Great musical commercials

One of my original posts on this blog was about using music to help create a memorable commercial. Well lots of ads have used this technique since I wrote about it, and its not like my post was anything earth shattering, and some of my recent favourites are these:

Honda Accord 2010 Crosstour commercial


Nissan Titan



Alexander Keith's Beer Birthday commercial


A little different, but a movie trailer (technically still an ad) for Dear John


The musical editing provides the tone and feel for these commercials and draws you into them deeper as a result. They are all really well done and the musical selection is incredible. It still impresses me each time I hear a song in an ad that i've never heard and how powerful it can be to grab the attention of the viewer.

Have you seen any ad's like this lately that utilize a good background song?

Helloooo.....are you listening?

The music industry is in a tough spot right now.....well part of it is. The record companies. With peer-to-peer networks providing the world with a free way to trade music and grab the latest hot single their profits are in peril. So instead of complaining and suing 1 person for every 100,000 that download music "illegally" they should look for solutions and maybe change the way they do business.

With the new generation the CD and traditional way of releasing music is going the way of the 8-track and cassette tape. Maybe there is a better way to do it.

Bands still need the music labels to help them promote their songs/albums and get it played on radio stations, etc. There will always be a need for this, only a small handful of bands have the power to not require a label at all, ie. Radiohead, Coldplay, etc.

So why don't the music labels move away from the CD system and directly into digital version only. Forget the now standard approach of release an album once every year or two years and move to a contract that encourages bands to release a new single track every 3 months or 4 months. The label could actually invest in a sales oriented website of their own so people could buy the music directly from them and other online stores such as iTunes. This lowers the labels overhead and should help to increase profits, plus when you are just buying a single song it seems like so much less. $1 for that new single I love instead of $10-15 for the single and a bunch of filler.

Listen to your customers music labels and adapt.

Viral Via Music

One of the most underrated aspects for videos is the musical selection. You find that perfect song and combine it with amazing production and creative and you have an instant hit, heck the production/creative don't even have to be that good. Take the Free Hug's Campaign for example. It's also win/win for the musician(s) because they get exposure to new audiences from their song being forwarded as the video goes viral (I mean come on, who doesn't type 3 lyrics from a song in google and hit search everyday).

I have recently seen the roll out of a 100% New Zealand ad campaign and they found the perfect music to accompany a wonderful commercial. I would never have gone to the website or thought twice about the commercial if they hadn't used this song, which I couldn't get out of my head (and i've even traveled to New Zealand and know how amazing it is). The use of the song to connect with the viewers helps carry them to the magical place that is exhibited throughout the ad.

If you are trying to create a viral video, finding a great song that is not necessarily well known yet, is a great way to go viral. Or, find something that matches the tone, feel, and rhythm of the rest of the video and works perfectly in harmony with it. And if you are a band trying to make it, I suggest you have a creative person in your group that can make a cool video to attach your music to. Then watch the sleazy record label guys come running.

Here are some other videos that employed this technique:

Apple does this better than anyone: Did you know who Yael Naim was or Feist before these ads?

Telus has caught the buzz recently, but use well established bands like White Snake

Heineken, i've never heard of Chris Knox but i'm sure he got a lot more hits after people tracked him down from this ad.

This is a commercial for Swedish Berries, I was actually trying to track down this song for a long time.....until I learned it was a jingle just for the commercial. Well lo and behold there was so much interest for it, they turned it into an entire song!