With vertical screens draped to encircle the stage, projections of pink and gold glittered explosions swirl around her crying brown eyes. As the beat of the kick drum booms; the bass drones; and the lead guitar wails, she ascends from a trap door center stage. This is it! I’m sitting in the MGM Grand Garden Arena seeing one of my favorite singers for the first time live…the first time live in person that is.
Its been 15 years since the nation watched her emerge from the stage of one of the most recognizable brands in the United States: American Idol. Now a powerhouse brand of her own, Carrie Underwood has had an interdependent relationship with the reality show that was her benefactor and she shares in the brand equity that was created on Fox. Perhaps not your traditional view of co-branding. But, I, along with many others, bought into marketing of the show and the brand that would be Carrie Underwood.
Capitalizing on what Berger calls “social currency”, American Idol involved the nation in getting to know the contestants and choosing the winner. I can still remember talking to friends weekly asking: “Did you see ‘so and so’s’ performance last night?” Recalling how great it was or how it was likely to be the nail in the coffin for that contestant. You wouldn’t be caught dead missing an episode of American Idol especially during the final shows; and I remember Underwood’s final performance vividly. I had just moved to California from Tennessee, a state rich in country music stars; and watching her sing in victory that night just felt like a little bit of home away from home.
With another live finale performance on American Idol May 19, 2019, Underwood continues to show her support for the brand; and yet Underwood is far from the young 20-something year-old crying in shock and disbelief as the winner on the fourth season of American Idol. She is now a seven time Grammy winner; dons eleven Billboard Music Awards; thirteen AMA’s; nine CMA’s; and is the face of Calia, her workout line. In addition, Underwood took over as the musical voice of the NFL in 2013; has been co-hosting the biggest country music award show for the past eleven years; AND she’s the mother of two with her second son being born just this past January after she experienced three miscarriages from 2017 to 2018. As she showed off her ripped post-baby abs just last week on Instagram, could she be any more strong and amazing? A true ‘Champion’ to quote a song title off her latest album “Cry Pretty”. Yet another exhibit of co-branding as she teamed up with rapper Ludacris on what became a battle cry for more than one sporting event in 2018.
Its likely this champion’s strength was formed growing up on a farm in Checotah (“the Gem of the Prairie”), Oklahoma, as Underwood did. She also played sports and graduated at the top of her class in high school and college. So, maybe this well-rounded girl with intelligence, talent and a strong work ethic didn’t really need the American Idol brand that she helped propel along with alumni Kelly Clarkson, Ruben Studdard, Fantasia Barrino and Jordan Sparks to name a few. Or did she? Without American Idol, would the young singer have risen to the superstar status she inhabits today? Sans a time machine to go back and change history, its hard to say. But what can be said with certainty is that there is, if executed well, an advantage to participants in co-branding scenarios. For example, the American Idol brand was publicized and marketed so well that even some of the show’s losers went on to forge their own successful brand.
In a more traditional sense, the world of marketing and advertising world has created some mega hits for B2B branding partners. We can see this exemplified from Bonne Bell and Dr. Pepper with their soda flavored lip balm in 1975 to GoPro and Red Bull’s first co-branding event in 2012. But the string of co-branding relationships that resulted from fifteen seasons of American Idol just might be the platform that enabled the show’s re-launch after it took a short hiatus. But with some of the lowest ratings ever this past season, it seems no coincidence that American Idol brought back its MVP Carrie Underwood for a performance on the 2019 live finale show. As the most successful American Idol winner, ranked by the St. Louis Post Dispatch, this Gem of the Prairie might be exactly what the show needed to breathe life into another season of American Idol in 2020.
Well played American Idol.
References
American Idol: The Power of the Brand. (2007). Newsweek Academic. Retrieved June 1, 2019 from http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A161444709/AONE?u=usocal_main&sid=AONE&xid=245631c9.
Berger, J. (2013). Contagious: why things catch on. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
Bernazzani, S. (2019). 13 examples of successful co-branding partnerships (and why they’re so great). HubSpot: Marketing. Retrieved June 2, 2019 from https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/best-cobranding-partnerships
Bonaguro, A. (2018). A history of hosing: Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley since 2008. CMT News. Retrieved May 30, 2019 http://www.cmt.com/news/1800514/a-history-of-hosting-carrie-underwood-and-brad-paisley-since-2008/
Cassia, F., Magno, F. & Ugolini, M. (2015). Mutual value creation in component co-branding relationships. Management Decision, 53, 1883-1898.
Checotah. Oklahoma Historical Society. Retrieved June 1, 2019 from https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=CH011
Halperin, S. & Bronson, F. (2016). 15 forces who built a juggernaut. Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved June 1, 2019 from http://link.galegroup.com.libproxy1.usc.edu/apps/doc/A448901331/PPOP?u=usocal_main&sid=PPOP&xid=36bc77e1
Johnson, K.C. (2018). We rank American Idol winners from least to most successful. St. Louis Post Dispatch. Retrieved June 1, 2019 from https://www.stltoday.com/entertainment/music/kevin-johnson/we-rank-american-idol-winners-from-least-to-most-successful/collection_c2ba4679-1a6f-58c4-b85f-5459d892942f.html#1
Kennedy, G.D. (2018). American Idol returns – but will it have the same glory? Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 1, 2019 from https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-american-idol-return-20180309-story.html
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