The visuals are great and the editing works for what it is. No complaints there. The song, on the other hand, feels dated and because of that, hinders the entire spot.
In a day and age where 25 - 49 year old women are listening to and purchasing Katy Perry, Usher, and Lady Gaga, choosing a sound reminiscent of early 90, late 80s, slow pop just doesn't work or demonstrate cultural relevance.
My perspective is that when stations create original songs, they need to consider what their demos (actual or desired) are listening to.
A common place to look is Adult Top 40 (not Mainstream or Rhythmic Top 40) or Hot/AC radio. Those formats share similar demos with most local news stations. Obviously, if you're in a market where country music or another sound overwhelmingly dominates radio ratings, you may want to lean that direction with some pop elements.
Style is also important. Ballads? They're kind of out. Bruno Mars' Grenade is the closest thing on the radio to a ballad these days but even it has more pace and a driving backbeat.
Tempo is something to consider. Over the past two years, music has increased in BPM. Adult pop and hot AC songs can get as fast as 125 BPM and are over 100 BPM on average these days. Use this to your news brand's advantage to showcase urgency or something.
There are times when old songs work in advertising. Target used Huey Lewis in one of their recent spots. But their brand doesn't have the relevancy image-perception problems that's facing all of us in local news. Also, the song supports the feeling of the spot and they used the ACTUAL song.
Last but not least. Resist the urge to put your station name, call letters, or positioning in the lyrics. Once you do, you've exited song land and entered local jingle territory. No matter what you do, you're up there with the local car dealers and mattress-sellers in the viewer's mind. The song should support the brand or spot-focus emotionally, not literally. The closest thing to product placement in song lyrics was Chris Brown's "Forever" where he had the line "Double your pleasure... double your fun" which was in a Doublemint Gum commercial and still worked on a lyrical level outside the ad's context.
Anyways, that's my thoughts but I'm wrong from time to time.
7 comments:
OMG! Why won't the 80's die! I keept thinking those guys from the weather balloon were going to pop up in there. WAY off the mark.
Speechless...
The visuals are great and the editing works for what it is. No complaints there. The song, on the other hand, feels dated and because of that, hinders the entire spot.
In a day and age where 25 - 49 year old women are listening to and purchasing Katy Perry, Usher, and Lady Gaga, choosing a sound reminiscent of early 90, late 80s, slow pop just doesn't work or demonstrate cultural relevance.
My perspective is that when stations create original songs, they need to consider what their demos (actual or desired) are listening to.
A common place to look is Adult Top 40 (not Mainstream or Rhythmic Top 40) or Hot/AC radio. Those formats share similar demos with most local news stations. Obviously, if you're in a market where country music or another sound overwhelmingly dominates radio ratings, you may want to lean that direction with some pop elements.
Style is also important. Ballads? They're kind of out. Bruno Mars' Grenade is the closest thing on the radio to a ballad these days but even it has more pace and a driving backbeat.
Tempo is something to consider. Over the past two years, music has increased in BPM. Adult pop and hot AC songs can get as fast as 125 BPM and are over 100 BPM on average these days. Use this to your news brand's advantage to showcase urgency or something.
There are times when old songs work in advertising. Target used Huey Lewis in one of their recent spots. But their brand doesn't have the relevancy image-perception problems that's facing all of us in local news. Also, the song supports the feeling of the spot and they used the ACTUAL song.
Last but not least. Resist the urge to put your station name, call letters, or positioning in the lyrics. Once you do, you've exited song land and entered local jingle territory. No matter what you do, you're up there with the local car dealers and mattress-sellers in the viewer's mind. The song should support the brand or spot-focus emotionally, not literally. The closest thing to product placement in song lyrics was Chris Brown's "Forever" where he had the line "Double your pleasure... double your fun" which was in a Doublemint Gum commercial and still worked on a lyrical level outside the ad's context.
Anyways, that's my thoughts but I'm wrong from time to time.
Wow. I didn't know they had HD back in the 80s!
KHOU apparently also stands for KMART
Why won't the 80's die? Because a Magid consultant, who also still loves I-teams, is really proud of this.
This is fair from a finished piece. There are a lot of things that don't work here. I wish I never viewed it.
Post a Comment