The goods, the ads and the music

Having your song used in a television ad used to be desperately undesirable, but now bands and their promoters see it as part of a strategy for getting their music heard by the people who matter – consumers, writes KEVIN COURTNEY

YOU’RE SITTING watching TV, and it’s time for an ad break. You watch idly as a parade of products dance their way across your field of vision, each one desperately trying to catch your attention.

Suddenly, one ad comes on that makes you sit up and take notice. You turn up the volume and watch in rapt attention. You even sit through the rest of the boring progamme, on the off-chance the ad will come on again during the next break. The next morning, the advert still fresh in your mind, you head into town, walk into the first record shop and ask the assistant: “Do you have the song that goes ‘Give a little time for the child within you’? You know, the one from the ad.”

You've seen the ad – it's the one for the new Toyota range, in which each design is "uncovered" using clever computer trickery. You've also heard the song, a jolly, lilting little ditty that sticks in your head like a nursery rhyme. It's called Love You, and it's by a New York-based band from the 1960s called The Free Design, a sibling vocal group who released a number of albums of "baroque sunshine pop" but never hit the big time. They did, however, become cult favourites, and their psychedelic lounge sound has influenced the likes of Stereolab, Pizzicato Five, Beck, Belle & Sebastian and Caribou. It's a measure of how the art of using music in advertising has advanced – and how having the right soundtrack for your ad can make all the difference.

AD AGENCIESare always looking for ways to come up with eyecatching television commercials – just look at the success of the Evian rollerskating babies ad, which has been viewed more than 12 million times on the internet. But it's important to catch viewers' ears, too; when their gaze turns away from the screen, there's nothing like a killer song to pull them back in, which is why advertisers have to be tuned into the music they use for their ads.

Jingles might work fine for Harvey Norman or Pat the Baker, but if you want your product to stand apart from the competition you need to give it a good signature tune, one that will get people humming along and whistling it in the shower. If you pick the right song, people will forever associate it with your product – every time they hear it on the radio or at the disco, your brand name will automatically pop up like a bright neon sign in their heads.

Pop music in ads is nothing new; ever since The New Seekers hit No 1 in 1971 with I'd Like to Teach The World to Sing, a rewritten version of a Coca-Cola advert, advertisers have been on the lookout for catchy tracks to net more customers. We've become accustomed to hearing classic hits being used in TV ads: Free's All Right Nowhas Wrigley's gum stuck firmly to it, while Tina Turner's Simply The Besthas the RTÉ Guidewritten all over it. And Guinness is a past master at digging up nuggets and serving them to new generations of drinkers. Last year, the company even released a compilation album featuring the most popular tunes used in its ads.

The marriage of pop music and advertising was sealed in 1985, when Levi's aired its now-classic 501 jeans ad featuring model Nick Kamen stripping down to his underwear in a laundrette. The soundtrack to the ad was Marvin Gaye's I Heard It Through The Grapevine– the word on the advertising grapevine was that a good, visually arresting ad combined with a sophisticated soundtrack was a ticket to clean up in the commercial arena. Levi's went on to spawn a slew of one-hit wonders whose only claim to fame was having a song in a jeans ad. Many bands, concerned for their cred, were reluctant to "sell out" to advertisers, so the ad breaks were overrun by Z-grade bands whose only outlet was playing for retail outlets.

These days, artists are no longer so snobby about having their songs used in TV adverts – in fact, having your tune blasting out of the telly during the ad break is now seen as part of an overall strategy for getting your music out there and heard by the people who matter – consumers.

FOR IRISH ARTISTSin particular, TV is a medium that offers huge possibilities for exposure. Singer, songwriter and cellist Vyvienne Long got a boost for her budding solo career when her song, Happy Thoughts, was used in an ad for Easi-Singles. The ad features a glum child with a cloud above his head, which is lifted when mum serves him up some yummy Easi Singles. But how did Long's song – which hadn't even been recorded at the time – get picked over the hundreds of other tunes put out by independent Irish artists every year? "It's our creative team that decides what sound to use in an ad," says Niamh O'Dea, account manager with Chemistry Advertising in Dublin.

“The people on the team have to be knowledgable about music, au fait with the genres, and to keep up with musical trends. They need to be going to gigs, and know what teens and 20-somethings are listening to.

“For the Easi Singles ad, we needed a song that was pure and innocent, to match the tonality of the ad, the intimacy between the mother and son. Tonality is almost as important as the brand line at the end – you have to get it just right. Our copywriter Anne Fleming had seen Vyvienne play at Electric Picnic and liked her music. Working with Vyvienne, we were able to pick this track and she recorded it for us. It was the perfect song for the ad.”

At a time when recorded music is taking a financial beating, Irish bands need to be open to new ways of releasing music: some are already giving away free songs on the web. Far from wrecking your cred, an ad can give you a firm foothold in the music scene and give you a chance to take some giant steps forward in your career.

Little-known Dublin band The Laundry Shop, for instance, saw a surge of interest in their music when their song Highs And Lowssoundtracked a big-budget Discover Ireland ad campaign. And The Walls, who had been struggling to emulate the success of their previous band, The Stunning, got a temporary dig-out when AIB used their song To the Bright and Shining Sun. More recently, Laura Izibor's song Shinegot the Special K treatment, and when Armagh singer Miss Paula Flynn's dreamy version of David Bowie's Let's Danceappeared on a Ballygowan ad, EMI signed her up and the song went to the top of the Irish charts.

Chemistry have also used Irish indie bands Saso and Dry County in an ad campaign for Coors beer, which hasn’t dented either band’s image in the eyes of their loyal fans.

For new bands, getting a song on an ad can be a perfect calling card; for older bands, it can trigger a resurgence of interest in their back catalogue.

FOR A VERY lucky few, it can lift their career into the stratosphere.

Swedish string-plucker Jose Gonzalez, for instance, became a big star when his version of The Knife's Heartbeatswas used in Sony Bravia's iconic bouncing balls ad campaign.

But before you start bombarding advertising agencies with MP3s in the hope of becoming the next TV ad sensation, O’Dea sounds a note of caution. “Bands and DJs do send their music into us, but it’s a hit-or-miss proposition, because it requires so many things to happen at the same time. We get record companies coming to us offering songs, but it all depends on having the right script and the right idea, and then finding the song to suit that.

“In international markets, where budgets are bigger, the advertising industry and the record companies usually strike up deals in the genesis of the ad campaign. For new artists, it’s an opportunity they can’t afford to turn down. For established artists, it’s no longer seen as selling out. With the right brand and the right ad, it can really enhance a band’s credibility.”

What's that song that goes ...

Brand:Specsavers

Song:Mo Ghile Mear

Artist:Una Palliser

Shortsighted sheepshearer gets sean-nos soundtrack.

Brand:Citroen

Song:Jacques Your Body (Make Me Sweat)

Artist: :Les Rythmes Digitales

Car-jacking with a difference as car transforms into Transformer and busts some moves.

Brand:Brennan's Bread

Song:Down to the River to Pray

Artist:Gardiner Street Gospel Choir

A 12-piece gospel choir, recorded at Windmill Lane, soundtracks this bucolic vision of Irish heaven

Brand:Vodafone Ireland

Song:Barcelona

Artist:The Plastiscines

Guerilla knitting to the sound of a glamorous French girlband

Brand:Barclaycard

Song:More Than a Feeling

Artist:Boston

A classic AOR tune resurrected for this rollercoaster ride around New York.