Cultural Relevance Is Heart of Building Audiences: Warner Music’s Benjamin Blank

LOS ANGELES – Warner Music Group this month introduced WMX as a music culture media holding group to provide brands with its advanced advertising offerings. WMX reaches a global audience of more than 249 million monthly visitors, and generates about 50 billion monthly video views.

“WMX really is the access point by which advertisers can engage with us as a major holding company,” Benjamin Blank, president of media and creative content at WEA, the label and artist services division of Warner Music Group, said in a conversation with consultant Zack Rodgers at the Beet Retreat conference here.

“If you look at the history of Warner Music Group at each decade, we’ve been at the forefront of culture,” he said. “We’re taking part of that DNA and mixing it with the phenomenal capabilities that we have.”

He cited the company’s history of recording artists including Aretha Franklin, Frank Sinatra, David Bowie, Madonna, Ed Sheeran, Cardi B and Bruno Mars. Warner Music Group is at the nexus of culture and commerce, handling everything from merchandising to experiential events. It also has developed audiences for advertisers to reach through electronic media.

“The communication of cultural relevance isn’t just based on an artist cycle, album cycle and touring cycle, but daily and hourly communication that allows us to engage and form our audiences in new ways,” Blank said. “We make it really easy for advertisers to buy with us. One of the things that really differentiates us is that it’s really around music and music culture that our audience cares about.”

Warner Music Group’s media brands include Uproxx, HipHopDX and SongKick, each of which provide a way for marketers to engage with consumers.

“We can drill down into specific audiences. We’re talking about audiences from 13 to 65 and beyond,” Blank said. “Depending on what that interest point is for the audience, we have ways of reaching them in ways that are meaningful to the audience themselves.”