Executive Profile: Roberto Medina

First, despite pulling together some of the biggest names in rock ‘n’ roll like The Rolling Stones and Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band for some of the largest concerts ever staged, he’s not a traditional promoter or talent buyer.

Medina heads up ArtPlan, a Brazilian communications agency that had its beginnings in real estate advertising. Within three years of becoming its managing director in 1969, Medina acquired a controlling interest in the agency and within five years, built ArtPlan into one of Brazil’s largest.

But no sooner did he take over the agency, he changed its focus from advertising to communications.

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“I was sure that creating advertisements wasn’t my thing,” Medina says of the switch. It was still an ad campaign that caused Medina’s path to cross with that of Frank Sinatra, who played a critical role in the first Rock in Rio – more about that later.

Medina was the first person in Brazilian advertising to hire international stars for television commercials, such as David Niven in 1976, Sinatra in 1977 and Burt Bacharach in 1978, for a whiskey brand. He later brought Sinatra to Brazil for a Jan. 26, 1980, concert at Maracanã stadium in Rio de Janeiro, which made it into the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest paying audience for a single singer: 144,000 people.

Five years later, to mark the beginning of a new democratic era in Brazil after years under a military regime Medina put together the first Rock in Rio. With an inaugural attendance of 1.38 million, Rock in Rio broke records for festival attendance and has returned an additional 13 times across three countries on two continents, with more than 7 million attending and more than 1 billion watching live broadcasts around the world.

Rock in Rio debuts an American edition in Las Vegas May 8-9 and 15-16, in partnership with SFX Entertainment, as well as MGM Resorts International, Cirque du Soleil and businessman Ron Burkle.

Not just another festival in the desert, Rock in Rio USA will take place on the Las Vegas Strip, complete with a permanent City Of Rock structure that will provide the MGM Grand with an entertainment destination during the two-year intervals between festivals.

What also marks a departure for this executive profile is that the interview was conducted entirely through an interpreter, helping bring Medina’s story to print from his native Portuguese. But even with the language differences, Medina’s excitement for not only the expansion of his Rock in Rio projects but for music is palpable, proving the old cliché that music is the universal language.

Frank Sinatra plays a large role in your career.

I started working with music with Frank Sinatra. It was a very important part of Rock in Rio history, though it came before. I created an advertising agency years ago, one of the largest in Brazil, called ArtPlan. We had a campaign for a whiskey brand called Passport Brasilia. This campaign included an ad with Frank Sinatra. It was a great hit, and we later brought Sinatra to sing at Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro. It was the largest concert he ever gave in his life – 144,000 people. That was my first taste of working with music.

How did that relationship begin?

At first, with the advertising piece for Frank Sinatra and the whiskey, we had a lot of problems. When I got there to meet with Frank and his manager, people were very nervous. The vibes were pretty bad. At that time, Frank Sinatra’s mother had just died in a plane crash coming to see his show. I talked to his manager about the importance of what was happening to me, and he said he would go backstage and talk to Sinatra. The manager came back and said he would not do the ad from the script, but would sit at the bar and make a statement. One take. No more.

I brought my cameras and recording equipment. He was crying backstage. But he put on his makeup and got ready. So we recorded it, and when it was done he asked if it was OK. And I said it was OK. Then he said, “But you’re not pleased with the result.” And I said, “No, I’m not.” So he allowed a second take, and it was great. When I showed his manager the final ad, he said, “What else do want in life? You got your ad with the most famous artist in the world.” And I said, “I want to take him to Brazil, that’s what I want next.”

So audacity and persistence paid off?

We started a two-year process and negotiation to bring him to Brazil. One year I went to Los Angeles 14 times to convince him to come do a concert. He fell in love with the whole idea of performing at Maracanã stadium – the dream was to have 130,000 or 140,000 in Maracanã stadium to see Frank Sinatra. His plane was going to leave Los Angeles for Brazil at 11:30 a.m. His show was to be at 9 p.m. He’d perform until 10:45 p.m. and his plane would leave at 11 p.m. We would have a car and a motorcade take him to the airport. We didn’t get any second chances. That was it. One shot.

