It’s More Than Brand Partnerships: Meet WME’s Michael Jasper [Interview]
Michael Jasper
Michael Jasper, a 12-year veteran at WME, spends his days building strategic partnerships between brands and the agency’s celebrity talent. It’s a job where the possibilities are truly endless.
Working closely with Luke Combs, Lainey Wilson, Brad Paisley, Reba McEntire, Miranda Lambert, Thomas Rhett, Zach Bryan and Lauren Daigle, Jasper is deeply familiar with any given artist he’s working with, their music, personal values, goals, dreams and more. With his contacts that run the gamut in business, he conjures up mutually beneficial opportunities that leave a seismic impact on culture.
A native of Rockville, Maryland, Jasper first cut his teeth in the promotions department at the local country radio station WMZQ while he was in high school and between stints in college at Clemson University.
“That’s where I realized that there was an entire industry behind music. I learned a lot,” Jasper says. “That internship turned into a part-time job. Eventually, the promotions department was eliminated and they stuck me on ad sales. I was dealing with local florists, plumbers and car dealerships, just trying to sell ads.”
While Jasper was learning the art of selling, one of his co-workers recommended he read Donald S. Passman’s titular All You Need to Know About the Music Business book.
“I read it and a week later I wanted to become a booking agent,” he says.
Soon, Jasper was in Los Angeles working in the mailroom at WME. He was eventually assigned to the desk of veteran tour marketing executive Michele Bernstein. That’s where he learned of and became attracted to the brand partnerships department. He applied and got onto a brand partnership agent’s desk, and was immediately hooked.
“What solidified my love for what I do came in the form of being able to influence and impact pop culture, even if it was a tiny little bit,” he says. “When I was first starting out, the biggest impact came in broadcast television. Working as an assistant, I got to see agents putting celebrity talent into nationally broadcast TV commercials—especially the first year that I was around for Super Bowl spots. It was amazing to see how competitive that was, how incredible the creative was and, frankly, how much money these brands were dishing out.”
After two years learning about brand partnerships in L.A., an opportunity came up for Jasper to come to Nashville as a newly-promoted coordinator. He landed in Music City in 2014 and hit the ground running, becoming an agent in early 2015.
Now, he looks at his work in a wider scale than striking linear deals between talent and brands. Jasper is in the business of creating cultural touch points that benefit a multitude of parties.
“A good partnership can be represented as a rising tide that lifts all boats. There has to be mutual benefit to both the brand and the artist. That benefit, in my opinion, shouldn’t always be defined as impressions for the brand, nor money for the artist,” he explains, sharing how his line of work is sometimes misunderstood.
“Oftentimes there can be non-monetary value in a partnership. Let’s say an artist has a new single or a new album coming out. While there might be money attached to the partnership, if we can tap into a brand’s multi-million dollar media-buy with that new single as the music-bed or prominently featured in the ad, that’s helpful.”
Jasper and his team at WME have architected hundreds of multi-faceted, long-term relationships for talent, many of which have been tour sponsorships such as the T-Mobile sponsorship of Combs’ last three tours and Bryan’s partnership with Bud Light. As social media and live-show technology gets more advanced, the possibilities for collaboration blossom.
“Luke Combs’ partnership with T-Mobile is multi-elemental. The tour sponsorship umbrella includes concourse activation, a parking lot activation and in-show moments with lights and video wall content. He’s done interviews and shot custom content. There are social media posts, meet and greets and ticket banks—the list goes on,” Jasper says. “It’s a very cool and unique way to really harness the power of the 360 deal, which is to embrace all of the elements and the tools in an artist toolbox for a brand to deploy.”
A great example a brand celebrating a wide bevy of an artist’s talent can be seen in WME client Breland‘s extensive collaboration with Chevrolet. All of which started with the star’s breakout hit, “My Truck,” in 2020.
As the song was peaking in virality on TikTok, Chevrolet was strategizing a way to join the platform. With an interest in appealing to early TikTok’s young users, Chevy began its fruitful relationship with Breland, inviting him to help them make their first several videos.
“That led to a four-year relationship where he would go on to shoot a nationally broadcast TV commercial specifically around Chevrolet’s integration with the CMA Awards for their electric Silverado, as well as a number of different really fun and engaging moments in time with the brand.”
Another unique partnership that Jasper helped execute was Wilson and Daigle’s multi-year partnership with the Louisiana Department of Tourism.
To promote Louisiana as a destination, the Bayou State natives were a perfect fit.
“The asks of Lainey were just to go out and be vocal about where she’s from, even more so than she already was. She was more than happy to do it,” Jasper says. “That led to her performing on the Louisiana float at the Rose Parade in January of 2023, and she was able to meet with the Lieutenant Governor. They were also recently a sponsor at the opening of Bell Bottoms Up because it’s a Cajun fusion-inspired restaurant”
Earlier this year, Jasper brokered a partnership between Kane Brown and OLIPOP which, among various elements, included a sponsorship of Brown’s “2024 In The Air Tour”—a first for the rapidly growing better-for-you soda brand.
Jasper and his colleague Carlile Willet were also responsible for placing six of the seven artists on the Red Bull Jukebox event line up, taking place in Nashville this Wednesday (Oct. 2) at Ascend. Happening for the first time in the U.S., Red Bull Jukebox is a concert where fans decide what songs are played from the artists’ catalog allowing fans to experience a show in a completely new way.
A partnership Jasper is most proud of is Eric Paslay‘s work with Dexcom, the diabetes management device that monitors blood sugar in real-time. As a type one diabetic, Paslay was pricking his finger to check his glucose levels while managing the rigor of touring. In 2016, Dexcom identified Paslay as someone who might be a good spokesperson for the technology, and Jasper bridged the gap between the two.
“In addition to not ever having to prick his finger again, the continuous glucose monitor has an app that could be downloaded on his phone, his wife’s phone and his tour manager’s phone.
“A couple months into the partnership, Eric told me about the changes it was making. He shared that his tour manager could see on the app when he was getting low on stage and run a glass of OJ out,” Jasper says. “That partnership really sticks out that left the biggest impact because of how it fundamentally changed the way Eric lived his life.”
At the end of the day, it’s the impact that makes Jasper’s hard work worth it.
“My favorite part of my job having a small but direct influence on pop culture,” he sums. “Every day is consistently inconsistent, which makes it so exciting.”
