Impact NextGen: Ariel Happe

When asked where she sees herself a decade from now, Creative Artists Agency’s Ariel Happe kept her answer brief and honest.

“Hopefully on a vacation,” Happe tells Pollstar.

Considering how much she’s worked on over the past two years — partnering artists with major events and companies — the rising exec has certainly earned it.

Happe, based in Nashville, started at the agency as a receptionist and moved up to music brand partnerships executive where was able to develop major projects for artists like Joan Jett, Paul Stanley, MUNA and MacKenzie Porter, who worked on her first fashion brand campaign with Wonderwest by Boot Barn.

The CAA standout helped Jett and Stanley land on a Super Bowl commercial for Workday, a software company, giving her clients an opportunity to shine during one of the most-watched sporting events in the world.

“First, they’re legends. Second, the Super Bowl is essentially the Olympics of advertising, and it was insane to have a part in something that massive,” Happe says. “It’s been the largest distributed partnership I’ve done and a great example to share with my family of what I do every day.”

Happe was also part of the deal that landed MUNA on the Taco Bell “Unofficial Halftime Show” commercial for last year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup, a partnership that “really felt like it had an authentic voice and was a celebration of the talent, brand and audience,” she says.

Finding other revenue streams while allowing artists to continue to exhibit their authenticity is no easy feat, and though numbers associated with ticket sales, streaming and social media followers are informative and revealing, they don’t tell the whole story. Having grown up in the digital era, Happe is glad to see the rest of the industry catch on to what she has learned during her time at CAA working with people like Emily Wright and Megan Wise: it’s not about how many followers you have, but how you engage with them.

“It’s been a long time educating umbrella entertainment buyers on how musicians navigate and occupy the digital space differently [i.e. different genre audiences preferring specific platforms, posting cadence, messaging and tone] but it’s finally starting to feel like they’re putting more trust in our artists as partners, in turn creating more effective and impactful content,” Happe said.

It’s catching on, and maybe another trend she supports will, too: “The death of the encore,” Happe says.

That one may need a little more time.