Marbaloo: Marketing Nashville’s Top Artists Through Creativity, Customization

Marbaloo founder and managing partner Faithe Parker

Kelsea Ballerini. Photo: Jeremy Ryan

For Faithe Parker, being part of the successes of Kelsea Ballerini and other Marbaloo clients is the culmination of years of big dreams and hard work. Parker formed Marbaloo (short for “Marketing Hullabaloo”) in 2010. Five years later, the company boasts work with artists including Ballerini, Toby Keith, Maddie & Tae, Tim McGraw, Luke Bryan, Miranda Lambert, and more.

“I come from an entrepreneurial bloodlines,” Parker says. “I always wanted to start my own business, but I wanted to wait until I had the right experience.”

That experience includes international marketing for Interscope Records and a role as International Marketing and Promotions Director for Universal Music Group, working with artists including Lady Gaga, All American Rejects, and 50 Cent. She also worked as VP of Creative Operations for producer and musician Dave Stewart’s production studio Weapons of Mass Entertainment. She says her experience as a label rep working with third-party marketing companies informed her decision to create Marbaloo. “I really felt like we could be a company that would be pro-record company, who could come alongside record labels and management to help market artists,” said Parker.

The strategy has paid off. Earlier this year, Marbaloo collaborated with Universal Music Group Nashville and Kerri Edwards’ KP Entertainment to debut reigning CMA Entertainer of the Year Luke Bryan’s lyric video for “Kill The Lights” via risky marketing move — by debuting the clip on popular dating app Tinder. “We really try to find new ways of bringing artists to a new audience in ways that make sense,” Parker says. “It got his music in front of people who may not have heard it before. His label and management are so great about being progressive and wanting to reach more people.”

Parker and her company aim to bring that same level of creativity to each client, regardless of the artist’s star status. “The first thing we do is get to know precisely what a new client needs and what is their perspective of themselves as an artist,” Parker says. “We learn everything from how they see themselves as an artist, to how they envision their career goals. What kinds of social media platforms, if any, they are comfortable using to communicate with fans? What parts of their stories haven’t been communicated with fans? What are their other passions and hobbies? Then we use all these pieces to customize and create new marketing ideas.”

Marbaloo’s staff has expanded to 23 employees adept at marketing, project management, event promotion, tour marketing, digital strategy, integrated publicity, asset production and more. Still, the company’s growth strategy has allowed them to continue to offer each new client personalized attention. “We do have a large roster of artists that we work with, but we have grown our staff as we have grown our client roster, which gives us a larger staff-to-artist ratio than many other marketing companies in town,” Parker says.

As the company’s clientele has expanded, so has its office space. They recently moved into a suite on the 13th floor of Nashville’s L&C Building, with nearly 6,000 square feet of office space. The suite is outfitted with sleek lines and warm colors. Glass walls throughout much of the space promote a collaborative environment. Multiple cooperative areas throughout the office accommodate meetings of all sizes, from phone booth-size enclosed areas for private calls, to couches for intimate meetings, to full-size conference rooms. “We are very collaborative here. Our staffers are very creative, and often work 12- and 16-hour days, so we want it to be a space where people are comfortable and where they can focus.”

“We couldn’t do this without the teamwork of the labels, management, publicists and artists we work with,” Parker says. “We are an extension of the artists we represent, and we aim to market them as creatively as possible. We couldn’t do that without the collaborative spirit in this city.”