music recognition in advertising

sgav

Does anyone have any views on whether well known songs are stronger in advertising than jingles?
ie: Phil Collins - 'In the air tonight' - Cadbury's Gorilla would it have a stronger impact if they created their own jingle for the advertisement?

MrLuke

Nope not for the Gorilla advert, he was playing the drums as per Phil Collins, similar 80's posturing etc. It made the ad.

puggles

people love to sing along to songs they know just look at how successful karaoke is, also the music should reflect brand values or the message of the ad, so in some cases a jingle simply cannot achieve this whereas in some cases they work (e.g calgon- there is no song out there that really captures just how long a washing machine lives because of calgon) but for other brands they need a trendy image and music choice can reflect this.
Even then in the case of visually impaired people, they can still connect with the ad if the music is distinguished enough. Music is a powerful tool though and people have very different tastes so you have to wonder if someone doesn't like that style of music or that singer could their opinion of the company or brand change just due to the dislike of that music.

lolly123

I suppose I think it depends on what you are trying to achieve with the ad. For some things, using a well-known song brings you back to a time, a place, an event in your life - and maybe that's what the advertiser wants to evoke. they want you to be in a particular mood when you think of their product, so that it might persuade you that you could recreate the feeling by spending your money on it. There's a feeling of recognition when you hear the music - it's familiar, making you associate emotions with the product. Then if you hear the music at another time, you might associate it with the ad.

On the other hand, what purpose does designing a new jingle serve? Well, thinking of well-known jingles, they're very simple, repetitive, almost nursery-rhyme like. They are easily picked up on and their success is often related to how well they lodge themselves in your memory...ever had that feeling of not being able to get one out of your head? They are distinctive - the same jingle will never be used for two different companies. They take on personalities of their own. I know one particular popular radio show recently had a segment where the hosts sang through a wide variety of listeners' favourite jingles. As such, they were probably even more familiar than any well-known songs from those times, as they get repeated so frequently. A jingle is therefore directly identifiable with a product while songs develop an emotional association.

tena patten

Good point, Susanne. To me, the power of music in advertising is how well the sound reinforces the brand. For example, a series of Levi ads ran a couple of years ago, using classic pop tunes. To me that meant a classic audio over a classic brand. Likewise, in the recent Ford Focus ad, the use of car parts to play the sound track was clever and innovative, and reinforced those brand values of Ford.

MojoRising

can anyone give me advice on how to get into writing jingles as in who do you contact? would i have i have to contact the numerous ad agencies out there and hope for the best?
any advice would be appreciated
thanks:cool:

TheCostumeShop.ie: Ronan

sgav wrote: »

Does anyone have any views on whether well known songs are stronger in advertising than jingles?
ie: Phil Collins - 'In the air tonight' - Cadbury's Gorilla would it have a stronger impact if they created their own jingle for the advertisement?

It really depends on what your target market is as to what audio you use, but Audio Branding is a key aspect branding. Taken from an article on audio branding:

"Audio Branding is a very unique and interesting execution of a brand strategy... AberCrombie &Fitch who’s stores are designed to exclude a large proportion of the population thereby prolonging their popularity as an “in” product with a very fickle age cohort.... Pumped out of every corner is a very loud vocal house music with a touch of electro thrown in. If you not in the cohort that hits the trendiest of clubs that plays this music then you will find this a very surreal and uncomfortable place to be in...

(Talking about Martin Lindstroms study:)
...In an experiment over a 2-week period, researchers played either accordion-heavy French music or a German brass band over the speakers of the wine section inside a supermarket. On French music days, 77% of consumers bought French wine, whereas on German music days, the vast majority of consumers picked up a German selection. Intriguingly, only one out of the 44 customers who agreed to answer a few questions at the checkout counter mentioned the music as among the reasons they bought the wine they did."

Jingles can be effecting if very catchy and repeated enough times to make their way into peoples heads, existing songs such as Phil Collins associate the feelings already present within an individual to the project. Hence Pepsi paying Michael Jackson to endorse their product many years back.