Billboard - USA (2019-09-21)

Clockwise from top left: 21 Savage's Motel 21 activation won

silver in experiential/events (music marketing); Droga5’s

David Droga will receive a Clio lifetime achievement award

for works including Jay-Z’s Decode Search Experience at

Delano South Beach Hotel in Miami (pictured); NER*D’s

Chad Hugo, Shay Haley and Pharrell Williams (from left) at

the 2010 Clios; Keith Richards’ Talk Is Cheap 30th-anniversary

deluxe box set won gold in design (music marketing).

Mill short film, A New Set of Rights,

and March for Our Lives’ “The Most

Vicious Cycle” (music marketing), as

well as holiday campaign synchs for

Eilish (“come out and play”) and Elton

John (“Your Song”) in campaigns for

Apple and John Lewis & Partners,

respectively (use of music).

Since 2014, Clio Music has further

recognized Honorary Award recipi-

ents including Blondie, Global Citi-

zen CEO Hugh Evans, Swizz Beatz,

SB Projects’ Scooter Braun and

Will.i.am for outstanding creative

achievements in the music business.

This year, it will honor Sheryl Crow

with the Impact Award and Joan Jett

with a lifetime achievement award.

Honorees are selected by a mu-

sic-specific jury pool comprising

executives from labels, publishers,

digital service providers, management

companies, agencies, brands and the

live sector. The 2019 panel includes,

in music marketing, Spotify vp/global

executive creative director Alex Bod-

man; YouTube global head of artist

services Vivien Lewit; Live Nation ex-

ecutive vp global brand management

Darin Wolf; and, in use of music, OK

Go frontman Damian Kulash, Amazon

Studios head of music Bob Bowen

and Kobalt Music/AWAL president of

global synch and brand partnerships

Jeannette Perez.

Committed to its role of celebrat-

ing music’s “visceral power” to shift

culture and bolster profits, Clio Music

is about much more than recognizing

jingles, says Kauffman, who joined the

organization in 2018 following stints

at YouTube, RightsFlow, Universal

Music Group and more. In just over

a year at the helm, Kauffman and his

team have formed new partnerships

with industry organizations including

the American Association of Indepen-

dent Music, Music Ally, AIMP and

the Music Business Association, and

launched a daily editorial content plat-

form — Muse by Clio — last July that

is devoted to celebrating the industry’s

creativity year-round.

Ahead of the Clios’ 60th anniversa-

ry, Kauffman dissects the importance

of music to advertising, this year’s

program additions and what’s next

for the platform.

What’s new this year in the various

awards categories?

Every year we evaluate and tweak the

program to reflect what we’re seeing

in the entries and [to incorporate]

feedback we get from our juries. With

the explosion of video content, we be-

gan to realize that a lot of the creative

work that was being submitted had

always about trying to simplify the

program and make it easier to figure

out where to enter your work.

Design is also a priority this year.

Why?

The added design medium allows

folks to submit a creative work in

packaging and printed materials.

This year, for the first time, we

allowed entrants to send physical

submissions so we can actually see

the packages. You could previously

do an unboxing video, but now [our

judges] can also feel the box, get a

sense of the paper and ink — there

are so many interesting creative

things being done with packaging.

What’s next for the platform?

Internally, we’re looking at a couple of

areas. One is, “How can we continue

to evolve the program to reflect medi-

ums happening in the marketplace?”

Another is, “How as an organization

do we partner with other business

entities?” The Music Business Asso-

ciation is a trade organization that

has an annual conference in Nashville

that we participate in and put on a

panel presentation about advertising

and brand work. We’ve worked a lot

with the American Association of

Independent Music, which is made

up of independent record compa-

nies around the world. We’re talking

about what we can do to help connect

very specific aspects that we [wanted

to recognize] — great animation, great

cinematography or great editing. So

this past year we launched Film and

Video Technique, with award catego-

ries for animation, cinematography,

copywriting, direction, editing and

visual effects.

We’ve also simplified some

mediums. We had long-form and

short-form categories when refer-

ring to the use of music but it got a

little confusing to people what was

long or what was short. So this year

we rolled out the different honorees

based on the length of time [e.g.,

“61 seconds to five minutes” and

“five minutes and over”]. For us it’s MO

TE

L:

P

AR

AS

G

RI

FF

IN

/G

ET

T

Y^ I

M

AG

ES

.^ D

EC

OD

E:

F

ER

NA

N

DO

S

AN

CH

EZ

.^ N

*E

*R

*D

:^ S

LA

VE

N^

VL

A

SI

C/

GE

TT

Y^

IM

AG

ES

.^ R

IC

HA

RD

S:

C

OU

RT

ES

Y^

OF

T

HE

C

LI

O^

AW

AR

DS

.

160 BILLBOARD • SEPTEMBER 21, 2019