Finding the Right Problem to Solve: A Composer’s Guide to Music in Advertising -1. Basics

(This was reprinted from the article I had written on Model Electronic Records blog, on Oct 23, 2011.)

Contents

1. Introduction
2. Several levels of Issues
3. If you are not conscious of the issues
4. Always make sure

Introduction

“How to find what to solve?” That’s what I most care about when I work on composition and sound design for advertising projects. Of course, there is a limit to how much music can contribute to one advertising work. In some cases, you could end up providing music to cater to what your immediate co-worker or superior (creative director, agency, music supervisor, etc.) demands. However, as long as the goal of advertising campaigns is to solve the client’s marketing issues and it is inevitable for you to work in a team, just “composing a track so as to satisfy my director’s demand” seems to fulfill no more than half of what you really should accomplish.

Moreover, the issues we face in advertising projects are broader than marketing-related problems between clients (e.g., sponsors) and their customers. From the standpoint of a person in charge of music and sound design, in reality, there seem to be many more issues around an advertising project, as stated below.
(Note: This applies to the cases of custom music production, not sync licensing.)

Several levels of Issues

Level-1: Potential issues the client’s customers have (and could be solved by their product or service).

Level-2: Issues the client has intrinsically and extrinsically when they work on solving the Level-1.

There are various issues, ranging from marketing issues such as branding, share, competitors, and distribution to management ones such as resources and stockholders (IR).

Level-3: Issues the advertising project team (including client, agency, and creative team) has.

Examples: relationship with the client, budget, schedule, key person, politics (about not limited to the team itself but including the cast and their agency), and ulterior motives such as awards and tie-in promotion.

Level-4: Issues the creative team has.

There are various issues at Level-4, ranging from the production budget and schedule to the production style, the timing/season of on-air, and the environment for music (e.g., hiring outside musicians/orchestra). Other Level-4 issues could include the creative team’s understanding of the brand’s identity, the alignment of the music with the visual elements, and the overall emotional impact of the music on the audience.

As a composer, your team’s final goal is to bring out solutions to the Level-1 issues. But way before reaching there, you will need to overview all these levels of issues, narrow them down, and decide what issues you should really pay attention to and focus on. Your role is not just to create music, but to understand the project dynamics and contribute to solving the issues as a team member.

If you are not conscious of the issues

You may find that many lukewarm advertising campaigns fail to reach the most critical issue, Level 1. Some campaigns solve the problems of the project team, and some even neglect to analyze who their customers are. It’s not challenging to come up with campaigns that are artistically “creative” enough to win ad awards but fail to reach an essential marketing solution.

Suppose we see from the standpoint of music used in advertising campaigns. In that case, we often come across some unfortunate instances in which the music and other elements don’t work together well for the message/target or negate each other’s effects. That might be because the composer couldn’t resist his director’s misplaced opinion or persistence, including so-called ‘Temp Love’-a situation where the director becomes attached to the temporary music used during editing and insists on a similar sound for the final product. This situation is like an orchestra player who doesn’t see what his conductor and other players really do because of trying desperately to follow the score in front of him, or like an actor swayed by his assistant director’s whim.

Always make sure

Whenever you’re not sure if you’re doing things right, you should find and ask a suitable person (such as the director, the agent, or the supervisor) about it immediately. Also, make sure to discuss whether you and other members are convinced enough to share a common view about the issues. Some early or quick actions enable you to move forward in the right direction.

Otherwise, the campaign will struggle to resonate with the target unless a super-efficient project leader can exercise his full responsibility to get everything right immediately. (Fortunately, I’ve hardly been involved in those troubles for years, though.)

It’s essential for you to become conscious enough of any potential issues surrounding your project BEFORE focusing on your actual role. You are not just a composer or a music provider but also a team member who is in the same boat and moves forward to the same goal.

Next time, I will elaborate on how I’ve been working on “How to Find What to Solve” by using specific examples.