In the Nike spot “Swing,” out of Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore., the sound of a cello mirrors the inertia and kinetic energy that’s created as Tiger Woods mentally prepares to take a swing and then hits the ball.
“It’s almost a literal interpretation of Tiger Woods’ actions–it’s music as sound design and emotion instead of a soundtrack,” says Dave Gold, creative director at bicoastal EliasArts, which scored the spot. “The music was basically the whole idea. It was such a close marriage of what the music and visuals were trying to accomplish together, it couldn’t be an afterthought.”
The music not only reinforced the brilliance of Woods’ swing and his athletic ability, but also what the Nike brand is all about–bringing inspiration and innovation to all athletes. “If you have a body, you are an athlete,” Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman once said.
Using music that corresponds with a brand’s core values and provides an emotional takeaway is crucial nowadays as companies try to create a consistent and powerful message across traditional and emerging media outlets–the latter including the Web, handheld devices, cell phones and gaming fare.
“The average person now interacts with a lot of sources of branded information, and music is maybe the best way to bridge those sources,” says Martin Pazzani, CEO/president of EliasArts.
Jack Livesey of Duotone, New York, has witnessed a stronger emphasis on musical branding with the increase in advertising across multiple media. “More and more the briefs and treatments we’ve been receiving include needs for the music to translate into a ringtone, a three to five second branding signature for a 30-second spot, Internet applications and a hit single .”
“I think clients are realizing the importance of sound and branding,” adds Josh Rabinowitz, senior VP, director of music, at Grey Worldwide, New York. “There are so many different ways of reaching people in this modern, strategic marketing, integrated branding world. Sound cuts through the clutter and it stays with you. That’s really the most important thing.”
Rabinowitz put together and led a workshop about music in advertising and branding at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival this year entitled “Embracing the Process,” a first for the fest. Having a panel discussion devoted to music in branding at Cannes makes Pazzani optimistic about the future, but he also feels advertisers and agencies have only begun to scratch the surface of how to use music in a more powerful way. He notes that corporations spend millions of dollars creating and maintaining their visual equity while dedicating little effort to their audio identity. He says that while more than 90 percent of brands today have a detailed descriptive visual style guide, with legally protected logos and taglines, fewer than 10 percent of brands have anything close to a corresponding audio identity guide.
Pazzani cites McDonald’s as a smart marketer when it comes to creating an audio identity.
“I think we will see the resurgence of the jingle, and to me, the modern version of the jingle is, ‘ba da ba ba ba,'” he says, as he hums the McDonald’s ‘I’m lovin it’ jingle.
“Smart marketers like McDonald’s are seeing that repetition adds to recognition and brand identity. I think now there is a reluctance to use the same jingle or music, and I think it is a mistake.
He explains that EliasArts does work for McDonald’s and the spots reflect its sonic logo and jingle, but they are arranged differently to sound fresh and to fit the needs of the spot as well as being strategic and repetitive.
“People see it as either or. They see repeating the jingle or the music every time,” he says. “I think there is a place in the middle, and I think you could use the same jingle but continue to keep the music fresh at the same time.”
DON’T CALL IT A COMEBACK
Whether the jingle will make a true comeback remains to be seen and the topic inspires mixed reactions. As advertising is in some cases being transplanted to less visual mediums, most wouldn’t be surprised if it did re-emerge. But everyone agrees the modern jingle will not resemble the jingle of the past– “I am stuck on Band-Aid, ’cause Band-Aid’s stuck on me” or “Oh, I wish I were an Oscar Mayer wiener.”
“If you define the jingle as just singing about the product and saying the name of the product, I think now people have problems with that–although obviously it was very successful throughout history,” says Rabinowitz. “I think using a tagline that relates to the brand laterally in your lyric is going to be a way people will deal with the jingle.”
Tiffany Senft, executive producer of tonefarmer, New York, agrees. “We did a jingle for Carpet One. Their tagline is ‘the one store for your perfect floor.’ The melody had ‘you’re the one’ in it. I think that is what people are going to try and do with jingles now. They aren’t going to have such a direct O-S-CA-R kind of thing. It needs to be more subtle than that.”
Why? Because today’s market is more savvy. In fact, the level of musical sophistication of the audience has soared, observes Gregory Grene, music producer at Foote, Cone & Belding, New York. “You just can’t get away with, ‘la di da,’ buy my product. It’s wonderful.
“You want to show the client at their most branded highest end and part of that is ownable music. Part of ownable music is not saying that we are trying to sell something here–it’s not about the thing, its about the brand.
TO LICENSE OR NOT TO LICENSE? When it comes to finding music that speaks a brand’s message, the feeling in the industry is that licensed music will always be viable. “I think its split 50/50, It was never 50/50 before. It was more like 25/75. But the 25 percent that was licensed was so high profile that it was eclipsing a lot of other work out there,” says Marc Altshuler, managing partner, Human Worldwide, New York. “I think now there is a good even balance. It’s an appropriate balance.”
Grene believes licensed music may even be on the upsurge. In the last year or so, he said labels and publishers “are really recognizing us as collaborators rather than licensees and that is a huge dynamic shift.
“Because of this wild new world, we are able to work actively with artists that you would not imagine we would be able to work actively with. We’ve had major name artists come into the agency and give us private concerts because that is how eager they are to work with us.”