The concert was open air and the orchestra was in the middle of the soccer pitch. Two days before the concert, it began raining. Flooding rain. It was horrible. I was terrified. The Brazilian population was extremely excited because for 40 years it was said Frank Sinatra would never come. So it was a magical moment. He arrived at Maracanã and everybody was really down. At 7 p.m., Maracanã was flooded and there was no public. I decided this is going to happen; I’m going to do this, no matter what. I didn’t tell Sinatra this. Sinatra was in his street clothes and ready to go back to the airport.

The cars and the motorcade were ready to take him. But, instead, I went to the airport. I convinced the director of Pan Am to “break” the plane. The plane would have an issue.  I went back to Maracanã and asked Sinatra’s agent to confirm the flight because I’d heard the plane had some problems. They called the Pan Am director who said, yes, they had to solve this issue and it would be a bit late. So I bought some time. Around 8 p.m., there was torrential rain. But the stadium was full. People were well dressed, but they were wet. Then I went to Sinatra and his agent, and said, “You said I would not be able to put 30,000 people in this stadium. And there are 144,000 people. So you have to come out and see.”

I got the two of them and walked out to the mouth of the stadium, and they were amazed. At a quarter to nine, someone came in and said it had stopped raining. There was supposed to be two more days of rain, according to the weather forecasts. But it stopped raining. At 9 p.m., when the international broadcast was supposed to start, we went on the Maracanã stage, looked up and it was clear. The moon and stars. Right above the stadium. Sinatra sang for an hour and 45 minutes and he said it was the most magical and important moment in his professional life. He left the concert and I went with him to the airport, and he was in tears he was so moved. So was I, of course.

I aged 20 years that day, but it was worthwhile.

How did you get from Sinatra to Rock in Rio?

Brazil was just ending a military dictatorship and we were taking our first steps as a democracy. It was important to spotlight the face of our youth, not only in Brazil but overseas, and this is where the idea of Rock in Rio was born. I have training in marketing and communication, and when I started assembling the project, the largest concert we’d ever had in Brazil [not including the Sinatra concert] was 30,000 people. We didn’t have sound, lighting or stages. We didn’t have anything. The whole process of starting a festival with the quality we were dreaming of was very difficult; even more so when you consider that the price of a ticket was $8 at the time. You can imagine how difficult it was. First, I would have to create not only a music project but a whole resident movement that would result in music. I created a huge communication project with music as the final outcome.

Then I could bring together the audience I wanted. We had 1.28 million attending Rock in Rio in 10 days. But still, even with 1.28 million, I couldn’t pay the bills. So it had to be more than a festival. It had to be a communication campaign, where the brand could use the magic, the energy, the youthful face we have here. I convinced the Brazilian market at the time to sponsor Rock in Rio for $25 million and this is how we launched it.

What were some of the early challenges?

There were so many challenges. First, after I got sponsorships, TV broadcasting and the space to build the City of Rock, I had difficulties in hiring the bands. Brazil had no experience preparing a festival of this size. I had no idea in the beginning, but the image overseas of the festival was that it would be a disaster. I spent 70 days in New York meeting with 80 percent of the managers and agents in the U.S. and they all said the same thing: “You’re not going to make it. It is impossible. You’re not going to get any talent.”

They said a country like Brazil would never be able to propose something that is just so bold, greater than anything that ever happened in the American or Asian markets. It was difficult to hear that. The most difficult part was to make it possible financially. So I went to L.A. There, I remember I had just talked to a couple of agents and, the next morning, I was walking around Beverly Hills – I walk every morning – and talking to a friend of mine who said, “We have nothing else to do. No one believes in us. I guess we’ll just have to go back home.” I really wanted to give up by then.

How did Frank Sinatra help save Rock in Rio?

I had the idea of calling Frank Sinatra and asking for some help, after all the work we’d done together on the ad campaign and the concert in Brazil. He performed for 144,000 people and he was very moved by that. It was very professional work and I said, “I need your help.” I knew people would listen to Frank Sinatra. So he set up a press conference at the Beverly Hilton and lots of people attended. The next day, the papers in the U.S. said the largest music event ever will happen in Brazil In two days I had a line of people wanting to talk to me about coming to Brazil. Then we prepared Rock in Rio.

How daunting were the logistics that first year?

