MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES 202050 FASTCOMPANY.COM PHOTOGRAPH BY AKIRA KAWAHATA MARCH/APRIL 2020BravadoAfter Billie Eilish’s
When We All Fall
Asleep, Where Do
We Go? debuted, in
March 2019, hordes
of Gen Z fans pur-
chased hoodies,
shorts, and shoe-
laces that came with
a digital album,
boosting the album’s
sales and helping it
top the Billboard
Hot 200 list. (This so-
called bundling has
become so ubiqui-
tous that Billboard
recently changed
how it records these
sales.) But Matt
Vlasic, CEO of Bra-
vado, the merchan-
dising division of
Universal Music
Group that works
with Eilish and doz-
ens of other artists,
including Justin
Bieber and Black-
pink, sees these sou-
venirs as more than
just a means to
boost album sales.
“In the past, people
bought CDs or vinyl,”
he says. “We want
to provide some-
thing physical that
they can hold onto.”
To give fans that
tangible connection,
Bravado designs,
produces, and sells
artists’ own hype-
beast-worthy items,
from T-shirts to
skateboards, and
coordinates product
collaborations,
such as the recent
Ariana Grande x
H&M collection. The
company even sets
up artist-themed
pop-ups: one cele-
brated the Rolling
Stones’ recent No Fil-
ter tour by selling all
sorts of items featur-
ing the iconic tongue
logo, from leather
jackets and tees to
Away suitcases and
Ladurée macarons.FOR
TURNING
BANDS INTO
BRANDS
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