine presented us with a form of genuine communication, uniting consumer and artist without intermediaries, and with brands absorbing this relationship. We saw that music has a much greater power than we imagine. We dominate the business ecosystem, something rare in an agency. And we realized that there was a deficiency in the market, an opportunity to use our intelligence, to show brands how to participate in the narrative, with all its storytelling. If the brand notices the potential that music has, it can become much stronger, working through a branding strategy, brand building, planning tone of voice, how to communicate and participate in conversations, in a moment of a lot of emotion.
Alm and music
One should not only think about the moment of the experience. Research shows that there is a significant percentage of people who listen to music every day, every hour. Music is part of our daily lives in the most countless situations, even in health treatments. It has a power of reach and problem solving that goes far beyond communication and sponsorship. We understand that brands can translate their language and essence into the music business. Therefore, we relaunched Musicalize as a business music company, which looks at all aspects of this market, not just sponsorship. We know how music is born, the relationship with artists, publishers and record companies. Today, the market that generates the most revenue for artists is concerts. We know this ecosystem, its needs, pains and opportunities. It’s not just about execution, it’s about brand strategy. This connection is laborious, requires time and patience because they are different languages.
Read the full interview in the October 2, 2023 edition
