Catching a break in the music biz isn’t easily done without a helping hand (or two). And that’s precisely what cultural creative agency Young Hero is hoping to serve as.

The agency is working with budding artists and creators pro bono to provide access and opportunities to collaborate on client work, such as using songs in campaigns or using a photographer on shoots. In a way, Young Hero is almost serving as the agency representative for these creatives, including rapper Safa Gaw and singer-songwriter Blu DeTiger, helping them with branding, providing resources and offering advice around their work. For artists, it also takes it a step further and finds opportunities to bring them onto stages, for example, giving 30 artists performance slots during a SXSW showcase.

“As an agency, we didn’t just want to respond to RFPs and traditional briefs with brands. What’s fun for us is activating in culture,” said Zoë Bunyard, co-founder and managing partner at Young Hero.

For instance, she added, instead of pulling from a music library to buy stock music for campaigns, the agency will work with emerging musicians to score a film or feature an unreleased track.

“From a creative perspective, music is one of those industries that sort of embodies every single pillar of advertising,” said co-founder and president Roberto Max Salas. “There’s video, there’s still photography, there’s storytelling, and there’s a lot of creative direction that goes behind [it].”

Creating superfans and lasting partnerships

When seeking out creatives to work with, Salas said he and his team base it off of whether they vibe with the work and think that it’s something that can draw an obsessed fanbase.

“We basically become fans of their work,” he said. “That’s when we find not just the inspiration, but also the drive to go out of our way and stay longer to work on on that type of stuff.”

Suggestions on artists to work with come from all over the agency and through past connections at events like SXSW, he added. In fact, Young Hero has an internship program where different artists can be curated. In it, the interns can create a presentation on who they think is interesting or would want to work with on a potential project based on client needs (i.e., needing a metaverse influencer).

One of the first artists Young Hero worked with was Safa Gaw, with whom it’s had a long relationship working on projects for apparel brand KidSuper and yoga studio Y7, where Safa Gaw’s music scores the campaigns.

From there, the relationship grew into more of a creative consultancy role for Young Hero. The agency created 3D animated covers and Spotify visualizers and also helped Safa Gaw with creative direction for upcoming albums. Most recently, the agency developed album artwork and a visualizer for his recent single, “Rich Friends.”

“What we love about that kind of stuff is that it gives the brand the opportunity to have a footprint in culture, too,” Salas said. “[These artists] will blow up. It’s just a matter of time.”

Integrating talent into client work

For the agency, working with an artist it loves is already great, but finding the chance to integrate that artist into client work is an added bonus of more exposure.

“The role of Young Hero is to orchestrate and also be that strategic layer between the brand and the creator,” Salas said. “So creators can be creators, but also so that the main core message of the brand is basically sacred. That’s what we’re there for.”

Blu DeTiger is another artist that the agency has worked with for years, starting when she just had a few thousand Instagram followers (she’s now at more than 468,000). On one of Blu’s tours, the agency organized a partnership with Floss Gloss nail polish to create a limited-edition shade of blue, and the creative team also shot behind-the-scenes content to create a tour diary.

She’s also in the “Plastic Service Announcement” campaign for nonprofit Lonely Whale; the agency cast emerging artists alongside well-known celebrities and used Blu’s music to score the piece.

“When a brand is early on and off in the success of a talent, that talent will be grateful forever,” Salas said. “And they will always be part of [the] artist’s story as a brand in the long term.”

Ultimately for Salas and co-founder and executive creative director Nick Panayotopoulos, they’ve served as mentors for emerging talent rather than hiring someone to rep them, said Bunyard, working closely with the artists to give them opportunities and growth in their crafts.

“[We’re] always trying to put stories out there that have that initiative of supporting the next generation of creators in any way we can,” Salas said.