By Kristin Wilcha

Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH), London, is entering the music publishing realm with the launch of Leap Music, a joint venture between the agency and Richard Kirstein, who previously headed up the film, TV and media division at Zomba Music Publishers, London. The new arm will allow BBH to acquire publishing rights to songs commissioned from composers for use in spots produced for the agency’s clients, arrange licensing of existing tracks, and acquire rights for existing, unpublished songs by unsigned bands.

Frances Royle, head of TV at the agency, notes that launching Leap with Kirstein allows BBH to better service its clients. "In my role, I’m always looking at ways of working smarter," she relates. "One of the areas I was looking at was music—how we could get more variety in music, have different channels of music to choose from, but also work smarter from a financial point of view."

Enter Kirstein, who has a long track record of handling publishing and administration deals for music appearing in television and film, and has often wondered why there wasn’t a similar role in advertising. "Once I had an opportunity to meet Frances Royle, it became quickly apparent that she had ambitions for BBH to move into this space," he recalls. "However, I got a sense that it had to be done from the inside rather than the outside."

Following the meeting, Leap was launched in late April, and has already contributed tracks to commercials for Lynx deodorant, Gordon’s Gin, Warburtons Bread, and an Axe deodorant spray package out of the New York office of BBH. Kirstein has also provided music assistance to Leo Burnett, London, which has an ownership interest in BBH. For the latter, he has worked on ads for Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes and Fiat.

Kirstein’s job covers a wide variety of music needs and issues. He works with recording companies and music publishers to license existing master recordings, much as the agency did in the past. Additionally, he works with lawyers and managers on placing unpublished songs by unsigned artists in commercials produced for BBH’s clients. If those songs are picked up, BBH and Leap would acquire the rights to the song, although not the recording.

Kirstein says the agency will only buy rights to songs they plan to use in a spot that will air. In the same vein, he will be approaching some smaller, independent record labels, which have bands signed, but no publishing rights. In that case, artists would pitch songs to the agency, and if the track were used, publishing rights would be picked up. Kirstein also commissions music from composers—primarily from the film and television community—for use in commercials.

Both Kirstein and Royle acknowledge that the latter point does not sit well with more traditional commercial music production companies in the U.K. Royle explains that when an agency commissions a piece of music, neither the ad agency nor the client owns the rights to the song; rather, the music company holds onto the rights, and the agency essentially licenses it, paying additional fees if it’s used in spots for other markets, or as part of a campaign that covers a number of years.

Royle adds that BBH will work with those companies, if they agree to the new model. The fact that many don’t doesn’t concern her. "Because of Richard’s background and contacts, he’s been able to introduce us to lots of other different composers from the film and TV world who are willing to work this way because it’s the norm for them," she notes. "Ultimately, they want their music to be used for commercials. It’s work for them, and the composer isn’t losing anything from it at all. They are gaining from it because of our accurate accounting of royalties."

On Site

Kirstein is based in BBH’s London office, something he believes is essential to Leap’s success. "The nature of advertising is that things change so rapidly—compared to television or films—that you just couldn’t monitor it from an external company," he explains. "You need to be in the building to catch things as they happen, and adapt to them as they do. Having had this up and running for a few months now, I can’t see how it could be run externally with any success."

Kirstein works closely with creatives and producers at the shop on music issues. "I tend to get involved very early on," he relates. "[The creatives and I will] talk about the music that might be needed creatively, and I will then sit with the producer and discuss the rights that they need, the budget that they have. Then I brief that out to managers and lawyers. After they pitch titles that both adhere to the creative and business terms, [we] then start putting deal memos together. And if we get lucky, it works."

Prior to Leap’s inception, BBH had a strong track record of breaking new artists via ad campaigns. Songs that have appeared in spots for Levi’s, Rolling Rock and Lynx have all been top 10 hits in the U.K. Royle notes that dance act Room 5 had commercial success with a Lynx spot called "Pulse," directed by Blue Source—the directing team of Rob Leggatt and Leigh Marling of Blink, London—featuring the dance track "Make Luv," which was number one on the U.K. pop charts for several weeks. The client had approached the agency about creating a hit song around the ad campaign, and in fact, the track was found prior to the spot being shot. Lynx was involved in making a music video for "Make Luv," which was directed by Vito Rocco of Partizan, London.

Royle notes that with the addition of Leap to BBH, more projects along the same lines might come into play. "Clients are eager to have a more productive relationship with music," she says. "Music can help a brand, while a brand helps music."

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