Developing a real Bond with music fans

Bonds underwear in Australia is promoting the brand’s Original Hipster underwear – and its ‘hipster’ credentials – via an all girl rock group performing in their underwear. Simple, yet effective, this ad is part of the brand’s 10 year underwear celebration and marks yet another iconic commercial for the brand. The song featured in the ad – which Bonds are giving away as a free download via a dedicated micro site – is ‘Standing On The Corner’ by Melbourne band Super Wild Horses.

This is notably not the first time this route has been used by an underwear brand. The Vassarette US underwear company created an  all female rock group (The Vassarettes) who performed live in their underwear last year.

Bonds have utilised music across a range of commercials over the years, from underwear clad models rollerblading to the sounds of US indie group The Phenomenal Handclap Band; girls attacked by bees to the electro beat of Goldfrapp; a Patty Cake musical experience comprised purely from the sounds of skin on skin; right through to their `Evolution of Dance’ inspired mash up.

Bonds has ultimately positioned its commercials somewhere between Gap and Apple in terms of use of colour and music. Playful, simple, stylish  – much like the products it is selling. As far as underwear goes though music is used on face value here –and this is something that crosses across the whole underwear category. Whether it’s Victoria’s Secret in the US which uses music and its numerous brand ambassadors (Black Eyed Peas, Seal, etc) primarily as background entertainment, or UK lingerie brand Agent Provocateur, which occasionally veers down an album release route. Music is used to good affect, but often has a ‘listen but don’t touch’ application.

Bonds other ads, such as the ones below for its Hoodies and Tees, are evident of a swing towards a more narrative led focus.  There is a slight nod to a more emotive storyline, something that is generally absent from underwear ads. What you see is generally what you get from underwear commercials.  The Bonds Hipsters campaign could have possibly taken the desire to be in a band that bit further, perhaps with some form of creative application online enabling users to get hand on with music,  or perhaps a deeper alignment promoting the development of upcoming girl bands.

As underwear commercials are clearly telling us all to consider what’s underneath our clothes, perhaps its time for underwear ads to listen to what might be underneath the music sync.

Scared of beards

Fosters has launched a quirky new series of ads promoting its Carlton Draught beer. The ‘Any Excuse’ campaign sees a bizarre folk music trio (with creative facial hair) performing musical renditions to various male body parts in order to sing the beer’s praises. Each ad sees the heavily knitted warblers composing odes about the various different parts of a man’s anatomy and how they tell him he needs a cold Carlton Draft.

The seven ads Tingle, Elbow, Leg, Weenis, Wart, Nose, and Bump are currently doing the rounds online and are reminiscent of Reeves and Mortimer’s Mulligan and O’Hare. Apparently Fosters put this promotion on the back burner for a while after completion as they considered whether or not to use it. The commercials were stripped form TV schedules just before launch late last month, amid concerns the campaign could offend some viewers. The campaign will now run online to gauge viral effect and public reception before roiling out to a more mainstream TV and cinema audience.

Carlton’s ‘Big Ad‘ viral from 2006 won 30 awards globally and another recent campaign ‘Flash beer‘ saw a man reenacting a scene from Flashdance. ”I believe our target market will go looking for Carlton Draught material online. And online, it’s unable to offend anyone,” said Vincent Ruiu, group marketing manager at Carlton Brands.

As with any slightly off the wall ad campaign there is a very fine line between hilarious and repulsive. Get it right and you’ve got a viral hit. Get it wrong and you’ve also got a viral hit – but for all the wrong reasons. There is also the knock on effect of how your product is associated with the comedy you are providing.  There needs to be a perceived distance between what is awkward or unappealing about your ad. It needs to be funny ‘over there’ and not directly related to the experience of the product.

What does your website sound like?

We stumbled on an interesting new site last week entitled Code Organ, which lets you ‘play’ websites. You simply drop in a URL and it generates music from the HTML code.

The results can them be shared socially (via Twitter/Facebook).

We decided to test run a few well known brand home-pages through Code Organ to reveal the sonic branding hidden deep beneath the surface.

Here our some of our favourites:

Pepsi UK’s etheral chimes

Nokia’s hip hop twin peaks soundtrack

Ford’s metronome-backed scaling chords, Miami Vice style

IBM’s electro calypso

Blackberry’s machine gun/fireworks spouting  church organ

Levi’s Bossa Nova bassline tune up

Snacking on music

“Ever wished that your favourite track would come out of your favourite chips?” asks The Smith’s Snackfood Company – part of PepsiCo International – in Australia. The snack brand has teamed up with Sony Music Entertainment Australia on a new large-scale on-pack download giveaway. Those purchasing packets of Smith’s Chips, Doritos, Twisties, Cheetos and Burger Rings will be able to go to Bandit.fm – the Australian music destination that houses 1M MP3 tracks – to download a free song. In addition to the download giveaway the brand is also giving away 200 full Band Hero Kits via an online competition.  Entry to the competition requires users to collect specially marked tokens from Smith’s 20’s Multipack or 6’s Multipacks.  The campaign is live now and runs until June.