All the logistics, transportation – everything – all had to work simultaneously with the local government, so that we could have public transportation to have people get to Rock in Rio. When it was clear we could have as many as 1.8 million people attend, the beer company that was the main sponsor said, “Listen, I can’t come with the drinks because you have too many people. There are going to be traffic jams and I can’t get through with the trucks.” I didn’t have any experience with this, so I said, “Let’s buy some tankers and put beer inside. We can put pipelines under the grass and it will cool the beer on the way.”

The guy from the beer company agreed with me. It was the first time we had beer delivered by pipeline. Obviously, overcoming the initial difficulty of staging the first Rock in Rio gave us some oomph. The Brazilian show business and entertainment business grew because of that. We’re not better because we have better talent. We are better because we are survivors in a country where we had to think out of the box because we didn’t have a box to think in.

Rock in Rio was your response to a military regime. What was life like before that?

Music is something that really touches people. As they say, it is the universal language. For 1.8 million people, talking about freedom had everything to do with that moment we were living.

We had elected the first nonmilitary president in Brazil and people were taking pride in that fact at Rock in Rio. It was an important moment, undoubtedly. I come from a family that suffered with the military coup. My father was an important entrepreneur and, because of his issues with the military, he lost everything and had to start all over. It had a personal meaning to me.

Tell us your plans for Rock in Rio USA.

Rock in Rio USA will happen every two years. The event will start at 3 p.m. and end at 2 a.m. There will be a main stage and the Sunset Stage, which will also have important bands during intervals at the main stage, and then there will be a DJ in the electronic music tent for another two hours. It’s spread across two segments. The first weekend will be rock and the second weekend will be pop. People will have to buy at least two-day tickets. It’s normal for what happens in that space. The first Rock in Rio USA will be four days over two weekends. Not only will you have your normal ticket, there is a City of Rock in the public space and a VIP area which will be the equivalent of a 6-star hotel.

Forget everything you’ve seen or heard about VIP experiences; this has nothing to do with it. Everything is carpeted, airconditioned, with famous chefs preparing the buffet. There’s no comparable VIP area in the American market. It’s very sophisticated and for 4,000 people a day, it’s an amazing VIP area. There will be zip lines where people will fly to the stage during shows. There will be fireworks and then you have the streets, which is a fascinating thing. It’s like Main Street Disney where you have a Brazil street with Brazilian food and music, an American street with hip hop, street dance and all the typical dress, and a British street with a bit of jazz, British culture – but made in such a way that it really looks real.

What is the City Of Rock?

The City of Rock will be on the Las Vegas Strip. It will be walking distance from your hotel. It will be larger than the one in Brazil. You will have space for 85,000 people to comfortably come in. The City of Rock will have artificial grass. This is something that, since 2001, I have done with all my projects. The bathrooms are not chemical bathrooms; they will all be constructed, all brick-and-mortar bathrooms. MGM Grand is making a $25 million investment in the City of Rock, and it’s an interesting approach. It will be a fixed infrastructure. Every two years we will have Rock in Rio USA and, in between, MGM Grand cannot do a rock festival. The only thing they cannot do is promote another rock festival. They can do an electronic music festival, but it would have to be a large project because the space is very big. It can’t be a midsized project.

So why is MGM Grand making this investment?

First, their economy is changing from gaming to entertainment. In Brazil today, we’re one of the largest exporters of tourists in the world. Brazilians spent $25 billion in other countries per year, traveling. Of that, half is in the U.S. And 95 percent will go to Miami, Orlando and New York. Las Vegas gets almost nothing. So my understanding, just for the first event, you will have at least 10,000 Brazilians coming to Las Vegas. An enormous number of people will want to really see Las Vegas and Rock in Rio together. It will be very attractive for Brazilians, I think. We have 1.5 million Brazilians who live in the U.S., and at least 100,000 Brazilians want to come to Las Vegas.

So I guess that for MGM Grand it is a very good investment. And for me, it gives me the opportunity to deliver a space that is extremely professional and comfortable for people to enjoy.

How did you reach the decision to expand?

Before I decided to come to the U.S., I did some research. In California, 17 percent of the market knew the Rock in Rio brand. I was really amazed, because I thought no one knew the brand. Today, 41 percent of the market in California knows Rock in Rio. We are reaching 51 percent of those interviewed for market research who say they want to go. I did the research to support this and it was a big motivation for me to see what style of music people wanted, what bands, what concert. I really love research. I work a lot with research. There are different age brackets; but normally Rock in Rio attendees are a little older.

