SAN FRANCISCO - DMA ’10 kicked off with a bang this morning as Bret Michaels (yes, THAT Bret Michaels) took the stage with Steve Stout to discuss the convergence of entertainment and marketing. Michaels looked the way Michaels always does: black t-shirt, jeans, bandanna. His appearance caused many in the crowd to whip out their camera phones and snap photos either at Michael’s himself or the giant version of him rebroadcast live on the Moscone Convention Center projectors.

Michaels is a well-know singer and songwriter whose fame peaked in the 1980′s when he was a member of the metal band Poison. He recently reinvented himself with a reality TV show on VH1 (Rock of Love) and an appearance on NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice (which he won).  Michaels also crafted his own Snapple flavor called ‘Trop-A-Rocka’
Tea.

I personally was more excited to hear from “Commissioner” Steve Stoute, a legend in the hip-hop community whose ties to rappers Nas and Jay-Z are enough of a reason to make me wave my camera phone at a jumbotron. I was in the minority. Stoute is the founder of Translation, a company that matches pop-stars with brands, and his marketing insight goes well beyond just matchmaking singers with products. In fact, both men offered wonderful tidbits of information throughout the conversation, moderated by Scott Donaton, president and chief executive officer of Ensemble, a branded entertainment company. Here are a few of my favorite excerpts from the chat:

Michaels: (On his experience with the Snapple ‘Trop-A-Rocka’) “For me it was about passion. I’ve been a type 1 diabetic since I was 6 and I’ve been experimenting with teas since. If you love what you do and you’re passionate that’s how a product starts. Plus you’ve got to get people behind it. Everyone was sure the tea would be a novelty product. I fought really hard to get people behind it. I stumbled a few times and I went all the way up to the Snapple CEO and now it’s officially a Snapple drink.”

Stoute: (On the perception that artists who promote products are sellouts) “The music industry had to go under financial pressure before they understood you could work with brands without being considered a sellout. Artists have been much more open-minded to working with brands and developing a dynamic relationship. I worked on the soundtrack for Men In Black. The soundtrack sold 10 million copies but the Rayban glasses went up five fold in sales. I realized the relationship between advertising and entertainment could actually drive sales. It was an organic business model.”

Stoute: (On social media) “We talk about Twitter and Facebook for personalities to use to go and share their experiences. That’s fine. Corporations use social to find return on investment and that’s also fine but brands never look at the other side of it. They only look at how many followers they have. I’m not sure using social is appropriate for all brands. Everybody wants to be involved and they think they should have Twitter and Facebook friends. Everybody is looking for value and one way to do that is remove the middle man…You want social? Why? Are you willing to be honest about your product and talk about what’s in your foods and your sodas? If not, you don’t really want that relationship.”

Michaels: (On how he chooses which brands to work with) “Rock of Love was risky. A lot of people stepped away until they saw the ratings…When Glacier came to us they said this is what they wanted us to do and it didn’t fit organically with the show. It was a great product but it didn’t work within the context of the show.”

Stoute: (On his work with McDonald’s) “McDonald’s owned the kids and moms demographic but as soon as kids became teens they dissasociated themselves from the brand…I said to McDonald’s that you should turn your employees, which fit the teenage demographic, into brand advocates. You should change their uniforms because as soon as  they leave work they hide their uniforms, instead of wearing them, instead of becoming thousands of brand advocates. McDonald’s should be seen as a place where someone starts their career, instead of a place where they just flip burgers. Direct marketing starts at that one to one. What’s better than getting a referral from someone you trust? Put faces and people to represent the brand so that they trust them. The McDonald’s case study is interesting because I saw it work just with 40,000 employees being proud to go to work everyday.”

Michaels: (On what creativity means to him) “Taking creativity from your idea and actually getting the idea done are two things are parallel universes. How do you get to the other side? For me what has worked is: I’m a type 1 diabetic who needs four shots a day. No matter how much I want to party I have to be disciplined…You also have to have the cojones to have a great product and find a way to get it done.”