Tesco: Making a Big Song and Dance About Christmas

Last year in the run up to Christmas, Tesco outspent every other retailer in Britain on TV advertising.  Unfortunately for them their sales actually dropped during the same period.  Tesco have had poor year one way and another so they are looking to produce something spectacular this Christmas.

The 2014 campaign is up against tough competition: Marks & Spencer and John Lewis have already launched big-budget campaigns that are drawing in the audiences.  How does Tesco's new #MakeChristmas advertisement shape up?

The story shows the makings of Christmas - turning the lights on and trimming up for the festive season. The music selected is a Brass arrangement of "What a Feeling" - a song taken from the 1983 movie "Flashdance". The ad shows families & Tesco putting up their decorations. As the Christmas lights are turned on the music increases intensity as the chorus is reached.

Tesco helpfully released a 'behind-the-scenes' video about the advertisement, where the creative people speak about the thinking behind it. They say they "want to make a big song and dance", but the music seems to be a bit of an afterthought. - Not only has the song "What a Feeling" been used in several advertising campaigns over the years (including Honda, Clairol and most famously Gaviscon) but it is done in a highly predictable way. It is quite clear why this music was chosen for the advert: Brass band = Christmas, What a Feeling = Christmas feeling. Although it is fitting with Christmas traditions, does it make you want to dance? not really... it's quite a downbeat/tempo version of the original.

The campaign was launched on Sunday night (9 November) during the final episode of Downton Abbey - an old-fashioned advertising technique for guaranteeing an audience of 8-9 million. The YouTube video then gathering a further 200,000 YouTube views overnight - not a bad start at all. However, it doesn't seem that this campaign will become the viral sensation of the Christmas Season.

It's all in the words... right?

Lyrics are generally regarded as being one of the key features of a song right? Therefore within the field of music in advertising, we could also assume that the song's lyrics chosen would be somewhat related to the product being advertised?

However the results of an academic study conducted 2005 yielded opposite results: They applied the theory of Cognitive Dissonance - the notion that the music and visuals portray different meanings to one another (for example an advert about life insurance and using an upbeat song about happiness).

An example used within their study was the following advert, published by Allied Dunbar using the soundtrack of Nat Cole King's "Let's face the music and dance".

Cole Porter's lyrics describe the romantic ideal, where we deliberately ignore problems because we are wrapped up with the one we love. The TV commercial, on the other hand, used a script which suggested the opposite: Allied Dunbar's message was quite morbid, reminding us that we could die any minute and needed get life insurance right away.  

The explanation was that for most people there was no contradiction.  it is all in the melody. The words hardly mattered, because what people heard was melody and tempo, and that's what gave the images their meaning. Most people heard the 'headline' in the music, "There may be trouble ahead", and that was the message the advertisers left us with.  All the rest is background - "aural wallpaper" the study called it.

Reference

Croft, Robin, Gill Allard and Krzysztof Kubacki (2005), Songs and Pictures: Cognitive Dissonance in the Music of Advertising, Proceedings of Academy of Marketing Conference, Dublin Institute of Technology, ISBN 1-905824-00-9

Monty the Penguin's Real Love

Picture from The Guardian

Last week the retailer John Lewis launched their Christmas advertising campaign (6 November).
It went viral, with the YouTube version of the ad receiving 4 million viewings in the first day.

The centerpiece of the campaign is Monty the Penguin, and the story is about the pursuit of love.  In the process John Lewis gives us the vision of happy family gatherings, peace and goodwill to all.

Continuing the John Lewis Christmas Ad tradition, the soundtrack to campaign is a cover version of an older pop song.  In 2013, Lily Allen covered Keane's single "Somewhere Only We Know", 2012 saw Gabrielle Aplin covering Frankie Goes to Hollywood's "Power of Love" and this year we hear Tom Odell singing  John Lennon's 1979 song "Real Love" and the video and music go together as if they were made for each other.

By using a current pop singer, it enabled John Lewis to get additional publicity (for example this Daily Telegraph piece). Not only do they have Beatles + John Lennon fans listening/ watching but they also have Tom Odell's fans and popular radio stations. Just 3 days after its release, Real Love entered the UK music charts at 21 and looks set to rise up the ranks. Interestingly, Radio 1 refused to play the original JL version as it a song for an older generation than their target audience.

According to a psychologist working with the Daily Mirror, the music is there to "make you feel warm and fuzzy."  This is created through the heavy use of 7^th, bluesy chords throughout the piece, adding a dream-like notion. The meaning of which is visually is explained at the end of the advert as it is revealed *spoiler alert* that Monty is just a toy penguin after all. The chorus of the song uses much more simplistic chords and melodies, giving a more grounded, comfortable feel. It is also at this point in the visuals that we see happy couples in love and Monty looking at them longingly. The “mysterious” chord at the end of the chorus is played in sync with the visuals, depicting the young boy's realization of what is making Monty sad and how he can make him happy.

The Advert reaches its climax at 1.37 as the chorus repeats with additional backing vocals and instrumentation, it is at this point that Monty finds his “real love” and it is revealed that it was all part of the young boys imagination and Monty is just a toy.

