Dan Pritikin
Creative Director / Partner
SOUTH Music & Sound Design

1) The biggest challenge for us (and anyone in a creative field) is probably to stay emotionally invested in a project, even when the best creative ideas have been discarded in favor of something inferior. In music, this tends to happen when a client gets a little wrapped up in a temp track, but truthfully, I think many people would agree that the best version(s) almost never ship no matter what the circumstance. Most recently, we worked on a project where we did some amazing covers of a classic tune. The agency was absolutely in love with what we did, but unfortunately the client got hung up on an earlier idea that was pretty mediocre. At the end of the day, or job is to solve problems and get our clients something that their clients are willing to put on the air. And in this instance we had to help console the agency (and ourselves) for the death of a much more exciting idea, while still working hard to finish the job and please the brand. We’re a small company, and everyone touches everything. It was especially gratifying when our team finally delivered the final approved music and were greeted with loads of gratitude from the agency. It made the pain of seeing a better idea die a little easier to take, and it is in these types of situations that I am most proud of our people and the work we do.

2) I am most proud of the work we did for McDonald’s Big Mac campaign, “There’s A Big Mac For That.” When I started in this industry, the idea of a “Jingle” was something people often joked about as being dated or lame. But today perception has changed, and one of the hardest things to pull off is to write an original song that has the desired brand message and itself is also an authentic “hit.” That was pretty much the crux of our brief. It was a highly competitive job with a very tight timeline, and the agency would later tell us that once they heard our track for the first time, there was absolutely no question it was to be “the track” for the whole campaign. McDonald’s had just shifted their business to a new agency and there was a lot riding on this initial work. It really couldn’t have gone smoother. We took an active roll in casting the rapper, recording him at our studio the weekend before the shoot, and the response from everyone was tremendous. This was the one rare time where the best version did make it to air. (Well almost. We wrote some additional verses that were pretty amazing, which couldn’t fit into a :30)

3) Our role as a company evolves from job to job (not just year to year). No project is the same, and as a production partner we have to adapt accordingly. Sometimes we’re almost completely responsible for the musical concept. Other times, we’re simply asked to execute a fully fleshed out and tested idea. We are asked to be writers, curators, performers, talent scouts, etc..All that has changed over the years is our breadth of experience in each one of these roles. And it is that unpredictability that can be both the most exciting and most stressful part of the gig.

4) There are some musical trends that are emerging that are pretty fun and exciting. Now that hip-hop has existed for a few more decades, it has cemented its place in pop music. And therefore, advertising music has followed suit. 15 years ago, hip-hop was usually reserved for certain types of brands/markets or used as a comedy device. Hip-hop has pretty much replaced Rock and Roll in pop culture, and that is extremely obvious when you look at advertising. That’s only gonna continue.

5) There are a lot of creative things happening with sound and VR/AR. Our agency and brand partners are only just beginning to scratch the surface on what is possible, and while we’ve dabbled a bit in some of it, we’re expecting more of that to come in the future.

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