During its first trip to MIDEM (the music industry’s annual global conference-cum-get-together at Cannes), Ogilvy & Mather hopes to cause quite a stir with a provocative pitch session that challenges the very purpose of MIDEM’s Monday ‘Synch Day’.
Ogilvy’s presentation in Auditorium K at 12.00 on Monday 24th will suggest that music professionals need to ‘look beyond the cheque’ and contribute more than just a piece of audio to an advertising campaign if they truly want to provide added value both to advertisers and their own artists.
“Synch is a necessary part of what we do as advertisers but our point is, licensing shouldn’t be the end of the conversation”, says Ogilvy’s Music Manager Tara Austin (below), daughter of Beggars Banquet co-founder Nick Austin.
“The music industry is changing and just at the same time we, and our clients, are being squeezed. Publishers should no longer be looking at just how much they can get for a synch deal, but rather how can they collaborate with the agency to get the most out of the media spend our clients put into a campaign – should they be selling downloads alongside the advertised product in online supermarkets? Giving the track away or allowing it to be remixed in branded apps?
“We all need to stop being so lazy about the deals we’re doing and recognise the greater opportunities out there to create added value: value for our brands and, ultimately, value for the artist whose music our campaigns promote.”
Ogilvy cites the example of the phenomenal success Guillemots’ leader Fyfe Dangerfield enjoyed after his cover of Billy Joel’s ‘Always a Woman’ featured in the 2010 John Lewis ad campaign. Not only did Dangerfield subsequently release the single, due to popular demand (130,000 youtube views in 6 days), but both his cover and the Billy Joel original entered the UK singles chart for a number of weeks.
“”It’s a great song’ says Tara, “but the beautiful thing is, not only was its release a success for the music industry it was also a great success for John Lewis – and repeatedly, when their target audience hear that track on the radio or from the download they purchased they’re filled with love for the brand.”
“Music is a great place for brands to build engagement with their audience,” adds Alasdair Graham (above), creative partner at Ogilvy. “So it seems silly that we’re not all doing more, if nothing else we’ve come to MIDEM for the first time this year, to let the music industry know that if they have great innovative ideas for how we can push things further, then Ogilvy’s all ears.”