Grene explains that what’s driving the trend is music labels are in very serious trouble. Sales have dropped, they have lost the physical monopoly on the market (mp3s vs. CDs), and the Internet community has become a much more dominant force in driving taste as opposed to the controllable elements of radio and PR.
“So they have to figure out a different avenue; and when a cool track is placed on a commercial it gives the all-important exposure, and even, opposite to all prior perception, a certain credibility, if the spot is cool and has a cool concept,” Grene relates.
FCB recently worked on a Diet Coke spot. The agency received hundreds and hundreds of tracks, but the client chose a song by the BodyRockers submitted by Universal.
“Diet Coke has been a great client. They are really music driven and great collaborators. They really listen to the agency and are not afraid to be adventurous, exciting and interesting,” Grene says.
Speaking of collaboration, he also says the label was beyond proactive when it came to making things work, which was exciting. The commercial came out three weeks before the release of the album, which featured a sticker on it saying, “as featured in the Diet Coke commercial.” Consumers could also go to the Diet Coke Web site, listen to the spot and download the track.
“To me that is the essence of where things are going. It was really interesting to me,” Grene says. “Consumers’ taste in music is vastly important–something that is really valuable to leverage in a way that it has never been before.”
But many in the industry caution not to have a knee jerk reaction and go with a famous song just because it’s popular.
“A lot of the licensed tracks are not really helping the commercial or helping the branding,” Senft says. “People just put a cool track on top of a commercial. Sometimes the commercial doesn’t even live up to the potential of the music. It’s a complete disconnect.”
Instead, people need to try and find a unique distinctive song that is “a diamond in the rough,” says Rabinowitz. “It becomes brand ownable and works really successfully with their message. You find classic rock songs on a commercial that don’t relate to the concept. It’s borrowing the cachet, but the cachet is not related to the concept.”
One way to get music that fits the picture is to have the band the client likes create an original song for a particular spot, a trend Brian Yessian, executive creative director of Yessian Music, bicoastal and Detroit, is seeing more and more of. The company started a New York-based licensing division called Dragon Licks in March.
“We have been having a lot of our bands creating original songs for commercials,” says Yessian. “Clients like their style but want something more catered to the spot. So we’re actually having our bands write demos like our composers write demos. A lot of times composers will collaborate with the bands and write full demos that are songlike. That’s another alternative and sometimes a more cost effective way to get a song in the commercial if you are not looking for a huge star name to go along with something.”
But this trend extends beyond licensed music. There is a demand for original songs with lyrics direct from music production houses as well, according to Anthony Vanger, creative director/owner Antmusic NY. He says it is because licensed music has become quite expensive and agencies with creative music producers are looking to get the same kind of product from more affordable sources. And he points out that the technology and songwriting capabilities of the composers/singers have improved, making it possible for a music house composer in his/her little studio to make album quality music.
Vanger also believes that agencies are trying to give their ads a more human feel, something that doesn’t feel contrived or too thought out. “Although licensing music from Franz Ferdinand or James Blunt gives you instant recognition, the first thing that comes to people’s minds is, ‘I wonder how much they paid for that?’ Vanger says.
“So perhaps an original piece of music that isn’t from the latest flavor of the moment band/artist gives the brand a chance to sound like it isn’t trying to sell itself too hard by jumping on the bandwagon of someone else’s success. It is just using a piece of music it likes and it hopes that the customer likes it too.”
CREATIVE FREEDOM Yessian says another trend is the creation of more music, sound design and effects for applications besides commercials like interactive Web sites, Webisodes and video games. “Brands are actually inserting their mark into these things that are not so in your face as far as saying, ‘This is the brand and here is the commercial for something.’ They are creating games around things so it gets you interested in a specific idea.”
Yessian worked on a Web site for McDonald’s called bboybattle.com. Its an online breakdancing video game that allows visitors to challenge their friends. Yessian created all the audio and music for the site. There’s a box in the upper right-hand corner that says McDonald’s is open late. When users click on it and enter their zip code it shows where the closest McDonald’s is so they can meet up with friends after they play them online.
“The site spread like wildfire through word of mouth and guerrilla marketing. It was originally only supposed to be up for a few months and it got so many hits that they had to put more space on the site to meet the demand, and now they decided to keep it up for a year because its been so popular,” says Yessian.
Yessian also worked on a series of Webisodes for Jeep called the Mudds (www.wearethemudds.com), which follow the Mudd family on adventures. “It never screams out Jeep. It just shows how an adventurous family happens to have Jeep as their mode of transportation,” says Yessian.
“The cool thing from our point of view with music is that we have a lot more creative freedom in terms of what we do for these things. Clients are much more open, because it is not the same type of exposure with the FCC regulations in terms of what you can put on TV commercial. I think it has opened up the creative palette a little more, you can say. It’s kind of fun. It gives us an opportunity to do some interesting things that we normally would not be able to do.”
In addition to getting the creative juices flowing, emerging media options are pushing everyone involved in music production to put their best instrument forward.
“There’s a benefit to having access to bands that are emerging in every country around the world through digital access. That is, the bar has been risen on music,” says Altshuler. “We no longer get, ‘We want it to be a really sappy intro, and then we want there to be a moment of pain and then we want it to resolve in this happy place for a Tylenol commercial. You just don’t get that. Tylenol is coming in with Phillip Glass tracks saying, ‘We want it to be as good as this.’
“Arguably he is one of the most beautiful orchestrated pianists in the world. So the bar keeps getting pushed up and up and up, and we are being asked to write hits.”