Aside from the freebies and competitions visitors to the Smith’s website can also play around with Chip Sync, a web app which enables them to create music of their own.  Users simply select their choice of chip packet – Doritos representing Mexican samba, Smith’s snacks opting for Rock and Twisties some form of hip hop/rock crossover.  The player then lets users turn various instruments on and off and edit in lyrics of their choosing (certain words result in ‘bleeps’ – we know, we tested it). The results can then be shared via Facebook.

The title of the campaign ‘Track A Pack ‘ obviously plays on the ‘Track Pack’ moniker Guitar Hero utilises for additional downloadable content and seems like a good win for those who eat a lot of crisps down under. However, the argument always levelled against on-pack downloads is that in a world where most songs are freely available online anyway – albeit illegally – will a purchaser actually bother to download just one track from a new destination site? Amid a credit crunch freebies should be welcomed, however historically redemption on these types of offers are usually low.

However, Bandit.fm isn’t just a download destination. The site enables users to create playlists, stream audio and video plus gain access to a wealth of information on artists and music genres. Most importantly Bandit.fm has social functionality built in – letting users set up their own music channels to showcase their interests.

The Chip Sync app – although fairly minimal in its execution – is the more interesting side of the campaign and plays on social sharing.  Built into the Chip Sync part of the Bandit site is an email a friend mechanic (up to three) and integration into Facebook, which could provide increased traction for the brand.

Increasingly personalisation and bespoke experiences are becoming the driving force behind digital music campaigns in the snack food market – and Smith’s generosity on the download site could possibly have benefited from a more tailored music experience for its users.

A 2007 offering from Doritos saw Missy Elliot providing an online mash- up experience and the creation of an exclusive track for the brand. Tim McGraw also embarked on a different kind of on-pack promo in 2008 when he bundled a behind-the-scenes DVD from his tour with 500,000 limited edition McGraw tins of Spicy Jalapeño Fritos.

In addition a recent Brazilian campaign for Doritos offered up added innovation value by supplying on-pack Augmented Reality characters – which could be brought to life by placing a code in front of a webcam. These creatures – which were all individual – could then be utilised within Orkut, Brazil’s most popular social network. The Augmented Reality concept was also utilised by the brand in the US to put live bands such as Big Boi and Blink 182, literally, into the palms of music fans last year via an interactive on-pack code.

So what for the future of the on-pack download. Well a couple of start-ups (both in the US and Australia)  are attempting to roll out a new model with brands ‘gifting’ downloads which could hold the answer.  Both Free All Music (US) and Guvera (Australia) are beta testing free downland ventures whereby visitors select the particular brand that they would like to have purchase a song on their behalf. Once selected a short pre-roll ad runs and the download is theirs to keep. There is also social functionality built in to the Free All Music model whereby those who opt in will have their choices circulated via social media – for all to see.  Although this is currently a digital only concept , and somewhat removed from the on-pack premise, it does highlight a new trend for consumers pulling  content from brands as opposed to having tracks pushed via packaging. The addition Social Media traction offered also sees brands turning somewhat detached ‘downnload and go’ consumers into mini brand ambassadors.

Franz in high places

French fashion house Dior have recruited UK indie band Franz Ferdinand to record the track ‘Eyes of Mars’ for the latest Dior Lady Rouge bag campaign. The song features vocals from French actress Marion Cotillard – winner of an oscar for her role as Edith Piaf in the film ‘La Vie En Rose’ – who portrays Lady Rouge, a character who moves from working woman to nightclub singer in New York.

The campaign, with its distinctive red palette, is the second part in an ongoing series by Dior – the first being Lady Noire, which consisted of a Film Noire styled movie. Lady Blue, set in Shanghai, is coming soon. An instrumental version of the Franz Ferdinand track is also available, plus a ‘Making Of’ video offering a behind the scenes look at the Annie Leibovitz photo shoot that comprises the print promotion. The content can also be shared via Twitter, Facebook and a Lady Rouge widget via the Lady Dior website.

The endorsement by Franz Ferdinand is interesting, particularly given the bands recent Twitter outburst against endorsements. Lead singer Alex Kapranos offered up some choice words aimed squarely at his US record label after they decided to use one of his tracks as musical accompaniment on a McDonald’s website. The song was subsequently removed and appeared to be an error on the labels’ part (not McDonald’s, who had used it in good faith). Interestingly, Franz Ferdinand drummer Paul Thomson kept a diary of tastiest burgers he ate while on tour in America last year on the band’s official website – so this is a partnership that could have worked, had the band been open to the idea.

