Oink Ink Radio, a national radio-advertising agency with offices in New York City and Los Angeles, has completed its most recent radio effort for long-time client Staples, Inc., the world’s largest office supply retail store chain. To date, Oink Ink has created and produced four musical-based radio ads** which “demonstrate” the ease of shopping at Staples.
“We’d been creating and producing radio for Staples for about a year before they invited us to present concepts for an umbrella campaign” says Oink Ink partner/creative director, Jim Price. “They wanted something different, more of a ‘big idea'”
Each spot begins with an everyday, familiar situation: A daughter’s need for back-to-school clothing, an office running low on paper, etc. That typical problem becomes cause for celebration as the characters suddenly launch into uplifting song with overly happy singing. The announcers pays off each song, “Back to School shopping isn’t fun…” or “Overspending for paper is nothing to sing about…” He then directs the listener to Staples, where the experience is “easy.”
For the radio campaign, Staples chose Oink Ink because “it is one of the few (agencies) that specifically does radio. They live and breathe it,” said Teresa Herd of Staples. “The relationship has been fantastic. “They are super receptive, not just creatively, but also to changes that need to be made for business reasons.”
“Rarely is a client so open to truly pushing the boundaries,” says Price. “But Teresa and (Staples’) Noel Nowicki were clear: ‘Show us something special’. That’s what we set out to do.”
To execute the music, Oink Ink called on Siblings Music which occupies space at the radio company’s recording facility at 38 Greene in New York’s Soho. Siblings’ Mario Grigorov was charged with creating and arranging the songs that Oink’s radio writers crafted. One such piece even required the hiring of a barbershop quartet.
“I felt quite excited to work on Staples because rarely do you get a project where you have to create music that is humorous, fun and also subtle,” said Grigorov. “That presents an interesting challenge for composers.”
Oink Ink tapped the talents of (Oink-owned) 38 Greene Studios‘ Casey Chester to help with the collaboration, and also to handle all recording and mixing of the spots.
“The best part of the process,” according to Chester, “was bringing together so much talent and so many resources under one roof: Jim, Dan (Price, Oink Ink partner), Mario, Oink’s writers… As a result of being so close in proximity, the three companies have a tight working relationship that leads to a great creative flow.”
“We really got to have fun with this” said Chester, “They sound great on the air and break though all the clutter out there.”
**To listen to two of the Staples spots, please go to www.38greene.com and click on the “Client Log-In” Enter: Job ID: StaplesRadio. No password is required.
