Brand Theft Audio -- Breaking the Silence

Brand Theft Audio--Breaking the Silence
 
Bang Music's Lyle Greenfield on the power of sound to
launch messages that 'explode in our consciousness.'
 

Bang Music's Lyle Greenfield.

I love being engaged in conversations about trends in the business- especially over cocktails, when the insights are keenest and all participants geniuses.  Clink!  "The traditional agency model is finished, dead!"  "The director-roster production company model is toast." "Production companies can be agencies today!"  "Nobody's watching television-everybody's on their computers & mobiles."
 
It's so true.  No it's not, it's a crock.  (Now, that's one way to be "always right.")
 
Advances in technology and the proliferation of entertainment-emitting devices and media choices cannot replace ideas.  They actually require more ideas-content, if you will-all the time.  That's why the so-called "traditional" agency can never be replaced.  (Though it can certainly become run down, exhausted and out of touch.)  Advertisers and brands need ideas-coherent, compelling ideas that go to the core of a brand's selling proposition and then explode into the minds and hearts of the potential users (be they viewers, listeners, etc.). 
 
Creative people-writers and art directors-generate ideas with information and insights gleaned from planners, researchers, anecdotal observation and their own bizarrely obsessive mental struggles.  (Isn't this fun?  Let's pretend we're sitting by a crackling fire with our snifters!)  Ideas do not come from Flames, Avids, 10 million-clip libraries or Google. 
 
This doesn't mean that editors, directors, Flame throwers-and yes, composers- don't come up with brilliant ideas.  They're just, generally speaking, not marketing folks.  But it's nice to hug them anyway.
 
If you look at the numbers for the most popular TV shows here in the US, you cannot conclude that "nobody's watching."  People are watching, whether it's dancing with idiots, the Super Bowl, the American Music Awards, the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, even Jersey Shore… they're watching, by the tens of millions.  And most of them are sitting through the commercials- right where advertisers want them.
 
And all those web-surfers?  They're cursing at the pop-ups and closing windows like crazy!  (Sorry, I made that up. Just transferring my passive-aggressive habits to the mindset of the masses.)
 
If an agency can not only generate great ideas, but demonstrate how those ideas can be rendered relevant and useful in the expanding universe of media alternatives, better still.  Remember, a thing is only "viral" if people catch it, then give it to more people, until a serious outbreak has occurred.  I love what Old Spice did for itself, moving from paid broadcast spots to YouTube with perfect pitch.  (Even if there's doubt about the sales results.)  Axe accomplished something similar with a breathtakingly funny 'infomercial' titled "Clean Your Balls." What does this tell us? It's the idea, stupid!
 
And what about music-the thing I'm actually supposed to know something about?  You can have anything you want!  Millions of songs, millions of tracks, just sign in, create a password and get started!  It's so easy!
 
Okay, silence your handhelds for a moment, folks.  That ain't quite the picture.  Or the sound.  It's back to the "ideas" thing again, and, in this case, how the music / sound can be intrinsic to the idea, even push it forward.  Music isn't carpeting.  It's something that should be speaking to the message and emotion of the moving images.  When an advertiser licenses a song from, say, an indie band, I feel happy for the band.  Look at the exposure! 
 
But most of the time, I call it 'Brand Theft Audio.'  Because, really, whose 'voice' is being heard?  I love the "Grab Some Buds" commercial that's been running lately.  Beautifully shot.  It's a great line of copy.  But avert your gaze from the screen and what have you got?  Nothing.  You have no idea who or what the commercial is for.  All that money in production, all that money in paid media, and you hear nothing of Budweiser. 

Now, if your response to that is 'Hey, shut up, it's an image spot and we're not trying to hit people over the head,' then I'll say, "Cool.  Whatever."  I mean, it's a beautiful spot.  But "This Bud's For You" used to tell you something, even with just the four notes.  Who's going to make the sound for "Grab Some Buds?"

Try this idea on:  Every TV commercial is a radio commercial.  No matter how big your bigass HD flatscreen is, there's only one way the images on it are going to reach your optic nerve-you have to be staring at it.  But no matter where you are in the room, or down the hall, you can still hear everything-that's the magic of your tympanic membrane and auditory nerve.  So shouldn't someone who's paying a ton of money to reach your senses and sensibilities be thinking about those sound waves?  Hell yes.  I said, "HELL EFFING YES!"  (Sorry.)

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"Music isn't carpeting.  It's something that should be speaking
to the message and emotion of the moving images." 

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About seven years ago, McDonald's rolled out their "I'm Lovin' It" jingle.  It was written originally by two composers in Germany for a local campaign.  The rest is advertising history.  Literally hundreds of commercials later, those five famous notes are still at the end of every spot, in virtually every country.  I don't care where you are or what you're doing, when you hear those notes, you think 'McDonald's.'  Bang created music for one of their spots for TBWA Paris recently…and you know how it ends. (It's titled "Green," and you can check it out here.)
 
You can hear when it's Intel.  You can hear when it's T-Mobile.  You can hear "When It's Real" (Wendy's).  These are examples of great Sonic Brand Identity.  Now, tell me what Coors sounds like, or Miller…or Ford...or Chevy.  Collectively these brands spend in excess of $1.5 billion in the US annually.  I think it should be as important to hear what they're saying as it is to see it.  The more clutter there is in our entertainment universe, the more urgent that becomes. 
 
Early detection can prevent Brand Theft Audio - that should be music to a brand manager's ears. 
 
Lyle Greenfield is the founder and President of Bang Music.  He is a former agency writer and creative director (JWT, Saatchi), a two-time president of the Association of Music Producers (AMP), will serve as Music Jury President for the 2011 London International Awards.

Published 3 February, 2011