JUSTIN BIEBER – CAREER ENHANCEMENT BY VIRTUE OF MARKETING

Justin Bieber is a big boy now; there is no room in his busy schedule to be singing songs solely for the pre-teen female market. One would assume that Bieber’s management will strategically leverage off the “mentorship” of superstar Usher, and the world will see the young Canadian transform into an R & B artist.

Thus far, we have witnessed snippets of this much-anticipated “transformation”. Bieber’s 2011 CD release “Under The Mistletoe” featured some songs in the talk-rap vein, and Justin has subtly changed his clothing & famous hairstyle to resemble a successful [and wealthy] young adult decked out in the latest “funky” gear.

The “music” and the “look” are progressing well, but what about the “music video”?

The enormous popularity of YouTube has made the concept of the music video very, very important once again. We have essentially gone full circle back to the 1st half of the 1980’s, to the extent that the quality/ aura of an accompanying music video can make-or-break the success of a song. With this event in mind, why has Bieber’s latest single “Boyfriend” been released without an accompanying music video?

It’s all in the timing of the release of the music video…

The release of “Boyfriend” is essentially the most important step in the successful transformation of Justin Bieber’s career. The accompanying music video needs to be seen as an “event”, in order for Bieber’s audience to expand. This is a risky approach to take, however the concept of “playing safe” spells career death.

“Boyfriend” peaked at Number Two on the Billboard Hot 100 sans music video, however the song progressively dropped to Number Five after the initial rush of Bieber’s loyal fan base ceased buying the single. Bieber’s recent appearance on the US version of “The Voice” gave him the opportunity to reveal a “sneek-peek” of the “Boyfriend” video to a massive television audience [predominantly 18-49 years age group] in order to build the hype around the video’s full release.

The video has finally been released to MTV, and “Girlfriend” has moved back up to Number Four on the Hot 100 singles chart. This is the power of marketing.

At this time, it’s all about Justin Bieber finding [and keeping] a new audience. We all know about the horror stories of Leif Garrett and [to an extent] Britney Spears, and the extreme difficulties at play in recreating a child music star into an adult entertainer. I’m particularly interested to watch as to how Bieber’s management handle the situation.