LJ Gutierrez orchestrates wildly inventive partnerships for everyone from Billie Eilish to Post Malone. Months ago, Universal Music's resident branding star oversaw Jonas Brothers' interactive, virtual concert. RSFutureOfMusic
Brand partnerships exploded in the digital era, as fans’ lives moved online, and they’ve gotten experimental. Universal has partnered with Lego to sign a DJing llama to a record deal, orchestrated a Post Malone cover of a Hootie and the Blowfish song for Pokémon, and paired the Jonas Brothers with Lenovo for a virtual concert that fans could “control” from their screens, voting on songs and competing to design posters.
As the Internet’s power evolved, so did the scalability of her partnerships. Before, it was hard for a lot of brands to make commitments to certain artists because packaged goods could require 24 months of lead time, she says. Gutierrez describes a Marriott deal, which was announced in 2015, as the proudest accomplishment from her career so far, calling it a “huge undertaking.” “It was the first time we were looking at doing a true portfolio-to-portfolio partnership where we were partnering all the brands under Universal Music Group and all the brands under Marriott International,” she says. “When you look at a lot of hotel loyalty programs, they’re focused on sports and free nights.
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