The Dior campaign itself is much more a cinematic fit, with the band composing more of a movie sound track than a mere jingle for the luxury brand. It’s a striking example of the quality of music that can be utilised by aligning directly with a particular act – and in this case one that was not an obvious choice. In many ways the inclusion of Franz Ferdinand and Marion Cotillard can be seen as a bid to appeal to aspirational luxury shoppers who, amid a new found frugality, have all but disappeared during the recession. Luxury is aspirational and brands such as Dior are aiming to stimulate a renewed interest for high end goods. Music – which can be fine-tuned to appeal to both McDonald’s $1 menu buyers and Dior’s most devoted fans  – has the ability to be molded to fit the full spectrum of brand needs.

Luxury jewellery brand Cartier promoted its Love – By Cartier collection in 2008 with a major music focus on a global scale. Prada too embarked on a similar campaign to Dior’s when it teamed with Antony and the Johnsons on a specially composed track to tie in with the launch of its Fall/Winter ‘08 women’s wear collection.

A first for music

Coca-Cola China has launched a new online campaign fronted by Taiwanese boy band Fahrenheit in order to celebrate Chinese New Year.  The promotion – which features the track ‘The First Taste of Happiness’ – invites users to customize their own festive Coke bottles and participate in an online UGC element which will see their video efforts placed into a collective ad alongside the band. The digital side of the ad campaign depicts Coke drinkers passing their bottles along from one video clip to the next to form a visual chain effect. The ad – which seems to have a prominent Apple placement at various points – is reminiscent of a recent online video created by the Japanese band, Sour. The campaign has partnered with online portals such as QQ.com, Tudou.com, and Youku.com and Coke’s own website to promote the initiative which follows on from last year’s ‘First Taste of the Year’ positioning.

Fahrenheit – who release their fourth album in August 2010 – have been a massive draw in southeast Asia over the last few years. They are also no strangers to brand endorsements, having being Ambassadors for Canon’s full range of digital cameras in 2008.  However, it doesn’t stop there. They have also appeared in ads for Volvo, Man Simple face wash, 7-Eleven, TaiShan iced drinks, Watson’s Water, the C.C Lemon drink, Chun eyewear, I Do Golden! Jewelry, 3+2 Crackers and – well I could go – but you get the general idea.

Coke is in the midst of a $2B three-year expansion and growth plan in China, which includes the opening of an $88M bottling plant in the city of Wuhan to aid the increased demand for the product in the region.  The soft drink brand is tapping into the traditional Chinese New Year concept with this promotion of passing on lucky red ‘lai see’ packages via its very own ‘red packaged’ bottle of happiness. The innovative use of social media and UGC serve to strengthen this positive connection. The youth segment this campaign is aiming to reach are far less cynical than their Western counterparts, so the inclusion of a boy band (even simply juggling coke bottles) is not viewed with anything but admiration. Bearing in mind the 320M Youth sector in China (16-30) has around $135B in spending power – both Coca-Cola and Fahrenheit have lots to gain from creating high distribution, well- rounded, family appealing commercial partnerships such as these.

Musical manipulation

Wrangler’s new digital promotion for its Blue Bell Spring/Summer 2010 range is kind of a drag. The jeans brand’s ‘manipulate a man’ digital campaign enables users to drag a male model around the screen and tear off parts of his clothing – making it the polar opposite of Burger King’s recent Showercam campaign.The ad also showcases the ambient music of Markus Hasselblom and the soundtrack featured on the site is available for free download. As are various photos of the model in a state of undress – If you like that kind of thing. The filming of the campaign sounds equally painful for the model (Tony Ward). “We tied him up with wires and dragged him around on the floor,” said Jimmy Herdberg the campaign’s creative director.  Apparently it took a month to remove all the wires from the shoot.

What’s particularly interesting about his campaign is how the music works in sync with the visuals. “We love to work with the music a lot. We had to do a couple of songs before we found the one that worked. The music had to have a strong rhythm to match the movements and inspire the user,” said Herdberg. However, a possible additional element here would have been the ability to control the music as well as the model. A simple system whereby the user could manipulate the soundtrack – say via the construction of various musical stems into their own personalised creation – could have given the site a whole other dynamic. Perhaps then these musical creations, accompanied by remixes of the stripping/dragging visuals, could have been made available for sharing online. It’s a visually well-crafted campaign, but maybe it could have let its users get even more ‘hands on’ with the content.

Gillette fixes up, looks sharp

Will.i.am, Tim McGraw, Mark Hoppus of Blink-182 and the All-American Rejects are all set to appear in a forthcoming Gillette campaign. The Gillette Uncut series will feature a series of digital documentary shorts – created by renowned music filmmaker/photographer Danny Clinch – showcasing the artists backstage and some of their pre-show rituals.

