The top 5 music campaigns you need to know about right now

Whether it’s capturing a certain feeling, creating a hit associated with a brand or cleverly applying sonic branding to a campaign, music is often the factor that makes a campaign memorable. This month, brands did that and more as they tapped into soda sounds, playlists and original songs. Check out Ad Age’s Music Creativity Top 5 below. And in case you missed it, Ad Age is expanding its “Creativity Top 5” series to show off some of the best campaigns across advertising. Read about Ad Age’s 2024 Leading Women here 5. Carhartt: Setting the Stage Agency: Anomaly Content and Entertainment and Stept Studios It’s not every day that an artist shares a sneak peek into their pasts, livelihoods, inspiration and work style, but Carhartt’s “Setting the Stage” made it happen with actor and country music artist Luke Grimes. Linking the artist with the brand through his working-class roots in Ohio, the documentary-style film depicts how Grimes uses his background and upbringing to inform his work ethic in music. It shows how he crafts his songs, rehearses for performances and does daily work on his ranch. The best part of the film is that it also connects Carhartt to the other workers behind the scenes who help put his shows together—the audio engineers, stage producers and others who often go overlooked. 4. Spotify: The Spotify Effect Agency: FCB New York Music can perfectly capture a mood, which inspired Spotify’s clever business-to-business campaign timed to the NewFronts. Created by FCB New York, the audio streaming giant placed digital OOH ads around New York that illustrated “The Spotify Effect”—the idea that people are happier when they stream on Spotify than when they scroll on social media. The ads used upbeat and happy song titles to suggest the feeling people get on the platform (thus, making it a better advertising opportunity). By contrast, marketing without Spotify was described through a list of sad songs. The campaign was simple, but with a clear message and wisely tapped on the musical recall of songs (likely) heard on Spotify. 3. Google Chrome: Cruise with Chrome Agency: The Martin Agency Brands enlisting an artist to write an original song isn’t exactly a new concept (see Meghan Trainor for FreshPet or Troye Sivan for Magnum Ice Cream), but when the song incorporates sonic branding and killer visuals, it’s a hit. That’s exactly what Google Chrome did when it tapped Colombian music artist and superstar Maluma to create an original song and video tied to Formula 1 racing. Created by The Martin Agency, the campaign featured an original song from Maluma called “Pit Stop” that incorporated the sounds of a McLaren F1 team racecar as part of the beat. A music video, meanwhile, authentically captured the artist’s new chapter of fatherhood by replacing him with a stand-in in Miami, since he couldn’t be at the video shoot due to the birth of his daughter. While the music video features Chrome branding and products, the song isn’t all about Google or racing, making it a production anyone can dance to. 2. Spotify: Do You Speak Anitta? Agency: Soko Spotify is two-for-two in this month’s Top 5, with its second appearance coming as a result of a campaign this week that celebrates multilingual music in Brazil. The audio streaming giant created an exhibit at the National Linguistic Museum in São Paulo that explored the linguistic diversity of superstar Anitta’s new album. The artist is known for seamlessly switching between English, Spanish and Portuguese in her music, as well as elevating Brazilian funk to the global stage. The temporary exhibit explores how she blends phrases from different languages as well as her background. The campaign brings to light a growing trend, especially among international artists, to write songs in multiple languages, representing and including a greater part of the global population. 1. Coca-Cola: Coke SoundZ Agency: WPP OpenX Coca-Cola is taking sonic branding to the next level by aligning itself with a valuable community—music producers and DJs. Having trained AI on the sounds derived from Coca-Cola—the pops, fizzes and glurgs, the beverage giant created an app that allows producers, DJs and aspiring creators to make their own music using those tones and rhythms. Known as Coke SoundZ, the technology includes a physical instrument in the shape of a Coke bottle to make soundtracks, while a digital version was made free for consumers to download. The campaign, led by AKQA and created by WPP Open X, smartly enables the brand to use technology not just for future soundtracks but also to gather user-generated content featuring Coca-Cola sounds.

The top 5 music campaigns you need to know about right now

Featured Stories