It’s that time of year again. The days
are slowly getting longer but the weather is still not getting warmer and
global brands are have allocated their advertising budgets for 2016.
Financially, it’s a critical time for brands and in an environment where money
is tight, is it time to start asking more questions?
So when it comes to music, are brands really getting value for money? How can brands make their ‘sound’ work even harder? We know agency production teams are all becoming more budget-conscious, but when talking about music it’s very easy just to focus on the final cost of a track. At soundlounge, we think there’s a bit more to it...
So, here are our top five tips for achieving that perfect harmony between creativity and music procurement:
1. Waste not,
want not
Every Creative
Director wants the best music to support their visual ideas. Understanding the ambition
of the music and how it will be used in the edit should prompt a deeper procurement
discussion.
What are the
benefits of an original master over a new production? When do you absolutely
need the real thing? Will the consumer hear the difference? Will the customer
care? Knowing the answers to these questions could free up some additional cash
that could be applied elsewhere.
Additional Money
spent on briefing, re-briefing & demoing when ideas are not fully worked
through could often be more productively applied. Always consider both the hard
and invisible costs of music when building a campaign.
2. Don’t be penny
wise and pound foolish
Brands today work
hard to build relationships with consumers based on trust. Why? Because they understand if trust is
misused, the customer or client is gone. Trying to save money by opting for a
library track (or your second or third choice) has the potential to compromise
everything a brand intends to portray in its message. If the track fails to
resonate with the team, the chances are this will be reflected by the consumer.
And so begins the domino effect - where every ad break thereafter has the
potential to dilute what the consumer already knows and loves about a brand.
The end result: the consumer dislikes the commercial. The actuaries know how to
calculate the value of brand loyalty - saving money on the cost of music could
prove an expensive production saving! The cost of one spot may mean the
difference between having a track that works and settling for one that
absolutely doesn’t.
3. Challenge
existing business practices
If you want to
make better purchasing decisions, you need the agency team to think about music
earlier in the process. Share the ambition of the music - what does it need to
do and why? Get real estimates and quotes that enable decisions to be
made on facts and insight.
4. Audit your
music
Brands need to
introduce music auditing systems that go well beyond just the question of “how
much?” for each campaign. Log what you are spending and with whom. These
patterns will reveal accumulative comparisons of costs against market rates and potential savings with preferred suppliers, with a view to increasing value-add
and measuring ROI.
5. Set yourself a
late New Year’s Resolution
This year, aim to do things a little differently. Start thinking now about value and worth - brands need to see the value of music not as a ‘creative cost’ or ‘great media return’ but a medium that has the power to engage with customers on a whole new level and increase the long-term profit from that customer. It is then that we can start to explore (and appreciate) music’s true value and worth to a brand on both the budget and balance sheet.