A new musical journey
April 25, 2008
Last night I saw a TV spot for the new 2009 Dodge Journey. My ears instantly perked up. There was something familiar about it. Something I’d heard before.
It was the music. Specifically, Grandaddy’s “AM-180” from their 1997 album Under the Western Freeway.
I’ve been a Grandaddy fan for about a decade. And this song is one of my favorites. So you can imagine my surprise.
“Isn’t this a mini-van,” I thought? “Aren’t those for parents and yuppies and guys in hip hop groups?”
(To which I answered myself, “You know, the people who liked that song when it came our are probably either: 1. Parents 2. Yuppies 3. Guys in bands, though not necessarily hip hop.)
I then got over it and realized how cool this was. Grandaddy, getting national airplay (albeit uncredited commercial airplay).
What I find amazing is the idea of television advertising – and to a certain extent, teenage-driven television shows – as one of the most effective vehicles for music distribution.
It seems more than ever that the independent rock scene is overflowing with bands that have marginal, niche audiences. There are simply too many to take in at once.
But getting your music in commercials or television shows, whether on purpose or by chance, is proving to be an incredibly viable path to sudden respectability – or, at least, relevance.
After all, look what it did for Feist. (Or, come to think of it, The Fratellis, Yael Naem, or any Apple artist.)
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(Added bonus – when searching for the Grandaddy spot, I found another Dodge Journey spot – exact same video, different song, different copy. I wonder which was created first…and if this one was even supposed to be released.)
A return to “simple”
April 25, 2008
The newest Sony ad is out.
I’m reminded of the Sony Bravia campaign – a campaign that started with one of my favorites: “Balls,” a simple and stunning spot that combined the childlike exuberance of colorful high-bounce balls with the passion of Jose Gonzales’s “Heartbeats.”
Sony followed the spot up with “Paint,” where a series of buildings were covered in paint in a brash, carnival-like setting. The feeling was still there, but it seemed like something was missing. Then, “Rabbits,” featuring claymation bunnies and the predictable “She’s a Rainbow” by the Rolling Stones.
The original Sony Bravia spot was beautiful. It made you stop and think about the majesty and sheer size of color, of the possibilities and promises.
It was subdued. It was simple. It needed no extra machinery, no special effects, no overwrought and “we can do it bigger” premonitions. It was organic, relying only on elasticity and gravity, two forces that acted as if they were Creative Director on the spot itself.
It showed you something great. Something you wish you could do. The music matched perfectly, instilling a sense of hope and beauty.
Since then, the spots have drifted further away from the point – that color is beauty, and that it’s a force to be reckoned with. Maybe they jumped the shark at the beginning, leaving everything to pale in the wake of beauty. Either way, it seems now that color is just a stepping-stone to their next overdone feat.
The foam in this new Sony commercial might be overdone as well. But it’s overdone in the right way – a way that bring back a feeling of wonder. The emotion is back again. The wonder. The beauty.
I guess this is just a long way of saying, “I’m glad they’ve gotten back to simple.”
Benefit over matter
April 22, 2008
We’ve all done it before, usually out of necessity.
We’ve created ads that are jam packed with information. We just start plugging things in. This element has to be there. That element cannot be taken out. My boss will freak if she doesn’t see the logo a little bigger. Here’s a list of features to add. And we have a special promotion that needs to be included. Don’t forget the Web site, both phone numbers, our seventeen locations and the names of each of our managers.
And by the way, the ad needs to be a little smaller.
It happens all the time. Each company has a lot to say in a very small space. But when it comes down to it, how much of it is necessary?
At a recent SDAF luncheon, Steve Lance of Unconventional Wisdom talked about how often advertising and marketing is driven by a list of features that the reader is expected to extrapolate into a perceived benefit. Really, Steve says, it should be the other way around. The benefit should be front and center. The details can come later.
What are you going to promote? A vehicle’s 3rd Generation Swiss-Engineered Classically Mounted ABS Brakes? Or a vehicle’s unprecedented safety (which, coincidentally, happens to be due to those aforementioned brakes).
Imagine your typical cable television remote. Of the 75 buttons featured, only about 10 of them really matter. Channel up and down, volume up and down, power and, to a lesser extent, the guide and record buttons. Take the rest of the buttons off and you’ve got a sleek, easy to use interface.
You know, like an iPod – the single most popular electronic device of this generation.
Your message could be the same. Why mention every single product feature when your audience really just wants to know why they should care? Pare it back, wow them with some blistering creative, create an image in their mind, tell a story in ten words or less and drive them to get more information on their time, not yours.
A vehicle’s safety is going to create a stronger emotional tie than the brand of ABS brakes being used. A music device’s style and functionality is going to create more of a buzz than FM capability, multi-colored moving display, optional earphones and side-impact airbags. (Oops. Got my feature set confused).
Why make things so complicated when all you need to do is leave a lasting impression?
Re-making Haste
April 21, 2008
“Hey, Post Haste. Where have you been?”
It’s an agency cliché, but we’ve been busy.
Thankfully, it’s never bad in the biz to say, “We’ve been busy.” In fact, it’s pretty fun. It shows we’re productive and relevant. And it pays the billz, bro.
So yeah – we’ve been busy. Busy bees. Getting’ busy. Bustin’ you know what. Busy busy busy.
But that’s no excuse.
So here’s the reintroduction. We have a new Web site on the way. We’ll have an update of the blog design. And, of course, we like to talk about brilliant things like branding and marketing and advertising. Sometimes we even like to brag a little.
I’ve found some friends to come along with me. We’re back in business, friends.
- Wishing for the Attainable
- Let Your Voice Be Your Guide
- Penn and Misspeller
- Eat Your Brussels Sprouts
- Rhymes With Rice
- Embrace Losing, Embrace a Tree
- Buses Attract Attention, and Most Recently, Awards
- From the Mouths of Babes
- Needed: One Awesomewriter.
- To Inform and Delight
- Joe: Your building is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen –I’m more thinking the kid is going...
- Joe: Your building is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen –I’m more thinking the kid is going...
- Joe: Your building is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen –I’m more thinking the kid is going...
- Corey V.: That kid’ll surely be better than the one that just left.
- Mark Cummins: Here’s my awesome copywriter resume: Mark Cummins 6007 S Cliff Ave #204 Sioux Falls, SD 57108...
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About HenkinSchultz
HenkinSchultz is an agency. An advertising and marketing and branding and design and production agency. All of those things, and then some.
But, underneath all that, we're really a bunch of thinkers. As in, we think about stuff, both pertinent and not, with and without boundaries, as if our lives depended on it. And this right here, Post Haste, is where we write about it.
Visit us at http://www.henkinschultz.com.