What I found most interesting in the final repeat of “real love” that there is a slight pause after the word “real” is sung, then as the John Lewis logo is presented, the word “Love” is then sung, this is perhaps a way for a consumer to subconsciously link the two things together... Love John Lewis, Love John Lewis, Love John Lewis....

If you haven't yet seen the advert, fear not it will likely be on TV everyday from now till Christmas, or you can view it below...

Being a new recording allows the company the chance to re-launch the music separately: the campaign seamlessly directs audiences to iTunes where they can download the music for just 99 pence.  This just gets better because John Lewis then promise to donate 89 pence of this to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).  So along with the usual Christmas nostalgia and shopping, the music allows audiences to donate to charity - a win-win for John Lewis.

Levi's Greatest Hits

What do the following 4 characters have in common?

Correct, they were all stars in what are commonly considered to be some of Levi's most successful advertising campaigns. Adverts with the perfect selection of music that fully engaged and entertained the consumer.

The first, Mr Boombastic (top left) used the soundtrack of popular singer "Shaggy" who had somewhat disappeared from the music industry but made an incredible comeback off the back of this advertisement, The advert being almost custom built around the song. Shaggy himself stated that watching the advert, the protagonist was Mr Boombastic - a sexy hero whom the ladies cannot resist. This advert fully playing upon the sex appeal factor, to which both visuals and music portray simultaneously.

Top right was part of the Laundrette Campaign, which has been voted as one of the most successful advertisements of all time. This advert used an older piece of music - a re-recorded version of Marvin Gaye's hugely successful record, "Heard it Through the Grapevine". This advert completely reinvented and exposed Levi's to a much wider audience, a product which had previously been regarded as being "the kind of jeans that your dad would wear". The use of an older song exposed the product to a younger demographic. Researchers for this advertisement specifically suggested this song as the 60's were regarded as being a "cool time and place" with younger generations.

Flat Eric (bottom left) employed "house" music, an increasingly popular underground genre, this advert being different from others which generally played on themes of sex and love, Flat Eric simply focused on the dancing puppet and hinting at an unspoken bond between men. Emma Jones in Channel 4's Documentary "TV Advertising's Greatest Hits" stated that we as a nation seem to have a soft spot for a puppet - in reference to popular children's TV shows such as the Muppets and Sesame Street.

Spaceman (bottom right) which remixed a rock song into a "chipmunk" style - doubling the speed of and pitch of the song to make it high pitched and faster - this song being a one hit wonder for the song writers "Babylon Zoo"/ "Jas Mann" who had high ambitions, however being as the song in the advert was different from the original grunge style of the rock band meaning their follow up singles were not what the public were expecting and therefore failed to maintain their interests.

Although these are just 4 examples of Levi's adverts, they have had many successful campaigns all of which employ popular music, so much so that there is a Levi's Greatest Hit's compilation CD available to purchase. It's clear to see how through using the right soundtrack Levi's have been able to continuously advertise and reinvent themselves to keep the consumers interested in their products.

Fly Me To The... High Street?

A few days ago Marks & Spencer launched their TV marketing campaign with a glossy TV advertisement featuring the classic swing number 'Fly me to the Moon'.  Catchy musical soundtracks are the the backbone of this type of TV blockbuster.  But whereas in the past the advertisers wanted to get people humming the tunes, now the key it to encourage them to share the whole thing via social media.  3 days since the launch and M&S have had 2.5 million viewings.

So, how does this work as an advertisement and as a piece of music?

The music works alongside the visuals quite expertly, as if the advert was directed to the music. As the advertisement starts, the pizzicato strings instantly create a happy, playful and exciting feel which is also added to by the upbeat tempo & drums. The increased intensity of the music at 0.14 creates a sense that something exciting is going to happen which is peaked by an upward piano glissando which is depicted in the visuals by the fairies taking flight. It is only at this point that the vocals enter as they begin “flying to the moon”.

Each section ends with a bar of music based in minor (at 0.25, 0.40 and 0.55). At each of these points something sad/ bad is happening within the advert which is then fixed by the fairies and their magic. These points are also resolved musically by returning to the root (major) chord, giving a feeling of relief. The lyrics in the final of these sections (0.55) also coincides with the visuals in the line "I love you" (1.31).

A possible suggestion for the overall meaning of the advert could be how Christmas used to be such a magical time but that has somewhat changed in recent years and we need a reminder that it still can be just that. This is also replicated in the music, a re-mastered/ re-recorded version of the original song, slightly changing it, but it is still the same classic piece of music.

The creative elements are crucial within this advertisement.

OK, so if this works for fashion, food and lifestyle stuff, how can we make sense of the same music being used to promote a car?  Ford featured the same music on their ads for the Probe back in 2007 in the US, having already used it in the UK.

This advert links back to the theory of cognitive dissonance, where the actual meaning of a song is lost in the context it is presented. In this advert it is somewhat implied that the meaning of the song is directed towards the car - that the car can take you to places you've never been before. Similarly to the M&S advert, the upbeat tempo is replicated in the fast car. It is also worth noting that the light-hearted, upbeat and popular song changes the meaning of what would otherwise be quite a dark themed advertisement about aliens, abduction etc. (As does the joke at 0.13 as the "probe" drives into Area 51...)  

It was also used by FAW Benteng to promote their car.  Their version, though, featured Frank Sinatra's slightly slower tempo recording of the song.