“Gillette Uncut shows a side of artists that’s rarely, if ever, seen – going backstage to show how they prepare, including styling and grooming, and the moments of doubt they experience before taking the stage,” said Steve Fund, Gillette global marketing director.

In addition to the documentary Gillette will host ‘Shave Like a Rock Star’ a selection of tongue-in-check shaving tutorials featuring each artist. Both elements will run consecutively on a dedicated website.  The campaign will have online media partnerships with SPIN, Pandora, Last.FM and YouTube in addition to print and TV ads.

So what?: A global survey by Music Matters and Synovate recently stated that one in five people would do “absolutely anything” to meet their music idols. This campaign, with its headline ‘a lot goes down before the lights go up’ goes some way to making that a reality, giving fans an intimate glimpse at the acts they love. The alcohol brand Absolut also embarked on a similar documentary following Australian band Wolfmother in 2009 as part of its ‘You’re With The Band’ campaign. Gillette has historically gone for clean-cut sportsmen, and the shift to music – albeit only in the US – should position them better with a younger audience.

“These backstage ‘rockumentaries’ add a striking new dimension to an increasingly familiar brand story. I love the elasticity of the overall campaign approach too, one minute playing the credible, stylized ‘gateway’ to artist proximity, the next riffing around tongue-in-cheek tutorials inviting you to “Shave Like A Rockstar”
Jack Fryer, Strategist, FRUKT

www.gillette.com/shavelikearockstar

It’s an expensive cover up

Katy Perry has signed a $4M deal to be the face of Proactiv acne cream. She joins Avril Lavigne who has also signed a lucrative contract to become the newest spokesmodel for the Proactiv Solution brand worldwide.The two singers will appear in commercials aired in 58 countries. The brand is gearing up for a major marketing campaign as it looks to compete directly with Johnson’s Clean and Clear range in the youth sector.

“We are paying people consistent with what we have done in the past – millions of dollars”, said Ben Van de Bunt, a spokesman for the brand, in defense of the endorsement figure.

Previous ad campaigns have featured numerous musicians including Alicia Keys, Jessica Simpson, P Diddy and Mandy Moore. TV commercials and print ads featuring the two new female ambassadors will be released at the end of the month.

So What?: Katy Perry is an on-brand girl. Literally. Avril Lavigne has also racked up a number of brand alignments over the years (Canon and Kohl’s, etc). Overall endorsements can be an expensive business for a brand, but beauty products usually have much to gain from these payouts if handled correctly.  Aligning with artists works for the Proactiv brand as it generally positions them with context, often in their own mini infomercials. As Kelly Clarkson said: “my skin is my job and I obviously don’t want to look like a pizza”.  It’s this grounding in the everyday that sets them apart from the ‘hold it and smile’ endorsements usually prevalent in the beauty sector.

“Neither artist has released a great deal of new music lately, so this keeps their visibility high around the world between albums and tours. The PSA-style adverts also aim to make the singers feel closer to the teens buying Proactiv by implying they are just “girls-next-door-who-struggle-with-their-skin” as well as performers.”
Ruth Mortimer, Associate Editor, Marketing Week

www.proactiv.co.uk

Shower streaming music

Prior to Christmas Burger King launched a digital campaign featuring a bikini-clad woman singing in the shower. The extremely male-orientated ‘Shower cam’ campaign invited users to vote for which song should be performed – and which type of bikini should be worn – the following day at 9:30am. In addition visitors to the website could also win a date with Burger King’s so called “sizzling shower babe” at the London Leicester Square Burger King restaurant. The campaign, part of a major push to promote the restaurant’s breakfast menu, was promoted via the Spotify streaming music service. An online video also highlighted the audition process to find the right singer.

So what?: BK obviously knows who its early risers are. This is a very different campaign from the McDonald’s push for its breakfast menu mentioned earlier, aimed squarely at a specific male target demographic – one that Burger King states are the primary visitors to their restaurants in the early hours. So in many ways this overtly sexual campaign makes sense. However, the brand’s ‘Squarebutts’ commercial from 2009 – which featured the Sir Mix-A-Lot song ‘Baby Got Back’ – faced some negativity due to its link to the restaurants’ kid’s meals.  There is also a question mark here surrounding the knock on effect on the female customers who frequent the establishments during other times of the day.

“This is a simple crowd-sourced campaign with a strong link to a new music platform and an obvious nod to BK’s 2004 subservient chicken campaign. However, offering up both male and female model options may have endeared it to BK’s wider audience.”
Giles Fitzgerald, Editor, FRUKT Music Intelligence

www.burgerking.co.uk/showercam