PROPELLER: MAKING WAVES

In the recent years Propeller has helped connect fans with charities and organizations through music, Founder Brandon Deroche had a breakthrough year in 2022 when propeller reached its 1 millionth user. Since then the organization has reached 1.5 million users and collected over 6 million dollars for its causes. Propeller has continued its work and has partnered up with stars like Rock Group Tenacious D and the powerhouse Pop Starr Lizzo, partnerships like these have reached over 40 thousand fans and raised well over 125 thousand dollars. With help from Jessica from Grand Stand HQ we were able to connect with Annie Flook the director of artist partnerships and business development at Propeller LA for a short interview!

We hope you enjoy this informative read.

Karlo Dayez: “If you want to take the stage Annie, can you tell me about yourself and how you got your start into the music industry? Feel free to go into depth about your experience at Warner Music Group + Atlantic, and what made you ultimately leave to pursue your venture at Propeller.”

Annie Flook: “Oh, sure! I didn’t realize you were gonnna dive that deep. So I got my foot into the music industry pretty early on. I actually majored in Music Business at NYU. I grew up in New Jersey, my dad is a piano player, and I’ve always been a fan of music and that’s what lead me to want to major in it in school. This ultimately led me to New York, which led me to many internships and you know, finding my way to actually starting my career at an agency. I started at ICM Talent right out of college. I spent a couple years over there before I realized I did not want to be an agent. Through relationships in the industry, I ended moving over to Warner Music Group and actually working for Warner Records for a year, before jumping to Atlantic. I ended up spending eight years at Warner Music Group. I moved between Warner Records, Atlantic, and then Elektra Music Group… While I loved that role and loved working at a label and all the artists that I got to work with, artists like Panic! At the Disco, and Twenty One Pilots and Brandy Carlile, I really found that during the pandemic when touring took a halt that I was trying to find others ways to bring value to artists. The place that I found the most value and the most fulfillment for myself was philanthropy. Through the relationships that I had made in the industry, I was introduced to Propeller; I was introduced to Brandon Deroche who founded the company. I started doing campaigns directly with Propeller from the Elektra side, so we did some campaigns with All Time Low, Rainbow Kitten Surprise, Panic! At the Disco, and evenKaleo. It was just really awesome seeing the value in attaching the fan engagement to philanthropy and giving back to non-profits, in addition to giving artists such an easy way to support the causes they care about. When my time came to an end at Warner, Propeller was top of mind and ultimately Brandon created this role for me over here. I came over here in September to run artist partnerships and business development for them.”

Karlo Dayez: “Ok okay. Wow, that is a story, you’ve been all around huh?”

Annie Flook: “*laughs* I’ve been all around! 17 years in New York and now im actually in Nashville. I moved to Nashville when I started to work for Propeller.

Karlo Dayez: “Oh ok, Nashville, that’s awesome. It seems like you’ve gotten to work with a lot of your favorite artist, I’m assuming.”

Annie Flook: “I have! And I’m very thankful for my career and everyone that I’ve gotten to work with.”

Karlo Dayez: “That’s great, that’s really awesome. I was reading over how you guys are trying to reach out to the next generation of people, and I am part of that generation, you know, I am a millennial. There’s gen z, and eventually gen alpha; How are you guys working to reach out to the audience that isn’t so centered around social media or the digital platform? Such as generation x or even the boomers. How are you working to reach out to an older demographic?”

Annie Flook: “Well, Propeller is digital marketing platform at it’s heart and we are using the platform to inspire activism and, you know, the ethos is a platform to bring a new generation into philanthropy and into these non-profits. Traditionally the supporters of these organizations have been an older audience, and we definitely have taken a more ‘old school’ approach to reaching younger donors and supporters. Propeller is really trying to reach that younger audience so that’s where most of our focus is; through digital marketing campaigns, socials, and through a lot of what we do on site at festivals and in venue with artists. That is where our focus is, and one of the many goals that we have with the non-profits we work with is to help them reach those new, younger audiences and the older generation alike.”

Karlo Dayez: “No, definitely. Like even though I am a millennial I am a very ‘old school’ type of person so it’s pretty awesome that you guys are trying to reach every age demographic out there.”

Annie Flook: “I would say that a lot of what we do to reach audiences of all ages would be what we do on site and I think that kinda brings us around to what we did with Hangout this year. We have a tool, an activation, where fans at a show can text in and donate or sign a petition or take various actions to support a nonprofit to win prizes on site at the show. That’s a tool that’s very easy to use straight from your phone. Whether you’re 15 years old, 30 years old, 60 years old, we’ve done with everyone from a George Strait stadium show, to artists playing 300-cap clubs, it really helps us hit every demographic.”

