Technology brands + music celebrities = match made in heaven?

There’s been a spate of high-profile celebrity endorsements in the tech space, with big brands gaining creative authenticity and millennial relevance—fast—through their relationships with even bigger musical stars.

Intel and will.i.am

Polaroid and Lady Gaga

HP and Dr. Dre

The naive purist in me wonders at the artists’ motivations (yeah, I guess we all have mortgages)…

But from a marketing POV it makes total sense that tech brands would keep going to music to create instant interest and understanding, particularly among those of us who relate to technology as a means to an end… as a way to enjoy music more or have an entirely new music experience… but who aren’t geeky enough to pay attention to tech trends.

Even the most brilliant tech brands need to humanize and explain what they do—yes, even Apple had to resort to a great big “endorsement”-style ad to help explain something called iTunes.

So with what seems like a perpetual revolution in how consumers can use technology—if only they could keep up with all of it—it only seems likely that there will be more tech brand celebrity endorsements to come.

Just remember, even for the most brilliant tech brands, successful celebrity endorsements have to pass the smell test of authenticity and this-isn’t-totally-random-ness… some of the biggest flops have failed on those grounds precisely.