Every week we post one our favourite uses of music in a commercial.
Now this is one opera where I actually understand the words!
Posts Tagged ‘music in advertising’
A Note from the Chief Noisemaker: Every once in a while I try to bring in a guest writer to the Sound Bytes blog. This is my first forray into what I hope to become a regular piece. If you’d like to contribute to the blog please contact us we’d love to hear from you.
Advertising though music is not a new concept, it has always been there, in the form of jingles and background music. What is new or gaining acceptance and popularity is the use of corporate advertising to further a bands musical career.
If you are old enough to remember the 80′ you will not have many recollections of major artists endorsing any products. My first encounter was seeing Michael Jackson in a Pepsi commercial and it was a big deal. Granted, he was already an established artist and received a ridiculous amount of money, it was generally considered to be selling out to the corporations. Over time the “selling out” point of view diminished and the benefits to bands began to be seen.
In September 2000 I enrolled at a recording school in Vancouver Canada. During that year I observed a recording session at the school by a former graduate named Jeff Dawson where he was recording our computer tech/drummer for a project of his. About 5 years later I was listening to the radio and the DJ announces the song as the new hit song from a Coca-Cola commercial. I had never seen this commercial or heard the song but it was somehow very familiar. The song was Bad Day by Daniel Powter, produced by Jeff Dawson. I later found out that the ad was aired in France where the song had gained popularity. It was one of the biggest songs that year and the experience was closely followed by all of us at the school. We later had Jeff in to give a talk to our students about the whole experience but the main thing to remember is that up until the use of the song in the ad, they were all just regular guys and musicians working every angle that they could to get their music out there.
What did the ad do for them?
The people involved were all talented musicians and the songs were good but having talent and a good song unfortunately isn’t enough, you need exposure. In Jeff Dawson’s case the song was complete and floating around for years. It took the exposure that Coca-Cola gave it to reach the masses and when it did it exploded!
Now it seems to be common place to have an initial exposure to a band or an artist through advertising, just look at Apple and their iTunes commercials. Not to say that you need to have a major corporation behind you in order to reach stardom but you do need exposure and teaming your art together with a product isn’t a bad avenue to pursue and at the very least, you’ll get paid for your music.
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Every week I’ll post a sticky song. What’s a sticky song? It’s a piece of music we just can get out of our head. You’ve been warned.
Every once in a while we find brands who knock our audio branding socks off. This is one of those brands.
A while back Coca-Cola put together a wonderful video to celebrate their 125th anniversary. In doing this they also created some great music to boot. Have a listen you should recognize a familiar five note melody.
If it ain’t broke don’t fix it
On Friday I made a post in our sticky songs section. The post used one of Canada’s favorite songs, the original theme for Hockey Night in Canada.
A few years ago the broadcasting company, CBC, decided not to renew the license for the theme song. To make sure they had a new song that Canadians liked they crowdsourced for a new song by using a competition and a large cash prize.
Crowdsourcing for an answer
Crowdsourcing for the new song worked well, however, the fans of HNIC were still attached to the original song. This is a problem for HNIC because they have lost an identity. Neither the competition or the new song helped the ratings either. In fact, HNIC has not seen good ratings until this year’s Stanley Cup playoffs.
Could you imagine Intel without its signature bong?
Many brands struggle with this issue because they choose not to make sound a property of the brand. I’ve also discussed a similar problem in a blog post called losing your brand voice.
The solution for brands is to purchase the rights to the music they choose to have in their promotions. You might be thinking that the cost of this is would be sky high but if your brand is willing to put out $75,000 for visual identity protecting your sound properties should be just as important – particularly in an age of digital media.
Love to hear your thoughts. Please post them below.
This might seem a bit odd considering TreBrand specializes in audio branding, but silence can be vital to a successful TV commercial. However, I wouldn’t advise this for radio – you might get someone fired.
Below are two commercials that have used silence quite well.
MADD Canada
Although not complete silence the dramatic point is made with only ambient sounds.
International Level Crossing Awareness Day (ILCAD)
A similar style commercial, but a more dramatic use of silence.
You can think of silence in commercials like white space in print advertising – it’s a palette cleanser for the ears. I suggest that you use silence to emphasize something, a call to action maybe, but also for dramatic effect like the videos above.
Have you experimented with silence in your ads? Let me know your experience in the comments section.
Every week we’ll post a jingle or song that we can’t get out of our head.
Thanks to eHarmaony and the girl who loves cats this week’s choice is cat themed.
Meow Mix
The classic 1990 version of the Purina Meow Mix commercial
Well, it seems that the US government has listened to consumers.
Just recently, according to Yahoo! News the US senate has passed a bill that will require broadcasters to keep their T.V. commercials at a respectable level.
Now, you’re wondering why commercials are so loud in the first place?
Yesterday, I posted this video on my Facebook page. I was surprised at the impact it had on people. Sure, it’s a neat concept and well executed but that’s not what got people so excited – it was the music.
Read on »
The last few weeks I’m sure you have noticed the barrage of Christmas commercials on the TV and radio. It’s definitely a big time of year if you are in business and that has a lot of owners on edge about the final push of year.
What are the keys to creating a brand that people believe in? A brand that people will buy from? And how do you do it at a time like Christmas where time is of the essence?