Karlo Dayez: “I love that. Everybody knows how to send a text, we’re always on our phone.”

Annie Flook: ”Exactly, that’s where we try to make it really really easy. The platform itself is very easy to use online and trying to make it as mobile friendly as possible is our goal.”

Karlo Dayez: “Awesome, I love that. I guess my next question would be pertaining to privacy. In a world where our privacy is constantly being put at risk, and often times we are duped by tricky terms and conditions, what extent does Propeller go to ensure our privacy is not only protected, but that the data gathered by fans is handled properly?”

Annie Flook: “Oh, absolutely! We are very specific in our terms and conditions on how they are being used and it is never, never shared beyond the campaign itself. If you are someone who is interested in Hangout Festival, you may get reached out to by that festivals marketing team; However, we would never share your data with another artist or another marketing company and that is something we’re very specific about. We talk about it daily and make sure our users feel comfortable with giving their data to Propeller and how it is ultimately all used and we make that very clear in our campaign.”

Karlo Dayez: “Definitely, I think the integrity of a lot of companies are in question these days and I think it is so awesome that you guys are so transparent with the way that you use our data.”

Annie Flook: “Absolutely.”

Karlo Dayez: “From what I gathered, you are the bridge between artist/nonprofits and fans who want to make a change. How is Propeller unique from other platforms that are trying to do the same thing?”

Annie Flook: “I would say the main difference with us is we are really focused on the advocacy work. We are leveraging these prizes and rewards from artists to get fans to come on and donate money which is very important for non-profits to survive and do the work that they do. We are definitely focused in areas with advocacy work and getting folks involved is important. It might be the spaces of mental health, environment sustainability organizations, LGBTQ+ rights, reproductive rights; these spaces where the organizations just really need the support and depend on folks staying engaged with their work. A big differentiation with us is you don’t have to pay or donate to join our campaign. We have lots of free ways that folks can come on, that even if you cant afford to donate $5 to an organization, you can still come on and support and sign a petition or sign up to a newsletter to educate yourself and still get the same benefits from artist and festivals that we are working with.”

Karlo Dayez: “That’s awesome I really love that about you guys! I love that you don’t even have to have money to help. I think that is true philanthropy, making the effort, and you let everyone make the effort. I like how you don’t have to dive so deep into what you do because the impact that you guys make is very obvious. It’s apparent you guys put a lot of integrity and passion into what you do. I was researching your organization and you don’t have to dive far to see that you are legitimate organization who cares and that is something very rare to find these days.”

Annie Flook:”I appreciate that, I think you know we really try to stand behind the transparency and that’s really important to us. Sharing how many people entered every single campaign and how much money we raised, and sharing our stats. The fact is that we have 1.5 million registered users on the platform, and we’ve almost hit 9 million actions generated to date with petitions and donations. We make it a point to make all that information transparent and is easily available to all our users, and to the artists and festival promoter partners that we work with as well. We are also a public benefit corporation, we actually post our financials and I have that in every email signature I send, making that all easily found as possible. That is something we that is very important to us.”

Karlo Dayez: “People love transparency and privacy, and as a fan I can appreciate it.”

Annie Flook: “The authenticity and trust is important at Propeller, it is something that we ask our artist for, the authenticity when they want do a campaign with us and to support a cause that they want to get their fans engaged with. If we are going ask that of our artists, we should be able to stand behind that as well.”

Karlo Dayez: “Agreed, Annie! One more question before wrap things up: Right now you are hitting new musical festivals hard, collaborating with A-list stars, and making an enormous impact on social issues, what does the next level look like for Propeller? What is your ultimate goal?”

Annie Flook: “Well, we want to change the world! We want to be everywhere. We want to take a lot of what we achieved in the digital space and start to work more in the physical space with events and showing up and seeing that change happen in real life. We’re starting to take that into live events as well, for example we are at every Red Rocks show this season. That is a big goal of ours for this year; driving impact and hopefully expanding upon that program onto other venues and just getting in front of as many audiences as possible. I said earlier our focus is on the younger generation, but we eventually want include as many fans of entertainment as we can. For now we are in music, but down the road I want us to move beyond into sports, comedy, and all spaces of entertainment where there are fans who want to make a change.”

For more information or to find out how you can help your community, be sure to visit propeller at their website at https://www.propeller.la/.

You can give them a follow on instagram @propeller.la — There you will find a link leading you to their amazing projects and everything they have going on.