ITV has given praise to the launch of the Shazam-enabled advertising Smartphone app during last Saturday’s final of Britains Got Talent which was viewed by more than 14m people and has been hailed by critics as a major milestone for interactive adverts in the UK. It has been estimated 50,000 viewers used the Shazam Smartphone app during the Pepsi MAX and the Cadbury ad breaks within just 60 seconds of airtime.
Viewers of the show who used the Shazam app were given the opportunity by The Cadbury’s campaign to enter competitions winning them prizes such as a London 2012 Olympic Ceremony package, as part of its wider Unwrap Gold campaign and participate in the conversation on social networks. The idea and creative was devised by Drum, with the deal brokered by PHD.
The Pepsi MAX ‘Crowd Surfing’ ad, which features global superstars Drogba, Lampard and Agüero, also gave the option to use Shazam as a platform to strengthen association by giving the opportunity to enter competitions to win prizes, such as tickets for popular summer music festivals. Viewers were given a chance to unlock free screen savers and a link to iTunes to purchase the Calvin Harris track ‘Let’s Go’ feat Ne-Yo, the ads official soundtrack.
It is easy to believe that both parties will benefit from this app, as it will overall deepen the engagement for the artist and brand. From a record label’s perspective, this could potentially help promote an artist in a more cost effective and easier way, as the Shazam app user will now not need to spend time researching their new favourite track. From a brand’s perspective, the Shazam app provides an opportunity to build a stronger connection with bands and also potentially gives them a bargaining tool for licensing the music.
All three comments below sum up how the deal benefits each party:
Andrew Fisher, Shazam CEO: “We make it simple for brands to amplify their message and deepen engagement by turning 30 seconds of television into 3 minutes of interaction. During the last year, we have successfully worked with over one hundred of the world’s leading brands on Shazam for TV™ custom integrations in the US, Australia and continental Europe and we are excited to now bring this service to the UK in partnership with ITV.”
Simon Daglish, Group Commercial Sales Director: “We’re thrilled that the first UK Shazam-enabled ads achieved this level of interaction in Saturday’s amazing Britain’s Got Talent final – proving there is a real appetite from consumers to go deeper with quality content including spot advertising.”
Tiffany Welsh, Pepsi MAX UK Digital Manager commented: “Pepsi MAX consumers are always at the forefront of digital trends so we’re delighted to be one of the first brands to offer this innovative and interactive second-screen experience. We hope through Shazam, our fans will enjoy engaging with the brand in a new and exciting way.”
It seems the legend of ‘Mad Men’ extends beyond making women swoon and men idolise them (and swoon). The ‘Mad Men’ music supervisors have also managed to clear The Beatles track “Tomorrow Never Knows” for use on one of their episodes.
To some this may not sound like a big deal, but The Beatles notoriously deny almost every request they get in an effort to maintain their legacy. When was the last time you heard a Beatles track on the TV (outside of advertising their own music)?
According to the New York Times Article – ‘Mad Men’ paid around $250,000 for this use, a big fee in the television world. The advertising world is another story, where you could conceivably add another zero on that figure for a worldwide advertising campaign (if they say yes of course). That’s not to say you can’t record your own version of a Beatles track for an ad campaign. Gary Barlow recorded a version of “Here Comes The Sun” for an M&S commercial below. As this is not the Beatles own recording, they distance themselves from the brand – although Barlow’s version is so close to the original it’s hard not to imagine The Beatles.
Whatever their reasons, a Beatles recording is like gold dust in the sync world so pay attention when it comes on in ‘Mad Men’, as it may be the only time you hear “Tomorrow Never Knows” on a TV programme.
As many of you are aware, John Peel’s record collection went online this week in the form of thespace.org funded by the Arts Council. The site is a great look into not only Peel’s record collection, but also the story of his life in music… and of course cataloguing tens of thousands of records.
