Brands are muscling in on popular culture, engaging people in music, sport and food – and the public seem very willing to embrace the new tastemakers. Above: Smartphone maker Nokia is introducing customers to new music through playlists that make recommendations it thinks people will enjoy. The brand has musicologists in 28 countries looking out for breaking trends, emerging artists and songs to bring to users’ attentionSupermarkets sell food, broadcasters provide television shows and mobile phone companies give us the means to talk to and text each other. This may not seem out of the ordinary but a raft of brands are now trying to influence consumers beyond their original purpose by bringing hobbies, ideas and sport to the mass market and affect popular culture.Waitrose will be attempting to tweak the tastes of a nation by becoming the publisher of The Good Food Guide, while Sky has been contributing to the UK’s cycling habits via its sponsorship of Team Sky, which has helped to increase the overall number of cyclists to 15.2 million, a rise of 17 per cent since 2010. Meanwhile, smartphone manufacturer Nokia is providing suggestions on the music customers might like by using its global team of musicologists to keep an eye on trends.Urban and hip hop artists’ ability to work with brands is part of what makes them cool. They’re credible in spite of being commercial The success of Team Sky and the interest around the riders including Chris Froome and Bradley Wiggins, who won the Tour of Britain last week, has raised the profile of cycling in the UK, but it could not have been achieved without Sky’s backing.The aim of the partnership between Sky and British Cycling, which is now in its fifth year, was to make cycling a growing trend in UK sport…

Marketing and technology teams need to work together to optimise business success in a digital world but only one in 10 marketing and IT executives believe they have got it right. Those that have successfully collaborated tell how they forge strong links. Above: The Guardian is one of the few brands to have a chief digital officer role in addition to the chief marketing and IT functions. In its case, the remit is to push its ’digital-first’ policy across departments through training, and promote best practice across the company. Predictions of doom loom ominously over marketers when it comes to technology, with most suggesting that they are vastly under-prepared for the future. All marketing is now “inherently digital” according to Forrester Research, which adds that senior marketers risk getting left behind unless they “focus on how digital can deliver the brand experience in a more relevant and richer way”.Chief marketing officers (CMOs) will begin to outspend chief information officers (CIOs) on buying new technology as early as 2017, Gartner predicts. Although most marketers would claim to be in tune with the latest tech trends and prepared for what the future has in store, new research questions the extent to which they and their IT counterparts are working together effectively on their brands’ digital strategies. The study by Accenture highlights “a disconnect” between CMOs and CIOs that “threatens the ability of companies to deliver effective customer experiences”. It shows that only one in 10 marketing and IT executives believe collaboration between CMOs and CIOs is at the right level.One brand that has been forward thinking enough to tackle this head on two years ago is financial services firm IG Group, which combined the roles of CIO and CMO. Chief marketing officer Ali Hine believes the two departments can work together harmoniously…

As chief marketing officer at The Walt Disney Company EMEA and general manager for Disney Channels, Tricia Wilber is the ultimate multi-tasker, bringing the different strands of the business on to the same page, while responding to cultural change and not being afraid to take risks. Tricia Wilber has spent some of the day playing Disney’s new Infinity game on a big screen in her corner office overlooking west London. The game includes an all-star cast of Disney characters, including Pirates of the Caribbean’s Jack Sparrow, Buzz Lightyear from the Toy Story franchise and Mr and Mrs Incredible from the eponymous film.Players create a ‘toy box’, bringing their favourite characters together and letting them have their own adventures, as well as designing their own worlds they can then upload to a website for other users to play.The game itself is rather like Wilber’s job, which mixes genres and characters so that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. As chief marketing officer of The Walt Disney Company Europe, Middle East and Africa, an executive management role, the job covers four of five of the company’s divisions, including studios, TV channels, gaming and consumer products (see ‘How The Walt Disney Company divides up’, below[1])But Wilber is also general manager of Disney Channels in the region, responsible for 61 branded TV channels reaching 100 million households in 118 countries, and including shows such as A.N.T Farm, Art Attack and the recent film Teen Beach Movie.This means Wilber has to be an exceptional multi-tasker. It is the first time that a role including chief marketing officer, the channels and licensed products has been combined, she explains. “It is a really fun and exciting role that takes up a considerable amount of time but is also a great opportunity. It’s the…