PART 2 of 2
In Part 1 we explored why finding the perfect music is essential for the effectiveness of your video. In Part 2 we’ll look at some great examples and hear from some of the leading experts on why music choice is so important for your brand.
This is how you do it
My all-time favorite TV commercial is Volkswagen’s “Milky Way” from Arnold Worldwide, featuring the song “Pink Moon” by Nick Drake.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-kqUkZnDcM
This is all feel. All emotion. All visual storytelling. No dialog or VO.
But this spot would only be half as effective (and affective) if it weren’t for the music choice.
Though we see a few shots of the moon, a literal tie-in with the song was not the point. More importantly, the quiet and laid-back mood of the music is the perfect background for this magical summer night’s dream: a top down drive under a starry sky. The lyric “Pink Moon” is just the icing on the cake.
Alan Pafenbach, EVP, Group Creative Director and mastermind behind the iconic VW spots from the 90s and 2000s told me during a recent conversation that when he and his team at Arnold Worldwide pitched the VW business, his vision for the VW brand was to be authentic and to move its advertising toward pop culture. Remodeling VW as a lifestyle brand meant using music that resonated with the target audience. Their original pitch video featured “Rock and Roll Star” by Oasis, although the feuding Oasis brothers refused to license the song for the actual campaign launch.
Though some people refer to the above mentioned VW spot as “Pink Moon”, the actual title is “Milky Way” because the original song choice was “Milky Way” by The Church. But Alan and his team decided that the lyrics to that song were a little too dark, so “Pink Moon” was chosen instead. The popularity of the spot actually relaunched Nick Drake’s career and it was named one of the 10 best car commercials in the past 25 years by the OneClub.
Another great example is VW’s “Sunday Afternoon” from the same “Drivers Wanted” era. A commercial for the US with a German song from 1981 called “Da Da Da” by the group Trio (they also released an English version of the song but Arnold cleverly chose the German version to make people scratch their head even more).
Weird, monotone, funny (both music and video), the commercial tells the story of two guys wasting the day randomly driving around. The VO at the end explains it: “The German engineered Volkswagen Golf. It fits your life. Or your complete lack thereof.” Aha!
A German song for a German company touting its German engineering. Check. A weird and monotonous song playing over what would otherwise be pretty boring scenes of the boring life of two guys. Check. But it all comes together and it works perfectly. And you won’t easily forget that one.
Alan remembers, “We had no idea when we were shooting this commercial whether it was even going to work. It was just so weird. But once we dropped in the music it came to life and became the second most popular VW spot we ever did.”
It’s not an easy process
My friend Josh Reynolds, Executive Producer on some of the most iconic commercials from the last 20 years—and a great musician himself—reminded me that music is a primal means of communication. From ancient beats to today’s modern music, it conveys a message in itself. We all have memories of the past that are linked to specific songs and certain emotions.
Josh has lots of great stories of long searches for the perfect music for some of the commercials he’s produced, chasing down very expensive rights to popular music pieces, talking Pete Townsend of The Who into re-recording parts of “Baba O’Riley” for the HP spot “Constant Change” or convincing Ray Davies of The Kinks to let them use the song “Picture Book”.
As you can see, it can be a hard and long process and may require a lot of negotiating if you’re using a popular song and need to track down and deal with the actual owners of the rights. For many artists, licensing their music for commercial purposes used to be considered selling out. Fortunately, many have warmed to the idea of additional revenue given that the record industry doesn’t pay what it used to.
My own process as a filmmaker is to do a very rough assembly of shots and then start looking for music. I will easily go through a hundred songs and find them all to be complete shit for the particular project—until I find that one perfect piece. And suddenly, it all works and the edit just flows. It’s a gut feeling. It just has to feel right.
You don’t have to be a musician to do this but it does help to be aware of different music genres and how tempo, instrumentation and arrangement can affect emotions.
Music and your brand
A 3 minute interview video of your sales team won’t benefit as much from the perfect piece of music as a brand video will. And much of what agencies create these days is content, i.e. high volume, lower budget video that is often viewed without sound on social media.
But I challenge you to make the effort to find the right background music that complements the mood of the video, enhances the emotions or even becomes part of the story. Also use more than one piece of music if you have a change in pace, a change in topic, energy or a different location. Make it interesting!
Find music that fits the mood of the scene rather than finding a song with lyrics that remotely fit your message. It doesn’t have to be a popular song. Yes, you may get instant attention but it may be for the wrong reasons and it may be detrimental if it’s not the right choice.
Even better, make music selection part of your brand strategy!
You talk about tone of voice, personality and attitude but why not define the role music as part of your brand?
DO…
describe the bigger picture and how music will fit and enhance the brand. In our earlier VW example, music was one element to help VW become an authentic lifestyle brand. That should be stated in the brand strategy.
DON’T…
limit your creative team by dictating a style of music! Saying something in your brand strategy like “Our brand will only feature R&B songs from the 90s” will not win you any points with the creative team (or free drinks at Chez Jay’s. Plus they’ll start calling you “the Account guy”, which is never good). And DON’T pick music just because it works with the demographics of your target audience.
Why this is important
When it comes to branding, we all strive to make a lasting emotional connection with the audience. The brain science shows us that music activates the entire limbic system, which is involved in the processing of emotions and in controlling memory. What better way to create a visceral reaction and increasing your brand recall and linkage than to find the perfect harmony between visuals and music?
Some great examples to watch:
VW “Bubble Boy” – Arnold Worldwide
HP “Picturebook” – Goodby, Silverstein
HP “Constant Change” – Goodby, Silverstein
