To be clear, there’s no replacing commercial music/sound houses with advertising and marketing sensibilities from which emanate original music and sound design for spots and other forms of advertiser content.
Yet at the same time there’s no denying that the landscape of music for advertising is changing as mainstream artists and new performing talent enter the mix, and as the web proves to be a viable medium in which to connect consumers with music, bands and brands.
On the latter score, consider Dig Out Your Soul in the Streets, billed as being the first HD debut of a documentary on MySpace Music. The documentary from BBH New York chronicles the agency’s atypical grass-roots campaign that helped to recently launch the new Oasis album/CD.
Meanwhile also underscoring the changing nature of the biz is Y&R TeamDetroit’s campaign for the Lincoln MKS, with spots on the Grammy Awards telecast driving viewers to music videos on a special website (www.cbs.com/lincoln).
SHOOT takes a look at these two projects which reflect new opportunities emerging in advertising as it relates to music and vice versa.
“Project Rising Stars” “As recently as three or four years ago, this wouldn’t have been possible,” said Greg Braun, executive creative director, Y&R TeamDetroit, regarding his agency’s Grammy campaign for the Lincoln MKS. During the Grammy telecast on CBS earlier this month (2/8), Lincoln MKS ran five trailer spots, each with excerpts from a corresponding music video featuring music from some of the country’s top emerging music artists/performers. The spots in turn drove consumers to a website where they could see the full videos, and access a link to learn about the performers as well as the directors behind the clips.
Y&R TeamDetroit connected with DJ and Grammy-nominated producer and music supervisor Gary Calamar, ultimately selecting 10 songs from new music artists. In turn the agency and Calamar collaborated with Filmaka, the online community of filmmakers, to develop a music video-based competition whereby talented young directors could craft clips based on one of the songs, the only creative prerequisite being that the MKS be incorporated into the final video.
More than 300 entries were submitted by hopeful directors and writers looking to showcase their creative prowess in videos featuring the all new Lincoln MKS. The quality of the work was so good that Lincoln decided to go with the five 30-second trailers for the top original music videos during the Grammy telecast rather than traditional vehicle ads.
“What we’ve learned from research is that the Lincoln MKS is attracting a new group of buyers that are tough to reach with traditional advertising. They’re into technology, film and a wide array of music,” said Thomais Zaremba, who is Lincoln Mercury communications manager. “This opportunity is a great way to create fresh content and put Lincoln in front of a new audience.”
In effect “Project Rising Stars” was designed to showcase new talent, both in front of the camera and behind it.
Visitors to the CBS/Lincoln website can currently view not only the five winning videos but five additional finalist clips as well.
The five winning clips were:
• “The Race” featuring The Heavenly States (from label Blue Buddha Entertainment), which was directed by Varda Hardy and written by Daric Ingrami and Flavio Stroppini.
• The Afternoons’ “Say Yes” (Natural Energy Labs) directed and written by Andrea Giacomini.
• The Jazzual Suspects’ “Night Life” (Om Records) directed and written by Noah Harald.
• Greyboy’s (Ubiquity Records) “Love” (featuring Nino Moschella) directed and written by Patricio Ginelsa.
• And Olivia Broadfield’s “Indescribable” (pigFACTORYUSA) directed and written by Kurt Nishimura (who’s on the roster of Portland, Ore.-based production house Sandymontana).
“These weren’t commercials at all, they had a much lighter voice,” said Braun. “We didn’t approach the trailers or the videos like they were commercials. It was all about reaching a Grammy audience that was already in a musical state of mind.
“Lincoln had the chance to contribute to that musical culture, with the emerging directors, musicians and artists fully credited on air and online. We built this campaign specifically for the Grammy Awards. My branded content group came to me with the seed of an idea and within a month we built this initiative. We had to with the Grammy Awards fast approaching. We moved faster on this production than ever, faster than any project I’ve been associated with during my entire career. We had a lot of interest from musicians and performers, and this was a big step towards music becoming an even more important part of the Lincoln voice.”
Braun added that Y&R TeamDetroit had a comfort level with Filmaka based on the positive experience of colleague shop JWT TeamDetroit with its short film competition designed to introduce the 2010 Ford Mustang (SHOOT, 10/10/08 and 12/5/08).
“We knew going in that Filmaka was a great platform for our campaign, enabling us to reach a talented worldwide community of resourceful filmmakers,” related Braun.
“Our initiative was much different than what Filmaka did for Mustang but there was a level of trust based on what we saw from that [JWT TeamDetroit] project. For our campaign, we simply asked members of the Filmaka community to develop a creative treatment for a music video based on the song that best spoke to them.”
The weeding out process was painstaking. For one, Y&R TeamDetroit and Calamar had to winnow down 50 original tracks to the final 10 songs for the competition.
