Brand USA Partners with Spotify and Five Emerging Artists to Launch Hear the Music, Experience the USA

Innovative New Campaign Uses Music as a Cultural Lens to Showcase Endless Possibilities for travel in the United States.

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Brand USA

Apr 19, 2018, 10:00 ET

WASHINGTON, April 19, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Brand USA, the destination-marketing organization for the United States, today announced Hear the Music, Experience the USA, an integrated marketing campaign utilizing the power of music to promote international travel to the United States. A unique exploration in sound, Hear the Music, Experience the USA interprets Bobby Freeman's iconic song, "Do You Wanna Dance?" through different musical genres as envisioned by five innovative artists bringing the unique cultural sounds of their cities to life. The campaign was created and executed by Mustache, a content-first creative agency, working alongside MediaCom as Brand USA's communications, data, and audience partner. To amplify the campaign, Brand USA has partnered with digital music service Spotify to enhance discovery and exploration options with more than 20 customized U.S. city soundscape playlists. This dynamic storytelling tool presents a new way for Brand USA to inspire, invite, and welcome visitors from all over the world.

The heart of this campaign lies with the five emerging artists selected to bring the sound of their respective city to life through original renditions of "Do You Wanna Dance?," including:

Cam James (Cameron James Williams) – Hip-Hop; Atlanta, Georgia
Bass Physics (Arja Adair) – Electronic Dance Music (EDM); Denver, Colorado
Nathan Quick – Blues; Houston, Texas
Reptaliens (Bambi and Cole Browning) – Rock 'n' Roll; Portland, Oregon
Calma Carmona – Soul; San Juan, Puerto Rico

As demonstrated through the styles of these artists, the United States' music scene is constantly evolving and each region has a unique story to tell. By being exposed to the sounds of electronic dance music (EDM) in Denver, the blues in Houston, rock 'n' roll in Portland, hip-hop in Atlanta, and soul in Puerto Rico, prospective travelers get a taste of the eclectic cultural and musical soundtrack the United States offers. Each version of the song balances the talents' creative flair with the energy and style of music inherent to their location, and together, they demonstrate the incredible diversity of people, places, and experiences available in the United States.

"Music is a universal language that transcends language and cultural boundaries, and Hear the Music, Experience the USA presents an entertaining and highly engaging platform to showcase vibrant destinations across the United States," says Tom Garzilli, chief marketing officer of Brand USA. "The artists' passion for their cities shines through in each rendition as they reimagine a classic radio hit in a new digital streaming era. We're hoping their contagious energy connects with culture-seeking tourists across the globe and inspires them to experience the United States in a new way."

Brand USA's partnership with Spotify will offer travelers the unique opportunity to explore the USA with 22 U.S. city soundscape playlists. "We're proud to partner with Brand USA, using music as an instrument to engage with international travelers and accessibly show the country's abundance of culture, innovation, and creativity," says Alex Faust, global head of Spotify's MAP team.

Spotify creates each custom playlist based on the artists and genres that over-index in popularity with local users in each city. As such, each playlist reflects the current mood of the location, using music as a discovery travel tool, including everything from the upbeat Latin-inspired sounds of Miami, Florida to the industrial, Midwestern grit of Cleveland, Ohio. After listening to audio ads or viewing video content or digital display ads, Spotify users will be directed to the Visit The USA website to check out different cities, activities, and music.

Visitors to the music landing music landing page on Brand USA's consumer website, Visit The USA, can immerse themselves in the captivating and unique sounds from several noteworthy locations, learn about the five artists, listen to the 22 city-inspired Spotify playlists, look at photos, and explore suggested activities waiting to be experienced. The Hear the Music, Experience the USA content – and all of the rich features on the music page – will be featured in native languages in the following markets: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, France, Germany, India, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

Hear The Music, Experience the USA represents a collaboration between Brand USA and Mustache, the creative agency responsible for identifying the song, artists, and conceiving and producing the creative centered on the unique power of American music as a cultural lens. MediaCom, Brand USA's global media agency, provided the traveler insights and performance data underpinning the partnership.

The focus on sound in the campaign aligns with Brand USA's new large format film, "America's Musical Journey," which explores America's history through its distinctive music and sound. The integrated campaign and film engage the ears and the eyes, and from small screen to big screen and everything in between, delivers an immersive experience for consumers.

Discover more about America's rich musical culture and the diversity of experiences the USA has to offer at Brand USA's consumer website VisitTheUSA.com and follow Visit The USA on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

About Brand USA
Brand USA, the destination marketing organization for the United States, was established by the Travel Promotion Act as the nation's first public-private partnership to promote the United States as a premier travel destination and to communicate U.S. travel policies and procedures to worldwide travelers. The organization's mission is to increase international visitation to the USA in order to fuel the U.S. economy and enhance the image of the United States worldwide. Formed as the Corporation for Travel Promotion in 2010, the public-private entity began operations in May 2011 and does business as Brand USA. According to studies by Oxford Economics, over the past four years Brand USA's marketing initiatives have helped welcome 4.3 million incremental visitors to the USA, benefiting the U.S. economy with nearly $30 billion in total economic impact, which has supported, on average, 51,000 incremental jobs a year.

For industry or partner information about Brand USA, visit TheBrandUSA.com. For information about exceptional and unexpected travel experiences in the United States, please visit Brand USA's consumer website VisitTheUSA.com (global).

About Spotify
Spotify transformed music listening forever when we launched in 2008. Our mission is to unlock the potential of human creativity by giving a million creative artists the opportunity to live off their art and billions of fans the opportunity to enjoy and be inspired by these creators. Everything we do is driven by our love for music.

Discover, manage, and share over 35 million tracks for free, or upgrade to Spotify Premium to access exclusive features including offline mode, improved sound quality, Spotify Connect and ad-free listening.

Today, we are the world's largest music streaming subscription service with a community of over 159 million users, including over 71 million Spotify Premium subscribers, across 61 markets.

For more information, images, or to contact the press team, please head over to our press page at http://press.spotify.com/.

About Mustache:
Mustache is content-first agency that specialized in scripted, unscripted, live action, animation, short form, long form, TV, social media, commercial, branded content and beyond. The New York-based agency, staffed with a passionate and diverse set of multi-hyphenate creators and doers, is poised to craft soup-to-nuts, visually-stunning, imaginative, thoughtful, and sometimes hilarious content and campaigns for any platform. Mustache is the future of creativity. For more information, please visit https://www.mustacheagency.com/.

About MediaCom
MediaCom is "The Content + Connections Agency," working on behalf of its clients to leverage their brands' entire system of communications across paid, owned and earned channels to deliver a step change in their business outcomes. MediaCom is one of the world's leading media communications specialists, with billings of US$33 billion (Source: RECMA June 2017), employing 7,000 people in 125 offices across 100 countries. Its global client roster includes: Dell, Coca-Cola (TCCC), Mars, NBC Universal, P&G, PSA, Sony, Shell and Richemont. The agency was recently named Global Agency of the Year at the 2017 M&M Awards, an accolade it has been awarded 7 times in the past 9 years and FOM Global Agency Network of the Year in 2017, winning an unprecedented 18 awards.

MediaCom is a member of WPP, the world's largest marketing communications services group, and part of GroupM, WPP's consolidated media investment management arm.

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