The World Cup has been with us for over a week now but it’s not just football matches that have kept us music supervisors entertained. There has also been a battle of the brands and with it a deluge of high budget football-themed adverts. The best and biggest of the bunch is of the course Nike’s “Write the Future” ad:

But what about the other adverts? We’ve been looking at a couple of match ups on the run-up to the World Cup.

Coke vs. Pepsi

Both brands start this match with a sense of fun but you get the feeling Coke have more conviction from the off with a strong use of actual match footage. Pepsi must be disappointed with themselves after trying to no avail to get their players to act…no doubt we’ll see plenty more acting from the players during the games! Coke then double their efforts with an online campaign to inspire viewers to upload their own celebrations and its 1-0 to Coke.

Never ones to be defeated easily Pepsi attempt to strike back with a heavily African influenced track, but it seems the pace is all wrong as Coke counter with their own African influenced track that is far more evocative and memorable, 2-0 Coke. The exposure of “Wavin’ Flag” means we’re all singing along with Coke’s ad, whilst Pepsi’s remains distinctly forgettable.

Pepsi continues to battle on and has one final chance with their use of a very strong cast. The big name players such as Henry and Drogba never fail to grab our attention (2-1), although they lack the flashes of skill we’ve all come to eagerly anticipate from the Nike ads. While the familiar faces draw us in, the music certainly doesn’t…an unfortunate end result for Pepsi.

Final Score:  Coke: 2, Pepsi: 1

Matt Lee, Music Supervisor
soundlounge

Let’s start with Coke. These guys have asked the public to send in recordings of themselves mimicking the sound of opening, pouring and enjoying a bottle of the famous fizzy drink, with the aim of later broadcasting these on TV. A forward-thinking and innovative approach – well-placed in a world where social media and user-generated content rule the roost. But what’s the long-term value to Coke of converting this one-off, tactical execution into something which has much more important ramifications? It’s not the first time Coke has used the ’sound of enjoyment’ concept, so lots of points for consistency. Coca-Cola has a long tradition of using music in advertising and the idea that the sound of the brand could come directly from the product itself is an unusual one. But does the fizz of a can opening and liquid being poured onto ice really capture the whole sound of the brand? Is it enough to differentiate it from other beverages out there and, more significantly, does is resonate on a meaningful level with Coke’s target consumers?
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