And then there was the paring down of the Filmaka directors and writers based on the treatments they submitted for consideration.
“In one day, we had between fifteen and twenty director conference calls so we could gain better insights into their ideas,” said Braun. “We wanted to listen to them articulate what was in their treatments,”
These exchanges in turn eventually enabled Y&R TeamDetroit to narrow the field of entrants down to the 10 finalist filmmakers.
Ten finalists were given $7,500 each and two weeks to turn their ideas into completed music videos. Five of the clips were selected to be promoted on the Grammy telecast.
“Each video has a distinct voice,” assessed Braun. “We didn’t want five flavors of chocolate.
“We wanted distinctly different visions and filmic voices. ‘Love’ couldn’t be more different from ‘The Race,’ for example. When I saw the first finished entry, ‘Indescribable,’ I was relieved to see it had a distinct voice but also was artful, with great and sophisticated production value. It confirmed our faith in the level of emerging talent in the Filmaka community.”
Braun added that these filmmakers, the musicians and performers are simpatico with the Lincoln tagline which is “Reach higher.”
“This project is the living, breathing embodiment of reaching higher, of people extending themselves to create these videos. And it’s work like this that helps to make the Lincoln brand culturally relevant.”
Among the Y&R TeamDetroit contributors to the campaign were Braun; Carl Spresser, senior VP/director of integrated marketing and branded entertainment; senior VPs/creative directors Chris Halas and Ron Harper; and VP/art director Carlos Speziali.
Oasis The aforementioned Dig Out Your Soul in the Streets, an 18-minute documentary which captures the events leading up to the launch of the band Oasis’ latest album, recently premiered on MySpace Music.
Directed by The Malloys (Brendan and Emmett) of bicoastal/international HSI Productions for agency BBH New York, the documentary was first alluded to in SHOOT’s Music & Sound Series feature last November (11/7/08), which covered the marketing campaign that helped build a buzz as well as sales for the Oasis CD Dig Out Your Soul.
BBH’s promotional approach was not to be protective of the CD’s music but rather to share it with New York street musicians. These artisans then performed their interpretations of the pieces one day (9/12/08) in Manhattan subways and public venues (Times Square, Astor Place)–prior to the actual release of the Oasis album containing those songs.
So the music got its first exposure in the streets, with a heads-up for Oasis fans posted on the band’s website. People came to subways and other venues to hear what Oasis had in store–and other folks who just happened to be going about their daily commute got an earful as well.
A placard at each venue read, “You are the first to hear this Oasis song.”
The event got loads of coverage in both the consumer and trade press, and generated genuine grass-roots word of mouth and interest in Oasis’ latest work.
When the Warner Records’ album launched, it immediately hit the number three slot on the U.S. version of iTunes and number 11 on Amazon.
Now the recently released documentary chronicles the entire process, including Oasis band members meeting with the street musicians at a studio venue and introducing them to the album’s music.
Oasis members, including singer Liam Gallagher, seemed genuinely moved by the street players’ renditions of the songs.
The documentary gives us a sense of the passion and talent of these street performers, including Nicole Holz, Michael Shulman, Dominic del Principe, Thoth, Jason Stuart, Dagmar, Suki Rae, Theo Eastwind, Next Tribe and Majestic K. Funk.
And The Malloys captured the subway performances themselves. Five cameras were deployed for the film, which also showed the performers genuinely connecting with enthusiastic crowds. The music seemed to strike a responsive chord.
Dig Out Your Soul in the Streets is believed to be the first high definition debut of a documentary in the history of MySpace Music.
The BBH New York creative ensemble on the documentary included its creators Pelle and Calle Sjonell, chief creative officer Kevin Roddy, head of broadcast Lisa Setten and senior producer Julian Katz.
Rebecca Skinner executive produced for HSI Productions with Dawn Rose serving as producer. DP was Sam Levy. Editor was Tim Wheeler.
The Oasis initiative also benefited BBH tourism client NYC & Co. which was able to provide New York City visitors and locals with a memorable experience. The CD launch was of special interest to one sizable visitor segment in particular, Europeans., who are big followers of Oasis (the album broke in the #1 slot in the U.K. and Italy).
Furthermore, in terms of promoting New York City, the project was a major success. Traffic on the NYC & Co. website (nycvisit.com)–which carried footage of the subway music debut performances–increased 15 percent on the day of the event.
Regarding the overall campaign, BBH’s Pelle Sjonell observed, “We went with a nontraditional way of doing things in a traditional business. The lesson learned from both the advertising and marketing perspectives is that sometimes you have to change the rules.–perhaps even more so today with a changing, constantly evolving media landscape.
