Description
How do brands use music to shape culture instead of just following it? At Cannes 2026, Epidemic Sound's Gracie Schram hosted a panel with Roberto Stanichi (Mattel), Dario Spina (Paramount Media Labs), Rich Ting (TDW+Co) and Andrew Choi, singer-songwriter on KPop Demon Hunters, on what separates a brand that participates in culture from one that drives it.
In this panel, you'll learn:
How Mattel turned toy brands into worlds people want to join rather than products they consume
Why music and brand integrations work when they enter at the scripting phase, not in post
How K-pop fandom turns audiences into participants, and what other brands can copy from it
When to chase a cultural moment in 48 hours, and when to leave it alone
Barbie worked because Mattel handed real creative control to Greta Gerwig instead of protecting the toy, and got a film with something to say. That is the whole test for Stanichi: people don't want to consume brands, they want to join them. It turns a brand into a world that needs an entry point, and music is usually the easiest one to build.
Write music and brands into a story at the scripting phase and they belong to it. Add them in post and they interrupt it. Ting takes the same idea to the fan side, where the audiences that matter are not watching but making the chants, the edits and the merch themselves. The risk, in Spina's words, is that marketing has gotten very good at measurement and much worse at meaning.
Epidemic Sound's catalogue is heard 3.5 billion times a day on YouTube and TikTok alone, which makes music one of the few things that reaches that kind of scale without a brand buying attention. The examples run from the Barbie soundtrack, which makes the film's argument rather than advertising it, to Fall Out Boy scoring Hot Wheels Let's Race, Brian May of Queen writing for Masters of the Universe, and MTV and the VMAs using a stage to lift artists instead of borrowing from them.
How do brands use music to shape culture?
Brands use music to shape culture by joining a moment that is already happening rather than advertising at it. The music has to be part of the story rather than a layer on top, which is why Mattel treated the Barbie soundtrack as part of the film's argument, and why Hot Wheels went to Fall Out Boy and Masters of the Universe to Brian May of Queen.
What does it mean to treat sound as brand IP?
Treating sound as brand IP means giving a brand's music the same care and consistency as its logo, and commissioning it at the start of a project rather than buying it as a post-production line item. That is Rich Ting's argument, and his reasoning is that a track which belongs to the brand keeps working long after the campaign stops. His example is Soda Pop, which he says passed 500 million Spotify streams.
What can brands learn from K-pop fandom?
Brands can learn from K-pop fandom that an audience will do far more than watch if you give it something to join. Andrew Choi describes arenas where the crowd runs programmable glow sticks in sync and invents its own chants for songs, so the fandom becomes part of the performance rather than the audience for it. None of that participation was bought.
Should a brand chase cultural moments or stay timeless?
Chasing a cultural moment only works on top of a voice the brand has already settled, so consistency comes first and speed second. That is how Spina's team got a native Diet Mountain Dew spot made in 48 hours around a live moment. Stanichi's counterweight is that a brand approaching 70 years old cannot chase everything, and what lasts is what it keeps saying consistently.
Chapters
0:00 Introductions and why culture is the panel's subject
1:15 What it means for a brand to shape culture rather than follow it
2:37 Roberto Stanichi on authenticity as the condition for everything else
4:05 Dario Spina on storytelling and when a brand partnership makes sense
5:31 People don't want to consume brands, they want to join them
6:56 Andrew Choi on K-pop fandom as participation
8:14 What brands can learn from K-pop’s 360 approach
10:47 Rich Ting on audiences and fanbases participating
12:51 Inside the Barbie soundtrack, Fall Out Boy for Hot Wheels, Brian May for Masters of the Universe
15:19 3.5 billion plays a day on YouTube and TikTok: what the internet sounds like
16:44 The importance of having a story behind the song
18:29 Rich Ting on sound as brand IP, not a post-production expense
20:09 Soda Pop and what a song does for a brand after release
21:39 Trend-chasing vs. Trend-setting
22:03 How Diet Mountain Dew got a native debate spot made in 48 hours
23:29 Timeliness vs timelessness for a brand almost 70 years old
24:48 A cultural undercurrent brands should act on
30:27 Closing
Learn how Epidemic Sound works with brands and agencies: www.epidemicsound.com