Best Branded Content - Music Lyrics Strategy
Posted in Insights
The clever and thoughtful game of content marketing is strategy-focused, where the former attributes are only realized when first deployed behind-the-scenes. In June, we explored how visuals and a simple tagline can pair perfectly. This month, we’re listening to lyrics, specifically, how they can be used to tell a product’s story
When Lyrics Lead
Music has a great ability to influence and alter emotions, which makes its use a powerful marketing strategy. You want consumers to associate your product with happiness? Then enlist the help of a jovial song with lyrics that not-so-subtly hint at a better life (probably with the help of your product).
HP leveraged Supertramp’s 1979 “The Logical Song” to lead the charge on its charming and inspiring “Jane” ad, introducing The Sprout, HP’s new all-in-one desktop platform. There are two components to this lyrical strategy that make this spot a hit: the song choice paired with what’s happening on screen, and the musical guests who sang the cover—a children’s choir from the Silverlake Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=60&v=1uUddkfxQFM
As we follow Jane through the perils of growing up, watching the creativity get slowly siphoned from her daily life, lyrics play perfectly to the scenes, so not only are viewers emotionally engaged, but they’re also entertained. The song is more influential because of Jane, and Jane’s story is more impactful because of the song.
HP ends the spot on a call to action: “Find magic again”, and lets consumers know that they can now “bend the rules of creativity”. It’s a magical ad in many ways, and seeing the product in use at the end feels the same. But this again leads back to the second aspect of the strategy: the fact that HP used a children’s choir to perform the song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkhBnibX_EQ
It can be argued that without their voices, the impact wouldn’t have been nearly as strong. It’s the innocent voices that help create the nostalgia. It’s the delivery that makes the end of the commercial feel like a beginning again. The choir makes it feel like HP is not only recapturing the imagination so natural to children, but that it’s also making it possible for adult minds to act on these childhood fantasies.
It’s quite a thoughtful take on the modern capabilities of reimagining the past.
