– Russell Wallach

The Engagers

As brands around the world scramble to touch live music, Russell Wallach is proving instrumental to Live Nation’s growth and is leading the company’s media and sponsorship division to projected double-digit growth over last year in committed net revenue. An analysis of Live Nation’s Q1 Earnings Report showed sponsorships and advertising revenue grew one percent and contributed $39.9 million of AOI to Live Nation’s bottom line.

The company’s brand partners, including Citi, Hilton, T-Mobile, Google and Tinder, engage live music fans who visit Live Nation’s 200-plus venues and 100-plus global festivals and who attend its 35,000 annual concerts.

Wallach credits his team, with offices in Australia, Asia, Europe and North America, for the division’s double-digit growth over the past eight years, and says fans are open to branding done right. 

“Music fans are very open to working with brands as long as the brands are doing it in an authentic way and looking to enhance the experience,” Wallach says. “Our role in that is to facilitate the ideas, the creative, the strategy, the ultimate results.”

For 2019 and 2020, look for Live Nation’s media and sponsorship division to develop proprietary technology and to work with third-party partners to follow the “fan journey” of pre-show, in-show, and post-show experience.  

“You’ll see us launching new data-driven products, taking a much different approach and hopefully leading our industry around measurement,” Wallach says. “We will be launching some measurement tools that will truly be able to benchmark the success of experiential and live events.” 

The division will also work with new companies and in more sectors, including the retail space, to help brands drive sales and traffic to sites and apps.

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