Synonymous with cymbals, SABIAN is one of music’s most recognized brands. They rank second in global market share, however, new challenger brands such as Meinl and Paiste were quickly drumming up market share and brand equity amongst younger consumers.
Sabian
SABIAN needed a brand territory they could own. Furthermore, their paid media presence was virtually non-existent and their web experience was lacking performance. While they had a significant social media following, they had not actively engaged with a younger audience with relevant content.
After an exhaustive search, their team selected Art & Science to be their agency of record in late 2020. Our mandate was to help transform their digital experience to connect with new drummers as well as support their existing community of passionate percussionists.
We embarked on a brand territory exercise and orchestrated a comprehensive and multi-tiered paid media and social media campaign. During the past year we’ve updated the user experience of sabian.com to reflect our updated brand expression and ensure that the site is both performant, supporting broader business initiatives, while defining a best in class experience.
We also tapped into SABIAN’s expansive artist roster — engaging drummers from bands like Guns’N’Roses, Styx and Leprous as well as drummers who play with the Weeknd, Rita Ora, Dua Lipa and a lot of other top tier musicians — to create social media content, ad hoc creative collateral, and product collaborations.
At the heart of the SABIAN rebrand is the genuine and authentic quality of musicianship. We created a video series of artist interviews to follow the brand launch and reinforce the “human” element of the brand. They’re a candid way to speak about the lives of musicians who have dedicated themselves to their craft, the inspirations and challenges they face, and most importantly, how they honour their own uniqueness in their music — all under the umbrella of our brand slogan ‘Play Your Way’.
We have also started a social media influencer program by endorsing popular online drummers (via TikTok + Instagram) and creating content collaborations and promotions.
We’re actively working to promote the SABIAN brand to individual musicians as well as support the school program initiatives with design assets, influencer management, content development and more. And as the SABIAN website is not an e-commerce platform, we’ve partnered with key retailers such as Sweetwater, the world’s largest online music retailer, to support the shopping experience and fulfillment.
Have I told you guys how much I LOVE working with you???
Vice President of Marketing, SABIAN
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