Top 5 Songs in 2008 Commercials

Music is an underutilized tool in advertising. There were a few advertisers who used music as a key element of their advertising, as opposed to a background track to fill dead space.

So here's my list of top songs for 2008:

Advertiser: Amstel Light
Song: Chelsea Dagger
Musician: The Fratellis

Amstel used this spot and this song to reenergize their brand and highlight its import credentials. It is much more male focused than their traditional message. My guess is this is aimed at Heineken and Stella drinkers who view Amstel as a girl's beer. Looks like they are muscling it up.




Advertiser: Bacardi
Song: The Muddle
Musician: ?

Bacardi was a bit genius this year by branding the mojito. These cool spots with thumping music really worked.


Advertiser: Apple iPod nano
Song: Bruises
Musician: Chairlift

What needs to be said? Apple is the master of using music in their spots. Their entire iPod series is pure genius and has created several music hits such as Bruises. Apple is best in class.



Advertiser: Nike
Song: List of Demands
Musician: Saul Williams

Nike is nothing but cool. They use great cinematography and music in all their spots to create an attitude and energy that few other advertisers can match. This spot makes you want to get up an run.



Advertiser: Lincoln MKS
Song: Technologic
Musician: Daft Punk

Lincoln is trying to change its image, to be more edgy, focused on technical superiority, which is a slight reach from where the brand has been. These spots help move Lincoln closer to Cadillac and further away from Buick.





If you are curious about music in commercials there are a few good sources (gotta love the internet):
http://www.squidoo.com/tv_commercial_music
http://www.whatsthatcalled.com/forum/index.php?automodule=blog&blogid=1&
http://adtunes.com/
http://findthatsong.net/
http://www.google.com/Top/Arts/Television/Commercials/

What Business Are They In?

Some companies do not know what business they are in.

The car makers have made this clear. They are in a consumer products business, but run the company like they are a finance company or a manufacturer. Consider Proctor and Gamble. They manufacture a whole lot of products from Pampers to Tide. But they understand the business they are in. They are not run by the finance function or the manufacturing function. They are run by the brand managers.

The U.S. airline industry is another where management has a fundamental misunderstanding of which business they are in. They are run as if they were in the transportation business. Just because you own planes and move people and luggage around doesn't mean you are in the transportation business. They are in the service business, just like Ritz Carlton or Marriott. Ritz Carlton does not treat its guests as if it were in the real estate business just because they own hotels.

Think about it. How memorable is it when a flight attendant is actually pleasant and truly accommodating? When was the last innovation in the airline business that was done for the consumer's interest and not the airlines'? You wonder why Southwest has done well? It has managed to combine good service with cheap prices. The service is appropriate for the price you pay. It is a fair trade and consumers have voted with their dollars.

What business is your company in? Who really runs the company? Companies who really understand their business and their customers have aligned the answers to these two questions.

Are You Spamming Your Email List?

Everyone hates spam. Marketers know this better than anyone. But the reality of today's business environment is driving marketers to send more and more email messages. Budgets are tight and email is free. And more and more people are seeking and obtaining their news and information online. So it just makes sense.

If you are like me, you have signed up for all kinds of websites and enewsletters over the years. My inbox fills up every day with emails that I have supposedly asked to receive. Its too much. It borders on spam. But I asked for this right? So when do opt in emails become spam? How do you actually define spam anyway?

Typically, it seems spam is defined in terms of the sender -- spam is an email sent by a faceless, nameless individual to people who didn't ask to receive it. Fair enough. But there is a legal form of spam that is only getting worse -- Opt-in Email Assault or "OEA" as I call it.

We have all been victims of OEA. You know how it goes. You are forced to register with a web site and in the process they ask you if you want to receive email updates. "Sure, why not." And then it starts. Two emails the first day. Four the second day. Six by the third day. By day three you aren't even deleting their emails, but the view pane in your email opens it so the marketer on the other side is all excited because 40% of his recipients are opening his email.......

As marketers, we often assume that if a user has signed up and opted-in to our emails that we have all the permissions we need to reach out to those users whenever we want.

So what is the right number of emails to send to your user base, you may ask? When does it become spam? Answer: when the user decides your emails are not valuable or relevant.

For a recipient, spam has much less to do with the number of emails and everything to do with the relevancy of the information to the user. If the user wants each and every one of your emails because they find them useful or informative, then it isn't spam. If you send them dozens or hundreds of messages they don't want, users will consider it spam.

Here's a formula:
Limited number of emails of Low Relevancy = Slight Annoyance
High number of email of Low Relevancy = Spam

The trick is providing valuable content and understanding the interests and needs of your user base. Users are now expecting to control the ways marketers communicate with them. It is now on the users terms and if you don't allow them to choose those terms, you risk frustrating or alienating your users. The more specific and specialized you can be, the more relevant and valuable your emails will be. Here are a few rules to follow with your opt in email lists.

Allow your users to:

1. Tell you as specifically as possible what kind of information they want to receive.

2. Determine how often they want to receive messages from you.

3. Determine through which channels you communicate with them.

Email is such a frustration for people, if you add to that frustration it can only hurt your brand.