However one piece of recent news seems to have passed by the website developers for the space.org. Spotify’s embedded play button is nowhere to be found on the new site, which you’d think should be fully up to date with music tech and the web. So below is a sample from John Peel’s catalogue, accompanied by the Spotify button so you never have to leave this site… phew.
Thanks to the new Spotify plugin we’ll also be plying you with monthly playlists of our top tracks that month through our Jukebox blog.
Believe it or not, Seung Mo Park created this piece with layers of wire mesh carefully trimmed to create this beautiful image when stacked on top of each other. See exactly how he does it below. And for more examples of his work, click here.
Licensing music is rarely a simple procedure, as every writer must give his or her permission for a song to be used before anything goes on air. Now most of us know this, and you’d certainly expect brands and public facing organisations to know this to avoid any PR disasters. Thanks to soundlounge, most people are indeed aware, but there are a few out there that march blindly into a PR minefield when they use music without getting clearance. These people, believe it or not, are politicians.
Now it’s M83’s turn to get the hump. This is thanks to French right wing party Le Front National using “Midnight City” in a video created by the president of the Front National’s youth electoral support committee. Anthony Gonzalez of M83 was quoted saying:
“I am appalled at their lack of artistic respect. At the very least, artists should be asked if they agree… or disagree… with being associated with a certain image or brand. Even the most commerce-minded advertising agencies and brands do so.”
To read the full article and watch a clip of the video, click HERE.
SoundCloud is fast becoming the place to be bar none for bands and musicians who want to promote their work. Their innovative waveform player has spawned a stream (no pun intended) of copycats, the comment system encourages a highly collaborative creative community and their home page pitch urges the non-musician to get involved and share the sounds of their lives.
It’s precisely this involvement that the increasingly intriguing indie-dance-pop outfit, Clock Opera, have taken advantage of for their recent project. They asked fans to upload found sounds to the band’s SoundCloud page so that the band could pick their favourites and create a track purely from fan submitted audio. The band’s tendency to genre hop in their music meant that they had a natural leaning towards musical collage of this sort and the result speaks for itself. It oozes character from every carefully crafted orifice but this is not only a shining example of an exciting band willing to experiment musically and socially but also a vibrant reflection of the collaborative possibilities offered by SoundCloud (and it can be listened to over on the soundlounge Jukebox).
If the good folk at SoundCloud continue to innovate in a way that helps artists connect and collaborate with fans then they could create a music platform that’s far more sustainable than other more out-dated (and yet constantly updated) platforms. The future is bright and it may indeed be orange.
The BBC recently ran a story about Earworms – songs that get stuck in your head and are somehow impossible to dislodge. The article was based on research carried-out by Dr Vicky Williamson, a music psychologist at Goldsmiths College London. soundlounge first spoke with Vicky and her team about this back in 2010. So what conclusions did we come to…?
Well whoever invented the jingle was either a marketing prodigy or an evil genius. What better way to get a brand stuck in the consumer’s head than with a catchy earworm? Even a random telephone number can get lodged between your ears when it’s set to the right melody.
So what’s the magic formula? What is it that makes certain songs pop into our heads and repeat like a broken record? Brands would kill for a guaranteed method of writing songs that consistently stick in the consumer’s ear. But the underlying traits of “sticky” songs are still a bit of a mystery, even to experienced songwriters. And very little scientific research has addressed this strange phenomenon of earworms – until now.
Vicky Williamson of Goldsmiths College is leading a research team to find out everything they can about earworms. They’re working on a massive survey, which will hopefully provide some valuable insights for composers, bands, record labels, and advertisers who want everyone humming their music. soundlounge had an interesting meeting with Vicky, and we learned a little more about their project. Their study looks into earworms from three main angles:
1. The Listener – Are musicians more likely to be “infected” by earworms? Do personality types matter? What about age? Gender? If the Goldsmiths team finds that a certain demographic is either more susceptible to earworms or immune to them, perhaps advertisers will need to start factoring it into their sound branding strategy.
