ad it Up - music firms advertise brand name products

Brandweek, May 24, 1999 by Davin Seay

Now That It's Cool To Be In Commercials, Music Publishers Devote More Resources To Pushing Brand Names

Like the approaching millennium, the future of the music industry is fraught with perils and potentiality. As traditional revenue streams slow to a trickle or simply dry up, new sources of profitability must be tapped. The question isn't whether music will still be an essential adjunct to the lifestyle choices of the 21st century, but in what form it will find its inevitable audience. While the pace of technological and market change can be both dazzling and bewildering, one constant is the simple necessity of exposure: customers won't buy what they can't hear.

Increasingly, what customers are hearing is the modern equivalent of what used to be derisively described as "jingles"--musical backdrops to commercial pitches designed to stick in the mind like a skipping needle in a worn groove. These days, however, commercial music serves an entirely new and multifaceted purpose, bringing together creative and commercial concerns in a synthesis unimaginable as recently as 10 years ago, when any self-respecting songwriter or performer would bristle at the suggestion of "selling out" his art to peddle cars or cornflakes.

Today, commercial placement has become a hotly sought-after venue for both new and established songwriters and acts who see the saturation level of most modern advertising campaigns as a source of exposure money can't buy. At a time when traditional radio formats are becoming increasingly limited and playlist constraints make rotation on video-broadcast outlets even more improbable, commercials are a way for songwriters to get their music to the mass audience. For older, established artists, commercials provide an unparalleled avenue for exploiting deep catalog that might otherwise be left to molder.

For advertising agencies and their clients, the cachet associated with creating a campaign that taps the inherent appeal of popular music is itself a priceless association. More than a case of one hand washing the other, music and advertising are currently engaged in a vigorous mutual massage, rubbing up against each other to set commercial and creative sparks flying.

SONGWRITERS' OUTLETS

"Commercial placement has become a critically important element of our overall business," asserts Richard Rowe, president of Sony ATV. "This is especially true as we continue to see traditional outlets for our individual writers continue to shift. For example, there is less and less call for outside songwriters on album projects, while singles sales are continuing to decline. All this means that songwriters need new outlets for their material. At the same time, they're very insistent about maintaining control of their songs. They don't want to languish, but they don't want to be exploited."

The careful line between those two extremes is one Rowe and other publishing executives have learned to finesse when it comes to commercial placement. "You have to know what your writers will and will not do," Rowe explains. "We're not a faceless corporation, and we pride ourselves on a close personal and professional relationship with our writers. In order to be successful in any aspect of this business, you've got to understand the creative temperament. The name of the game is to use a song tastefully, not just to make as much money as you can, regardless of the end result."

"After eight years doing this job, I find it gets easier and easier, primarily because there is so much less resistance from artists to the whole idea of commercial placement." That's the viewpoint of Allan Tepper, VP of creative services/special projects for Warner Chappell. "I think American artists are finally catching up to their European counterparts, for whom commercial song placement is considered very prestigious. With that kind of mind-set becoming more prevalent," Tepper continues, "material I've been trying for years to place is finally finding a home. Artists and advertising executives are finally beginning to get it." Tepper points out the use of such tracks as the Sinatra perennial "It's Nice To Go Traveling" in a recent American Express campaign as an example of this new receptivity.

COMMERCIAL CONVERGENCE

For interested parties on both sides of the commercial equation, making Money and creating advertising artistry are coming together in a spirit of unprecedented cooperation and coexistence.

"We are rapidly reaching a point of what I would call pure convergence, says John Melilon, VP of music resources for EMI Publishing. "With so many different mediums competing for our attention, you can't always remember exactly where you heard a song Maybe it was in a movie trailer or over the PA system at a mall or in a video-game soundcard or over radio or TV. And it doesn't really matter. What's important is that the tune stuck in your head and created a demand."

Both filling and fueling that demand has become a dominant preoccupation with music-publishing companies both large and small. With advertising usage becoming a hetfy portion of publishing's bottom line, the industry is devoting increasingly more time and resources to milking the commercial cow.