Billboard is reporting that Island Def Jam Music Group is using the Sept. 15 release of Mariah Carey’s album “Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel” to launch a new business model: integrating brands into artists’ CD booklets.
The first deal will involve a 34-page co-production with Elle magazine that includes lifestyle ads from Elizabeth Arden, Angel Champagne, Carmen Steffens, Le Métier de Beauté and the Bahamas Board of Tourism.
Providing the Carey experiment goes well, the label is eyeing bigger brand deals for booklets of CDs by Rihanna, Bon Jovi, Kanye West and other artists.’ The mini magazine contains Mariah-centric editorial (“VIP Access to Her Sexy Love Life,” “Amazing Closet,” “Recording Rituals”) and lifestyle advertising along with lyrics and other CD booklet elements. Elle contributed the editorial and designed the layout.
The booklets were created for the first run of U.S. CDs (1 million) and the first 500,000 overseas, said Jeff Straughn, svp-strategic marketing for Island Def Jam Music Group. It will also be available in a digital format for those who buy music online. A condensed version of the Mariah magazine, sans the 14 pages of CD-specific material, will be inserted into 500,000 subscription copies of Elle’s October issue, which arrives mid-September.
Carey was “very open” to the concept when IDJ chairman Antonio “L.A.” Reid showed her a mock-up of the booklet in a magazine format that included brand imagery synonymous with her lifestyle. “I wouldn’t want to do Mariah Carey and Comet abrasive cleaner,” Reid said, laughing. “I wanted things that really reflected her taste.”
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