Decibel
Sony Music’s marketing, amplified.
Case Study
THE PROBLEM
Sony Music is the umbrella that contains more than a dozen record labels, including many majors like Columbia Records, RCA Records, and Epic Records. Each of these labels has teams of marketers, ranging in size from 3 to 20+ people, and each has millions of dollars to spend each to support their artists as they release records.
But measurement for this spend is sorely lacking. Leaders and marketers constantly debate where money has the most impact, mostly based on estimated impressions. What if they could make decisions based on actual changes to their artist’s releases?
THE APPROACH
The tool that would become Decibel had been attempted twice before I joined Sony Music, creating bad blood with labels and a fractured marketing tool implementation. So instead of starting with central leaders and label presidents, the design team and I interviewed the marketers at the bottom of the hierarchy, listening for what would make their jobs easier and their decisions more defensible.
Then we pitched and roadshowed a new vision across the Sony Music C-suite and each of the major labels’ leadership teams, knowing that the features we included would have substantial impact for their teams — because our roadmap was powered by their feedback.
THE SOLUTION
The Decibel Beta scope included integrations with every major streaming platform, every major digital ad platform, and proprietary IT systems across accounting and label copy (artists, albums, and songs). By consolidating all of this data in one place, marketers finally have a place to see their spend, ad platform metrics for that spend, and real time results of that spend on the artist’s streaming plays and video views.
THE IMPACT
40+ marketers registered from Columbia Records and the Commercial Music Group
12+ unique data sources integrated, including video, streaming, marketing, and finance
$100MM+ of marketing investments logged and attributed to releases
REVIEW FROM THE TEAM
“In an environment of new team dynamics, Spencer has positioned himself as a truly unique resource who can get the job done. His endless enthusiasm in participating (and at times managing) activities from product marketing to tactical development story writing, makes him a pleasure to work within any phase of a product's lifecycle.”
— Sin Leung, Director, User Experience
Screenshots
Artist Roster
The home page shows live artist projects coupled with those that marketers might need to prepare to launch soon.
Media Plan
Marketers can book and track campaigns across every major social platform, and group those campaigns by the releases they’re promoting.
Once the media plan is booked and approved, reporting directly from each ad platform layered on top in one expandable table.
Reporting
Marketers and marketing leaders at each label could get a bird’s eye view on their whole project’s performance, including key financial info, a full funnel of ad-related events, and a marketing mix breakdown.