Normally a festival draws from ages 15-30 years; Rock in Rio is working with 15 up to 50 years. It’s a bit more of a family program and project. First, the same thing that is happening with Rock in Rio now is to go into a market and tell a different story. It’s complicated. I have to explain something about the American market, which is quite important. In sports, for instance, the U.S. is deeply and soundly developed in terms of sponsorships and sporting events. But not in music. It isn’t so. In Europe, when I got there, it wasn’t, either. So to change this culture and show these companies that investment will give you a return, it takes some time. It’s difficult to get the buy-in.

Another issue is, how can you explain to a consumer who is used to different deliverables, that you will deliver something different than they are used to? The event has matured. The first Rock in Rio wasn’t as good as the second, which wasn’t as good as the third, because people are starting to understand the difference between deliverables. This is another important point to consider in terms of growth. The Portuguese experience was a new window to the world. I was able to test an experience I couldn’t understand but thought was typical in Brazil, but it turns out it wasn’t. It was actually a model I could take to other countries and replicate there.

What is the Rock in Rio brand?

Rock in Rio is a delivery of a dynamic, young brand for companies to advertise. Just to give you an idea of the importance of this brand, I’m going to tell you about an interview I had with the president of Coca Cola Brazil during the second Rock in Rio in 1991, where he invested $35 million in sponsorship. He said if something happened to Rock in Rio, Coca Cola had already made back its investment for the summer, before the festival even happened. Rock in Rio doesn’t happen on those days, that week; it happens in the media. It will happen in the American market six months out. Today I have 350,000 people looking at my website. I have 11.5 million followers for Rock in Rio. I’m not one of those that believe that the solution is only through social media.

I think it’s a set of information that each platform, each vehicle, will have a certain capacity to deliver. To build a brand, it’s not just social media, not just TV or magazines. It’s a set. And each one will have a type of responsibility and response. The written media will give you information; electronic media will give you emotion and move you. At the movies, you will have a true impact on your vision, but then you have fewer people you are going to impact. It’s about a set of actions that will make a brand visible, and the concept of that communication. You’ll be surprised with the advertising campaign we are preparing for the U.S. Since this part is my territory, this is my turf and what I like to do.

I’m going to work with costs that are completely different than around the world. It’s a huge project. Ads for Rock in Rio starting in September are going to be amazing. Not in terms of music but in any area. They’re going to be better than anything you’ve ever seen. This is one of the strengths Rock in Rio has. On social networks, we will talk about the social project, there will be a sweepstakes to come to Rock in Rio Brazil and Portugal, and we are permanently creating new stories to create new relationships. With the information campaign and social media campaign there is a segmentation of social media. So it’s completely different.

How does marketing Rock in Rio differ in America?

I’m aware I still have a lot to learn, but I also have a lot to teach the American market. I believe that after Rock in Rio USA, you will have a new way of putting money into these events. It happened in Portugal; it happened in Spain and, of course, it happened in Brazil. In the U.S., the challenge is even greater because it is the top of the pyramid in terms of entertainment and advertising. It is a very hard task to bring marketing and communications professionals out of their comfort zones and into the challenge of investing in what is new, and to transform the whole audience for the festival.

I remember some time ago, maybe 25 years ago, I was working in Los Angeles, as Korean and Japanese cars were first coming into the market. People would say, “This car is not going to work here, it’s just too small, unsafe and not cool.” But all the Korean and Japanese cars invaded the American market because the U.S. consumer changed very quickly. They want new ideas. They want new things.

Rock in Rio is a product that is not better or worse than in the American market, it’s just totally different. It has a deliverable product that is different because it has a stronger budget. It sells not only tickets but a communication program. You have artificial grass, you have different lighting, you have three different streets you bring together. You bring together Brazil, the U.S., the electronics, the technology, the scenery and the sound of Rock in Rio.

I hope, and I believe, I will be sort of a driving force for an important change in the American market. This may sound a bit pretentious on my part, but these are facts. It’s happened in Spain; it’s happened in Portugal. It happened in Brazil when I started.

What was the deciding factor in coming to the U.S.?

Rock in Rio is like the World Cup. And to be a World Cup, it has to be in America. It is the most sophisticated market; it’s the largest market. If I want to have my World Cup, I have to go through the U.S.