2. The Context – What triggers an earworm episode? Does the listener’s mood matter? Do certain activities or environments spark earworms more than others? Vicky and her team are surveying people to see what they’re doing and how they’re feeling when they experience earworms. Advertisers will also be interested to find out if certain situations (ex: sitting in front of a TV screen) are effective for inducing earworms.
3. The Song – Which ingredients of a song make it catchy? The melody? The rhythm? The chord progression? The orchestration? The production? While there’s probably no single magic recipe for a catchy earworm, the Goldsmiths team has been working with software that can analyze songs and predict their catchiness. Although it’s still a work in progress, their early results are promising. As CNN reported,
“Their findings so far suggest that stickiness results from a particular balance of certain pitch intervals and particular rhythmic structures. The formula can currently predict whether a tune is likely to be an earworm with approximately 75 percent success, said Goldsmiths Music, Mind and Brain Co-Director Daniel Müllensiefen.” (http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/10/20/earworms.music/)
soundlounge will be keeping a close eye on the earworm research and will keep you updated with any new findings. In the meantime, you can help out with the Goldsmiths project simply by visiting the Earwormery and completing the online questionnaire.
Matt Lee, Music Supervisor
Charlie McCarron, Sound Consultant
soundlounge
On this, our latest Inspired!, we thought we’d feature some stunning digital animation and visual effects that we’ve stumbled upon recently. Digital animation has clearly come of age. Enjoy…
Above is an incredible animated short film set in a post-apocalyptic universe. Created by Oddball Animation this is a teaser trailer for a full length sci-fi adventure.
This was a winner at SLAMDANCE 2012 of the Special Jury Prize for Experimental Short and was directed by Andrew Thomas Huang.If the slow build of the first few minutes doesn’t grab you, go to about 7 mins in for some mind-boggling effects!
Written, Animated and Directed by Aaron Bradbury at Luniere, Twinklebox is a short film about the mechanics and music of time.
The French blogger, Christophe Courtois, recently compiled a montage of movie posters, that highlights the lack of imagination in the marketing departments of most of the major film studios – quite scary actually.
1. Loner Viewed From Behind
2. The Staring Eye
3. Running Through A Tilted Street…In Blue
4. The Between-The-Legs Shot
5. The Black & White Action Movie Poster…With A Bit Of Flames Thrown In For Good Measure
It’s award ceremony season, and we’re right in the thick of it, having already had the Golden Globes, Grammy’s, and Brits. This week the focus will be on the Oscars (although don’t forget Music + Sound awards on Thursday). We are a team of film lovers at soundounge, and as Music Supervisors are always interested in film scores.
This year, while John Williams has two nominations (Adventures Of Tintin & Warhorse), we’re most excited about The Artist score written by Ludovic Bource. I wouldn’t blame you for not recognizing this name, especially before this year, as he’s relatively unknown as a composer. His routes are close to our hearts as he started his career writing music for commercials. His mini break came in 1999 when he wrote the score for short film Mes Amis directed by The Artist’s director Michel Hazanavicius. A few short films later and Bource is now facing an Oscer Nomination, and deservedly so. The Artists relies so heavily on the music to tell the story that the score was more vital than ever to the visuals.
When asked, Bource explains he looked back to the masters of the earliest films for inspiration: “before this process of creation, I watched with Michel the classic American films like ‘Sunrise’. The light is very magical. The supposition of images to other images and the tracks are just wonderful”.
Bource has come onto the film score scene with such an impressive talent that we can’t think of a more fitting composer to win Best Score at the Oscars, and we eagerly wait the next big film that features his music. It surely can’t be long.
Sadly there is no Oscar for best Music Supervisor, or best compilation soundtrack, an art that also makes a huge difference to films. Drive for example, would have had a whole different feel if it weren’t for the great song choices by Eric Craig. Luckily on Thursday the Music + Sound awards commence at KOKO, and sponsors we’ll be reporting on the winners where the Music Supervisor will most definitely be credited.
