pell-patch

Sour Patch Kids (the actual candy) bought a house in Brooklyn where bands can stay

rapper Pell staying at Brooklyn Patch (via)
Brooklyn Patch

Finding a place to crash around NYC gigs has long been a financial hurdle for bands. Those who don’t mind making branded content for a candymaker can now stay at a four-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bath house in Cobble Hill called “Brooklyn Patch” which is owned by… the makers of Sour Patch Kids. This is not a joke. From Ad Age: “Our target consumer is teenagers,” tells Farrah Bezner, the marketing director at Mondelēz International, the multinational confectionery, food and beverage conglomerate that make Sour Patch Kids (and a lot of other stuff) and used to be called Kraft. More:

Nevertheless, there is a quid pro quo associated with staying at the Patch. Artists who stay at the house are expected to create some content that Sour Patch Kids can share across a number of digital channels, which include a Brooklyn Patch-branded Tumblr as well as the brand’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts. Ms. Bezner said it is also exploring the possibility of adding further amplification partners.

How much content depends on the duration of an artist’s stay. “We have kind of a sliding scale,” Ms. Bezner said.

An artist who stays in the house for a day or so will only be obligated to create a small number of social-media posts. In the event that an artist stays longer, the output is expected to be more substantial, though the type of content is up to the artist. It doesn’t necessarily even need to be musical.

“This is not about us creating a Sour Patch Kids record,” she said.

“How much content depends on the duration of an artist’s stay.”… eerily similar to the plot of last night’s episode of The Walking Dead.

You can scroll through the Tumblr tag to see who has stayed there already, and Ad Age reports that upcoming Brooklyn Patch guests include Deer Tick (during their Brooklyn Bowl holiday residency) and Magic Man. UPDATE: Ad Age also says Tame Impala is staying there, but the band has reached out to tell us this is not true.

It should be no surprise that an Austin Patch (no relation to AOL’s failed local blog venture) will be up and running just in time for SXSW.