These days it seems like most commercials have some kind of licensed track in them. And while music house compositions are still a strong part of the mix, agency producers believe that the interest in the licensing of songs–in many cases from unknown indie bands–will be a growth area this year. Along with the growth in the number of tracks being used is the number of blogs that have popped up where people are trying to track down the music from the commercials and figure out just who these artists are.
SHOOT’s Winter Top 10 Spot Tracks Chart
“People are obsessing about the music, speculating who did it,” says Jeff Koz, creative director at HUM Music and Sound Design in Santa Monica, Calif., which has a licensing division. He cited the buzz created on the blog www.fatmixx.com. for the rerecord of the “Sir Duke” song by Stevie Wonder that HUM did for a Lee jeans spot last year and the music written and performed by artist Christopher Faizi for a Visa Business Card spot last year that HUM also worked on.
Koz strongly believes that the consumer interest is evidence of just how important music initiatives created by ad agencies are and how untapped and unleveraged the potential of music still is.
Of the many things that can be done with music, he says, one of the simplest is creating a full-length song in addition to the track for the spot so the client can make it downloadable on its website.
For instance, the “Sir Duke” music track is downloadable from the Lee website. But he admits that only begins to scratch the surface of the potential that music holds.
“The point is the there is a lot of untapped potential for a lot of marketers and brands. I think hopefully it will emerge more as a partnership with agencies to help them help their clients leverage their advertising,” he says.
The creation of original music for advertising projects figures to loom large as well. In a job that is currently in the works, HUM is helping one of its clients leverage the power of music with the execution of a CD to be made available at retail that consists of all original songs created for characters used in the advertising and marketing of the client.
“It’s bringing the characters to life via music and really extending their reach and what they do and utilizing the power of music by creating these humorous songs,” said Koz, who at press time was not sure if the CDs were to be sold or given away at retail.
Gabe McDonough of DDB Chicago, who took on the recently created music producer role at the agency, also sees more original songs on the horizon.
“I think the next step for me is getting original music that was commissioned specifically by the brand and in many cases using some of the players that were in indie bands in the ’90s or even now,” he says, adding that his background includes working at a label in the indie world.
“You will find creating standalone original music, whether its connected to a spot or not, is the new frontier,” McDonough says. “Music is just such a powerful medium. We talk about branded content. I hold music so highly I wouldn’t want to just refer to it as content but if you classify it as content, it’s such a concentrated expression of human emotion. It’s so easily transferred as a small electronic file at this point. I see music opening new doors that that video and larger files can fill in.”
In March of 2005, Leo Burnett USA, Chicago, launched the Artist in Residence Program (AIP) to create working relationships between guest artists and the agency to explore musical solutions and opportunities for marketers. As part of each program, guest artists like Cheap Trick and Good Charlotte work with Leo Burnett creatives and producers to discuss the possibility of creating original or licensing music for current and future advertising projects.
Recently the Rice Krispies team at Leo Burnett felt that a partnership with a children’s musician would hit all the right cylinders for the brand strategy,” according to Ira Antelis, director of music, Leo Burnett. Working with the AIR program they brought in the Grammy-nominated performer Ralph Covert, the creator of Ralph’s World, and invited employees and their kids, along with our clients, to see an internal concert. The relationship established through AIR resulted in a successful partnership with Covert that includes a sponsorship for his House of Blues Tour, featuring special guests Snap, Crackle and Pop.
The artist wrote an original composition entitled “Box of Fun,” for Rice Krispies that can be downloaded from the Ralph’s World portion of the Rice Krispies’ website, www.childhoodiscalling.com, launched last month. Visitors will also find the lyrics to the song and a video of the making of “Box of Fun.”
Endless Possibilities
Eric Korte, music producer at Saatchi and Saatchi, New York, sees possibilities in cross promotion like that between artists like Ralph Covert and brands like Kellogg’s based on the success of a recent JCPenney spot the agency did for Valentine’s Day. The spot featured music from a band called Persephone’s Bees.
“JCPenney had a really good response to it. It had a lot of consumers call in wanting to know what the song is and who the artist is and find out where they can track down the song. I think a band like Persephone’s Bees would be interested in cross promotion, where they help promote JCPenney and JCPenney would help them promote their band,” says Korte. “But from my point of view those things are still in an exploratory mode. We are just starting to get our feet wet. But I do anticipate that is the way it’s going.”
The Right Stuff
Korte says even bigger mainstream advertisers are understanding that the right music can promote good consumer relations. “They are recognizing that it’s not all about just playing a song that consumers already know they like the minute they hear it. It’s the excitement of something new.
“From my point of view, that was harder a year or two ago. Dealing with marketing people at big companies–if they were going to license a song they really wanted that recognizability factor. It’s good because so many songs out there have already been licensed. It’s getting harder and harder to find something. So it they are open to more obscure music, it opens up a whole world of possibilities.”
If there is a downside to the trend, it is that the agency producer has to provide so many more choices because there is so much music out there. “People are so opinionated. Music is very subjective, very personal. So we have to provide a lot of options. That is the frustrating part, coming up with 50 possible tracks for everyone to pick from,” Korte says.
In terms of the creation of original music–akin to the aforementioned “Box of Fun” project for Leo Burnett –Korte notes Saatchi has had a couple of offers from artists to create songs specifically for a brand and sees that as an interesting opportunity.
“We approached an artist about a song and the artist actually said I would prefer not to use that song in an ad but I would love to write something original. We ultimately didn’t take him up on the offer. But I think it is interesting to note those kind of offers are happening.
“Our concern is that the motivation isn’t going to be the same and he’s going to be trying to figure out what people in advertising want rather than just write an inspired piece of music. I think part of the reason at least creatively people in advertising are responding so positively to all this available licensing is it was music that was written in many cases for a different motivational purpose. It wasn’t written as an assignment. It was written out of pure inspiration.”
And an inspired piece of music can make all the difference. Case in point is Kleenex’s “Let it Out” campaign out of JWT New York. The creatives wanted to put together a three-minute video for the client and the theme was “let it out”. “One of the creatives searched iTunes for songs with the title “Let it Out” and they found an indie band in Missouri called Starrfadu. They made the soundtrack to the video and then the client fell in love with it,” says John Keaney, JWTwo executive producer, director of music. The agency negotiated with the band and they put the song in the commercials and it can be heard at the www.letitout.com website, where there is also a link to the band’s MySpace page. “Our client is ecstatic with the campaign and how it all worked out,” says Keaney.
SHOOT’s Winter Top 10 Spot Tracks Chart
